What does everyone charge for head light restorations?

[Kyle_Elantra]

That's true...I don't have one so I didn't even think about it.

[Detailed Josh]

Does anyone charge over $60?

Also how often does everyone actually do headlight restorations?

[CriticalDetails]

Does anyone charge over $60?

Also how often does everyone actually do headlight restorations?

I am not sure how many of the responses you got a chance to read. Multiple people including myself said that $60 is not enough money and we all charge more than that for a headlight restoration.

There is no definitive timeline for headlight restorations. There are too many variables in play when it comes headlights.

How low is the vehicle to the ground?
Does the vehicle get driven in winter?
Does the highway department use salt on the roads?
How many miles a year does the vehicle get driven and under what conditions?
Did you apply a UV coating to the headlights after wet sanding?

Even on the same vehicle one headlight can be far worse than the other due to any or all of these factors. I have seen vehicles that are parked outside 24/7 and one of headlights receives more direct sunlight than the other one causing unequal hazing.

[CCC4me]

Depending on how bad the headlights are you are looking at 2-3 hours of labor plus expenses (gloves, IPA, masking tape, polish, sand paper, etc).

Why does it take that long? Even doing them with hand sanding it rarely takes more than an hour...

[CriticalDetails]

Why does it take that long? Even doing them with hand sanding it rarely takes more than an hour...

I will be the first to admit that I am not the fastest at restoring headlights. If you have any tips on how to speed up the process I am open to suggestions. A majority of my extra time comes waiting for the Opti-Lens to dry and cleaning up the sanding slurry.

Most of the time when performing a headlight restoration the vehicle I am working on is not clean so draping a towel on the hood and fenders is not ideal. Sure I could just wipe down the hood, bumper and fenders with a waterless wash and call it a day but I think it looks incomplete. I usually end up washing the paint and glass using a waterless wash and drawing the line at the wheels.

When restoring headlights this is my process:
1. Tape off the headlights.
2. Wet the lens and 800 grit sanding disc
3. Sand 4 passes (2 horizontal and 2 vertical) with 800, 1500 and 3000 grit paper. Between each pass I wipe down the light with a microfiber towel and clean the sanding disc to prevent clogging.
4. Repeat 2 and 3 for the other headlight.
5. Compound the headlights.
6. Polish the headlights.
7. Clean up the sanding slurry.
8. Perform an IPA wipe down on the headlights.
9. Apply Opti-Lens and wait to dry.

Once in a while I will get a pair of lights that only need 1500 grit paper and I can skip the 800 grit.

[Detailing by M]

$80-$110 for compleat restoration and re-paint on 2 lights.
but on the less degraded ones that only need a cleanner wax I'll kinda
throw it in for $30 bucks on top of a full detail.

[hernandez.art13]

I was told I should be charging $75 per headlight, from my processes, steps and sealants I used.

Wet sand
Buff
Polish
Seal

[g35_coupe]

My pricing is a little different. I do $75 for the first lens and 35 each additional (same vehicle, of course). This helps cover the initial cost of materials, gas, insurance, etc., if say, they only needed one lens refinished. My pricing is on par to remain competitive. Some dealers here charge $150 (drop off needed), a glass shop does $135 (and a drop off time of a 2 hr minimum). Another local repair shop does $100, all day drop off time, then they said it doesn't last and actually recommended I buy new lenses. Then you also have the local Craigslist guys doing it for $25 for both lenses. I cannot speak for their quality but I imagine they're just using a kit from the auto parts store.

As far as time to refinish them, it normally takes about an hour and a half from start to finish even for some nasty oxidation but I've been known to knock them out in under an hour (depends on the veh make). HOWEVER, I recently did a few Volvo's that had some severe oxidation and and the small areas that still had the factory coating left were extremely difficult to remove. I had to use extra materials and also drop down to 400 to "get down to the good stuff".

[Detailed Josh]

Critical Details, thanks for the long responses. Also on how often I meant how often you get customers, not on each specific vehicle. Which I hope with using Opti-Lens that it lasts a while..

I practiced on my fiance's car last week. It took me a while to do a quality job like you mentioned. Although I didn't wetsand all stages except the 3000. Maybe I should try wet on all the others to speed it up as I noticed sanding did take a while.

Also for speeding it up. Do you think switching between each headlight on each step is more productive or doing one headlight start to finish? As in sand with X grit, switch to other headlight and sand with X grit, and then once you're ready for the next step switch grits and repeat process.

Yeah I'm thinking of still lightly covering the front end of the car with a sheet/etc. even if it is dirty, but still doing a quick wipe down with a Quick Detailer so I have less of my mess from the process to clean up.

[CriticalDetails]

Critical Details, thanks for the long responses. Also on how often I meant how often you get customers, not on each specific vehicle. Which I hope with using Opti-Lens that it lasts a while..

I practiced on my fiance's car last week. It took me a while to do a quality job like you mentioned. Although I didn't wetsand all stages except the 3000. Maybe I should try wet on all the others to speed it up as I noticed sanding did take a while.

Also for speeding it up. Do you think switching between each headlight on each step is more productive or doing one headlight start to finish? As in sand with X grit, switch to other headlight and sand with X grit, and then once you're ready for the next step switch grits and repeat process.

Yeah I'm thinking of still lightly covering the front end of the car with a sheet/etc. even if it is dirty, but still doing a quick wipe down with a Quick Detailer so I have less of my mess from the process to clean up.

You're welcome. I have three sanding pad interfaces and keep a different grit on each one (800, 1500, 3000). I perform all three stages of wet sanding on one headlight and then switch to the other headlight. Once all of the wet sanding is performed I compound and polish one headlight at a time.

I only perform a handful of headlight restorations a month. Half of the time a customer will buy a stand alone Headlight Correction and the other half it is an add on service.