Windshield Repair Forum

I have been reading posts for a few weeks now, looking to start HLR.

I live in South Texas about 10 miles N of the Rio Grande River. I just happened to be on Craigslist
when I happen to do a search on headlight restoration.
The highest anyone is charging here is $20 for both and the lowest is $5 each.
People in this area buy knockoffs for fraction of the price and they don't care.

I'm starting to think if I'm going to do this I may need to move back to NE Oklahoma lol.

BTW excellent info on this forum!

I don't do HLR. I'm guessing you are dealing with illegal criminals or cash whores, and would not hesitate to report them to the IRS and receive 10% of what they capture! Too many of us do cash business vs. tax payers!!

Illegals all day long, knowing Spanish is a must and almost every elected official is corrupt.

There is also a big difference in what some people call a headlight restoration. Some simply clean the lens, some clean and wipe on a coating, some lightly sand and polish and/or apply a coating and some of us clean, use multiple sanding and polishing steps and apply a protective coating. Some mask off the surrounding area or even protect the entire vehicle, while others do nothing to prep and protect the vehicle. Some provide guarantees and some do not. So, what some call a headlight restoration may only take a few minutes, while for others a proper job may take 30-60 minutes.

We actually restore the headlights on a fair amount of vehicles that have been done by someone else previously. The owners typically tell us the previous job did make the lenses look a little bet better for awhile but now they look worse than ever. In some cases we are told the previous job made the lenses look worse!

For me it's like someone who says they will rebuild your engine for $100. If it sounds too good to be true it usually is but there will always be someone who will get suckered into a deal like that. In the case of headlight restoration the problem is someone who gets suckered might then think headlight restoration is just a scam and that hurts our entire industry.

To do a HLR correctly takes at least 30 minutes. taping off, sandinging applying UV coating etc... . It would not be worth my time for less than $40. Thats what I charge for fleet accounts except, impalas, Lexus, BMW and a few others that require a lot of time. I've shorten the time for those vehicles using a different sanding method. I see the scam artist in my area also. I also get some of those customers after a few weeks or the very same day due to poor quality by the artist.

There are many reasons a person buys, and for a lot price is not one of them.

A lot of customers want to buy quality, make sure that is what you can give them every single time and then you do not have to join the lowballers at all.

Brent Deines wrote:There is also a big difference in what some people call a headlight restoration. Some simply clean the lens, some clean and wipe on a coating, some lightly sand and polish and/or apply a coating and some of us clean, use multiple sanding and polishing steps and apply a protective coating. Some mask off the surrounding area or even protect the entire vehicle, while others do nothing to prep and protect the vehicle. Some provide guarantees and some do not. So, what some call a headlight restoration may only take a few minutes, while for others a proper job may take 30-60 minutes.

We actually restore the headlights on a fair amount of vehicles that have been done by someone else previously. The owners typically tell us the previous job did make the lenses look a little bet better for awhile but now they look worse than ever. In some cases we are told the previous job made the lenses look worse!

For me it's like someone who says they will rebuild your engine for $100. If it sounds too good to be true it usually is but there will always be someone who will get suckered into a deal like that. In the case of headlight restoration the problem is someone who gets suckered might then think headlight restoration is just a scam and that hurts our entire industry.

Well said, well said, well said.