Clear Again transforms cloudy old headlights into clear and shining beauty and operates with a fleet of vehicles.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published July 15, 2005
LUTZ - The streets of Hillsborough County and the entire southeastern United States are a little brighter these days thanks to Gregory Klosterman and William Brend.
They're the founders of a company called Clear Again that specializes in restoring headlights that have yellowed or become cloudy. They use a process developed by Klosterman that, he said, can bring a nasty old headlight back very close to its straight-from-the-factory brightness.
Sure, you could just replace those old headlights when they lose their clarity. But Clear Again comes to your house and does the work, which is obviously awfully convenient. But best of all, it can save you a whole lot of money.
"We'll typically charge between $140 to $200 a pair," said Klosterman, who lives in Valrico. "On a Caravan, for example, a new headlight is $280. That's for just one headlight, just the part. It doesn't include the labor cost for replacing it."
In some cars, he said, replacing a set of headlights can easily run $2,500.
People who drive older cars, or who for one reason or another haven't had a problem with fading headlights, might not know the history of headlights.
Until the mid 1980s, almost every car had simple, glass-sealed beam headlights. If it broke or burned out, you could go to a parts store, pick up a replacement for a few bucks, and replace it yourself using a screwdriver.
But for the past 20 years or so, more and more cars (and in fact almost all new cars now) have had lights with lenses made from plastic compounds. On the plus side, they're more resistant to breakage from collision and from road debris, and they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes so they become a style feature on the car.
Downsides? They can become cloudy from sun exposure. And because they're porous, they can hold on to petroleum products that get kicked up from the road, or even those used to clean or wax the car, and they can turn a brownish-yellow.
And they cost a whole bunch. Besides the price of the replacements, on many cars there can be a lot of labor involved in taking off the old lights, because bumpers and other parts might have to be removed.
So, back to Klosterman and his solution. In the late 1990s, he owned and operated a detailing company in North Tampa. Mostly he detailed cars for a few local used-car dealerships.
An employee of one of those dealerships brought in her own car, a BMW convertible, to be detailed. Klosterman noticed that its headlights and its plastic rear window were cloudy. He tried a few things - he won't say exactly what - and finally came up with a combination of chemicals that cleared up the foggy plastic and made it look almost brand-new.
"I brought the car back to her and she said, "That's great, now I just have to bring it to the dealer for new headlights and new plastic rear window,' " Klosterman recalled. "I said, "You don't have to do that, I fixed it.' "
The woman was so impressed that she urged him, repeatedly, to start a company that would use his process.
"She bugged me about it every two weeks," Klosterman said.
But it wasn't until 2001, when he teamed up with partner William Brend of Lutz and Brend's father, Gary, that he finally started Clear Again. Gary Brend has since left the company. Klosterman is the president and Brend the vice president.
The company now has operations all over Florida, and through most of the Southeast. To keep overhead down, Clear Again has no shops. It has a fleet of vehicles that make house calls. The company has relationships with the service departments at several auto dealerships. Clear Again displays are prominent in the service drives, and customers can either order the Clear Again process through the dealerships or can contact the company directly.
Over the years, Klosterman has continued to refine and improve his methods. All he's willing to divulge about it is that it's a combination of chemical and mechanical processes. In other words, he grinds the plastic in addition to just applying cleaners and solvents. And each headlight has different problems, so he has learned to adapt his treatment for each job.
Although he focuses on headlights, Clear Again can use the same basic process for all sorts of clear plastic. Klosterman has cleaned plastic windows in both homes and cars, airplane and boat windshields, and the plastic covering over speedometer clusters that have become clouded because of chemicals used to clean dashboards.
Some other companies have tried to duplicate his process, and some over-the-counter solutions are available. That doesn't worry Klosterman.
"To me, they just point out how much better we are," he said. "I tell people, "You do one headlight and I'll do another.' There's no comparison."
For information about Clear Again, call (813) 267-6889 or go to the Web site at clearagain.com.
