Made in Chattanooga: Headlight Renew Doctor

By: Latricia Thomas

There are several products at the Highway 58 Ace Hardware store, devoted to brushing up your high beams. But only one of them comes from Chattanooga.

"The farther South you go, the more headlights yellow and cloud," says Chris Watts, creator of the Headlight Renew Doctor. "And it's just been a great opportunity to be in a Southern city."

Watts knew nothing about headlight restoration four years ago. "I was broke and someone asked me if I had ever renewed any cloudy headlights. But I said 'Yeah,’ I had to no idea." But he quickly transformed his "no idea" into "know how."

Watts' headlight renewal kit, scrubs the yellow tint off older headlights with a sandpaper block and several different grades of sandpaper. That’s important when you consider that 70 percent of the cars in the city of Chattanooga have yellow or cloudy headlights. "The owner of the car probably drives around with their high beams on and nobody blinks at them, because this will decrease visibility by 50 percent," Watts says about the car he used to demonstrate his product.

Next is what Watts calls the special sauce. "Our sealant has an anti-yellow agent and UV ray inhibitor or blocker," Watts says. "It will block the sun's rays and keep it from causing that reaction again. This is like our sunscreen for the headlight."

But what's a product without its packaging? That's when Watts turned to Orange Grove to assemble his kit that's sent all around the world. "This has been perfect for a start-up company, and once we trained them, the quality control has been phenomenal. It's been very economical for us."

"I feel privileged that I was at the right place at the right time and Chattanooga was receptive to this," Watts says.

For more information on the Headlight Renew Doctor, click here to visit their website.Made in Chattanooga: Headlight Renew Doctor