VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Headlight rebuild

I read the post on led lites and don't want to change to an alternator. Is there any one who replates headlite reflectors or is it possible to do myself. I do drive at night sometimes and the lite is very dim.

Gary Wallace, Steve's Auto Restoration (http://www.stevesautorestorations.com/headlight.php) and some local platers can resilver your reflectors.

Your best solution is to make sure that the reflectors have a good silver surface and then use the 32:32 candle power bulbs (#1000). If all is right you will have reasonable light but not as bright as modern sealed beams. Or you can upgrade to halogen bulbs but then you will need to also upgrade to a higher output generator or alternator.

Thanks Chipper. I'll get in contact with them Tuesday. How about chrome plating. Any leads on any shops in the Georgia or Florida areas?

I guess, chrome plating is not as good as silver plating. Silver is the better (and original) material.
Mine were bad too last year and the specialist said about Euro 400.- to resilver both. But somebody told me about a shop who they paint it with a special silver effect paint, just for 140.- both. I thought, ok lets try, went there to see some restored reflectors for example and they were very good, so I gave mine there and they made a very good work and they are like new now. I did as well renew the wiring harness and now the full power of electric reaches the bulbs instead of going lost in a bad wiring system.
Result: A very good bright light, no "dimmed" problems anymore.

Stefan germany

Thanks Stefan. I have not thought of a paint, I'm probably going to go with resilvering. I have some other items that need rechroming. Thats what I was refering to about the chrome shops. Any body know of some who are reasonably priced?

Check out this site http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/plugnplate.htm
They have small kits to resilver the headlites your self. Might be worth checking out.

I have dealt with their Canadian office. Called them for the very same thing. they guy said the rub on silvering would work better than the mini electroplate unit. I bought a bottle, which is just silver nitrate in some polish type liquid. It did re-silver the brass spots on the reflectors but was no where as shiny or reflective as the original silver. In the end the reflectors look better, but it was not a good use of $50.

The best way to restore headlight reflectors is to either have them re-silver plated or coated with vacuum sealed aluminum.

I'm planning on having them resilvered. Thanks Mutt

Good going, and you won't be sorry.

A fellow in the Portland Region Horseless Carriage Club of America told me of a place down in Merlin OR that will seal the silvered headlight reflectors. He says this is the same reflectors that the dentists use and is extremely bright and tarnish resitant. I have seen some of the newly silvered reflectors tarnish rather quickly so it sounded interesting.

The place in Merlin is called "UVIRA" and they have been doing the glass coated vapor deposited aluminum coating on antique car reflectors for about 25 years now. When completed the process is as bright has sealed beams and the reflectors remain at 90% reflectivity just about forever. However, I have heard through the grapevine that they don't do this process any longer, but I don't know if the rumor is true or not. Here is their address if you want to find out:

Uvira Inc
310 Pleasant Valley Rd
Merlin, OR 97532-8871

Phone: (541) 474-5050

Funny passenger...

The place where I live here in germany is a small town, and the main business is health in general (and salt mines). There are lots of special hospitals for the lungs and anything having to do with good breathing...and smokers lung cancer and more like that. People from everywhere come here to recover.
Yesterday I drove out a bit after work and there was an old man aside the street and gave me a sign to stop and talk with him. He was a retired car mechanic and wanted to see my chevy to dream a bit about the good old time when he was young.
I said, ok, come with me, lets cruise a bit around the town. It was evening, sun went down and night came up. And he was fascinated about the bright headlights of my old chevy and could not believe it is only an old "weak" 6 volt system. He wanted to see the battery to be sure it is not an upgraded system to 12 volt.
Just to say, if the original 6 volt system is ok in general and the reflectors are good the light is really good.
Opposite of that: The Ford A of a friend of mine here I did talk about in another posting, has bad reflectors and a bad old wiring harness with corroded connections and the funny owner really wants to solve his electric problems just with a stronger generator. No way I guess. We will see: He has to pass the very hard technical inspection by law like me in march next year. I will go there with a grin in my face and show the inspectors how good a 79 year old car can be. I am sure the Ford A will not be as good as my chevy...

OK, enough. To come back to the main topic: I agree with everybody, there are various methods to restore reflectors. To resilver and to restore with aluminium under vacuum are the best (and most expensive). I made the try with paint after seeing restored reflectors and am really satisfied.
Unfortunately they have no website at the moment, but there are more of them. Just to give you an idea of that check:

http://www.anschaus-edelholz-kreationen.de/html/reflektorverspiegeln.html

Sorry, it is only in german, but you can see the pictures, ok?

Stefan germany