Pricing headlight restoration
Headlight restoration is quick, cheap in materials, and one of the highest-margin services a detailer offers - if it is priced and sold as its own line item rather than thrown in free. Price it per pair, include a real UV-resistant sealant in every job (a restoration without one is temporary and will cloud again within months), and hold the price whether it is booked standalone or riding along with a full detail.
Why "free with a detail" is the expensive version
Headlights are one of the most visible, easiest-to-notice upgrades a customer sees when they walk back to a "finished" car, which makes it tempting to throw in for free to close a sale. That teaches the customer the service is worth nothing, makes every future customer expect it for free too, and gives away real time - 30 to 45 minutes per pair done properly - for nothing. Price it the same whether it stands alone or rides along, and mention it as an upsell rather than a freebie.
The step that actually determines whether it lasts
Taping. Protect the surrounding paint and trim - a sanding disc that touches paint creates a new problem in the process of solving the old one.
Sanding through grits. Coarse to fine, removing the oxidized outer layer of the lens. This is the step a fast drill-and-buff shortcut usually skips or rushes, which is why that version looks good for a few weeks and cloudy again within a couple of months.
Polishing. Restores clarity and gloss to the sanded surface.
Sealing, with an actual UV-resistant product. This is the step that determines whether the result lasts a season or two years. Polishing alone removes existing oxidation; it does nothing to slow the UV exposure that caused it, so skipping the sealant - or using a generic wax instead of a real UV sealant - is the single most common reason a restored headlight clouds again within months and the customer calls it a scam rather than a service that needed reapplying.
Worked, so the shape is concrete
A pair of headlights, taped, sanded through four grits, polished, and sealed with a UV-resistant product: 35 minutes total, product cost around $3 (sandpaper, compound, sealant portion), priced as an add-on at $50 for the pair. At a $65-an-hour target rate, 35 minutes of labor is worth about $38 - so $50 for the pair, on top of whatever else is booked that visit, is a genuinely high-margin line item rather than a favor.
Cost your own products and time before setting your own price. A restoration sold without the sealant step, or without a real one, is a service that will need redoing - price and deliver the version that does not. What you actually net per job.
What Rigsheet does with this
Headlight restoration works as its own add-on attached to any package, with its own fixed price and duration, so it shows on the quote and the invoice as a named line item rather than disappearing into "detail - full service." That is what keeps it visible as a real service with a real price, both to the customer and in your own records of what actually sells.
A add-on that is invisible on the invoice is an add-on that is easy to give away for free without noticing. Choosing what to offer. · Offering more, without being pushy. · What each plan includes.
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About Rigsheet
Rigsheet is a job app from Baker Ventures LLC for one-to-three-person mobile service businesses: mobile auto detailers and residential cleaners first. Scheduling with drive-time gaps, quotes with vehicle and home-size pricing, deposits, "on my way" texts, before and after photos, invoices, and automated review requests. Plans start at $4 a month, with unlimited jobs, customers, quotes and invoices on every tier and no per-user fees.
It exists because the alternatives charge a solo operator team prices. A one-van business is not a small version of a ten-truck business, and pricing built around seats and add-ons makes that mistake expensive. The pricing calculators and operator guides on this site are free and need no account.
Questions and answers
How much should headlight restoration cost?
Priced per pair rather than per vehicle, because the job scales with the number of lenses, not the size of the car. A realistic range covers taping, sanding through multiple grits, polishing, and a UV-resistant sealant - and a price that only covers the polish step, without the sealant, is pricing a service that will look cloudy again within months.
Why does headlight restoration fail so often?
Because the sealant step gets skipped or done with a product that is not actually UV-resistant. Polishing alone removes the existing oxidation but does nothing to slow the sun from creating new oxidation, so a restoration without a real sealant is a temporary fix sold as a permanent one.
Should headlight restoration be an add-on or a standalone service?
Both, priced the same either way. Selling it standalone at full price teaches customers it has real value; bundling it "free" into a detail to close the sale teaches them it has none; the fix is a consistent line-item price whether it rides along with a full detail or gets booked on its own.
How long does headlight restoration actually take?
Done properly - taping off surrounding trim and paint, sanding through several grits, polishing, and sealing - it runs 30 to 45 minutes per pair for most vehicles, not the 10-minute version a drill-mounted buffing pad alone produces. The sanding and sealing steps are what the fast version skips.
What is the actual product cost per job?
Low. Sandpaper in a few grits, polishing compound, and a proper UV sealant run a few dollars per pair, which is what makes headlight restoration one of the highest-margin line items available - provided the price charged reflects the real time, not just the low material cost.
Rigsheet. “Pricing headlight restoration.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 8, 2026. https://rigsheet.bakerventuresstudio.com/guides/how-to-price-headlight-restoration/