How to start a headlight restoration business.
The fastest craft on the platform, written down: a kit that fits in a tote bag, how a job runs, the quality bar, the insurance step, and what your first week looks like. No fluff, no get-rich promises. Just the playbook we hold our own network to.
Why headlights
The perfect first service, for good reasons.
The smallest kit in car care
Sanding pads, polish, sealant, tape. The whole day-one setup costs less than a set of tires, and all of it fits in a tote bag with room to spare.
Jobs measured in minutes
A standard restoration runs under an hour. It fits before work, after work, or across a Saturday morning. Your schedule stays yours while you build the skill.
The before and after sells itself
Cloudy lenses are a safety problem hiding in plain sight, and the fix is dramatic. One pair of photos tells the whole story, and the tracker shows your customer every step of it.
The starter kit
One tote bag. The whole trade.
No craft on SleekRide starts cheaper. The core list costs less than a nice dinner out for two, and a hand-pad kit gets you working before you ever buy a power tool. Add the level-up gear as jobs justify it; every item on the second list pays for itself in capability.
Brands are your call. Consistency beats labels: the same products, used the same way, every job.
Day-one core
- Wet-sanding discs or hand pads in stepped grits (400 to 3000 covers nearly every lens)
- Masking tape to protect the paint around every lens
- A spray bottle for wet sanding
- Plastic polish and compound for the clarity pass
- A UV-resistant clear coat or sealant (the step that makes the fix LAST; skip it and the haze comes back)
- A drill or mini polisher with a backing plate to save your wrists
- Microfiber towels and nitrile gloves
Level-up gear (when jobs fund it)
- A dedicated 3-inch polisher for speed and a consistent finish
- Protection film for restored lenses, the add-on that keeps haze from ever coming back
- A trim removal set for lenses that sit deep behind bumper covers
- A pop-up canopy: shade keeps compounds and coatings behaving
- Spare grits and pads, so one chewed disc never ends a day early
A job, start to finish
What a SleekRide restoration actually looks like.
The job lands
A customer books and pays on SleekRide, photos of their headlights included up front. It hits your dashboard with a 1-hour window to accept. Accept and the address unlocks; pass and it cascades to the next pro, no penalty for an honest pass.
Read the lens before you sand
Surface oxidation sands out. Cracks, internal moisture, and yellowing INSIDE the lens don't. Say what restoration fixes and what it can't before you start; the honest call is the five-star call.
Photos before you touch anything
Before shots through your portal. They show live on the customer's tracker, set expectations, and they're YOUR protection if anything is ever disputed.
Work the grits
Tape the paint, wet-sand through every step without skipping, polish to clarity, then seal with UV protection. The sealant is the difference between a fix that lasts years and one that fogs back by fall.
Status as you go
Tap In progress, Photos up, Ready, Complete. The customer watches live instead of texting you. After photos close the loop.
Complete and get paid
Mark complete and the payout transfers to your bank through Stripe. The customer gets the receipt and a rating ask. A job this quick lives on finish quality, and five-star finishes feed you more jobs.
The quality bar
Five standards. They're the whole rulebook.
Care for the vehicle. Keep your insurance current. Photograph every job. Communicate on the platform. Own problems when they happen. You acknowledge them when you apply, customers rate every job, and a real person reviews every issue, with due process that protects good operators.
The grown-up step
Insurance: one afternoon, and you're legit.
This is the step that separates a business from a side hustle, and most people overthink it. Have an agent? Any local one can quote a headlight specialist in a day.
Don't have one? We'll connect you with one of our insurance partners. Insurance runs in SleekRide's blood: ask in your application notes or reach out after you apply, and we point you to a partner who quotes operators like you every week.
What to ask for
General liability (the standard ask is $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate) plus garage keepers coverage. Garage keepers is the one that protects the customer's CAR while it's in your hands; general liability alone doesn't. A sanding disc one inch from painted bodywork is exactly why both exist. Driving to customers? Make sure your auto policy knows the vehicle works for a living.
Then send us the certificate
Your carrier emails you a one-page certificate of insurance (a COI). Upload it in your SleekRide settings, a human verifies it, usually same-day, and jobs start routing to you. Until then your dashboard shows exactly what's left.
Pricing
Know your number. We never undercut it.
In your settings you tell us what you need to make on each package, and SleekRide's fee goes on top of your price for the customer. Consumables per job cost pocket change, so your math is your time, the trip if you're mobile, and a result the customer can see from across the parking lot. Price the transformation. The platform shows you the customer-facing math before anything goes live.
Your first week
Seven steps. The dashboard walks you through every one.
- 1Apply at /partners/apply (5 minutes; your own legal name works if there's no LLC yet)
- 2Read and acknowledge the standards as part of the application
- 3Get general liability + garage keepers (no agent? we'll connect you with one of our insurance partners); upload the COI from your settings
- 4Set your business hours so the calendar can offer real slots
- 5Enter your package prices (you keep every dollar you list)
- 6Connect payouts through Stripe with your bank
- 7Accept your first job inside the hour, sand patiently, seal every lens, and photograph the difference
The playbook's yours. So is the lane.
Everything above is how our best headlight pros run. Bring the steady hands and we'll bring the customers, the standards, and a dashboard that never leaves you guessing.