Overview: Headlight Restoration
Headlight lenses stopped being glass a long time ago. They are polycarbonate with a thin factory coating on the outside, and sunlight breaks that coating down. The result is the yellow, milky lens you can see from across the parking lot, scattering light sideways instead of throwing it down the road. The bulb is usually fine. The lens is what went. Restoration is sanding, polishing and sealing, in that order. The shop wet-sands the dead layer off in stages, polishes the plastic back to clear, then lays on a fresh coating that blocks ultraviolet light. That last step is the whole job. A quick buff with polish and no new coating looks sharp for a few weeks and hazes over again within a season, because what little protection was left has just been sanded away. Not every lens comes back. Deep crazing, cracks through the plastic and hazing on the inside surface are past what polishing reaches. Use the state and city lists below to find the shops near you. It is a short job with no parts to order, so it often gets booked alongside a detail or an oil change rather than on its own.
Data verified October 1, 2026
