Headlight restoration

You don't notice it from the driver's seat. You notice it when you stand in front of the car in a car park one evening, or when you see a photograph of it: the front looks old. The headlights aren't clear any more — they're yellowish-milky, slightly hazy, like a bathroom glass with limescale. And in the dark, on a country road with no street lighting, the beam has lost the sharp edge it had when the car was new.

This is not dirt, and it cannot be washed off. It is the UV-protective lacquer layer on the headlights that has worn away, and the plastic underneath that has begun to oxidise.

What we actually do

Headlight restoration is a sanding job, not a washing job. We physically remove the oxidised layer and apply new protection.

1. Masking. Paint, trim and rubber around each headlight are taped off. Sanding paper against paintwork is a damage, not an accident.
2. Washing and degreasing the headlight surface, so we don't sand grit into it.
3. A multi-grit sanding sequence, wet. We start coarse enough to get beneath the yellowed layer, then move to finer grits at each step. Between each grit we check that no scratch from the previous step remains — a forgotten scratch from the coarse grit cannot be polished away at the end, and then the entire sequence has to be run again.
4. Machine fine-polishing until the plastic is clear and transparent, not just lighter.
5. UV-protective sealant. This is the step that decides whether the job lasts three years or three months. A sanded headlight without new protection is bare polycarbonate in direct sun — it turns yellow again before summer is over.
6. Checking the light pattern against a dark surface or in the dark, so we know the beam has got its edge back.

Why it pays off

The practical argument first: hazy plastic scatters light. The beam that was meant to be sharply defined becomes diffuse, range drops, and you see worse exactly where it matters most — on a dark road in the rain, in Vestfold in November. That is a safety difference, not just a cosmetic one.

Then the economic one: yellowed headlights are the single detail that makes a car read as old, no matter how tidy the rest of it is. New headlight units from a brand workshop cost several times kr 1 000 and require dismantling the front end. The vast majority of headlights can be saved with sanding and a new seal.

How often should you have it done?

Every two to three years, depending on how much the car stands outdoors. Kept under a carport or in a garage, it lasts longer. If you see the surface starting to haze again — have it done before it yellows, as the sanding job is shorter then.

How long does it take?

Around 1.5 hours for two headlights. Four headlights takes somewhat longer. We come to wherever the car is, and the job can be done in the driveway as long as it's dry.

See available times and book headlight restoration — choose 2 or 4 headlights when booking.