The craft, the failures, and what to put on the invoice — written from published technique and manufacturer specification, with every source listed.
Sanding residue runs yellow while you are still cutting through oxidised material, and white once you have reached clean polycarbonate. Stay at your starting grit until it runs white.
That single test replaces every make-and-model chart you will be sold. A chart tells you what someone else found on their car. The residue tells you what is true about the lens in front of you — including vehicles no chart covers, aftermarket lenses, and lights somebody else has already botched.
Every headlight leaves the factory with a hardcoat only a few microns thick. Sun destroys it in three to seven years, and then the polycarbonate underneath begins to oxidise — that is the yellow. It is not dirt. It is a degraded layer of the lens itself.
Which means the fix is to remove that layer. And the moment you do, you have also removed every bit of UV protection the lens ever had.
A sanded, polished, uncoated lens looks perfect on the driveway and re-oxidises within three to six months. That is why parts-store kits have the reputation they do, and it is the single most common reason a paid restoration comes back.
The coating step is not a finishing touch. It is the job. The guide spends a whole chapter on it.
Thirteen pages. No filler, no upsell, no video you have to sit through.
Not a projection — this is what the US market paid per job in 2026, and the guide sources it.
| Condition | Per pair | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Light haze | $60–85 | 30–40 min |
| Moderate yellowing | $85–125 | 45–60 min |
| Severe or mobile | $125–200 | 60–90 min |
What you earn depends on how many cars you find and what your area supports — which is why you will not find an annual income figure anywhere on this site. Anyone quoting you one cannot know it.
One page you keep on your phone and read next to the car. Residue test, grit progression, coating conditions, what to decline, and pricing tiers.
The Starter Guide. All twelve chapters. Everything above, in full, including the coating chapter and the failure-rescue table. Yours the moment you pay — nothing ships, nothing is scheduled.
Get the Starter GuideThe Field Card is included.
| It is | if you want to do this work correctly and charge for it, and you would rather be told where the sources disagree than given false confidence. |
| It isn't | if you are looking for a business opportunity with an income promise attached. There isn't one here, and the guide says so in chapter nine. |
Written from published technique, manufacturer specification and market data. Every claim is sourced in chapter twelve, and the sections that are practical judgement rather than finding are labelled as such.