VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Headlight relay for halogen lights

I had the reflectors chrome plated on my '34 years ago. All things considered the lights were not very bright compared to my '39 with good silver reflectors.

Gene,

Well, I feel motivated now and have ordered the resilvering product. I will give a a report on how it works later.

Rich

Hi To all, I had the nickel plated reflectors, in my 37 MD at one time. The guy at the plating shop,swore up and down that,they were just as bright as silver. So I had them for years, until I had it explained to me why,from the members here on this site, they were not as bright as silver, not even close. So to make a long story short, I sent them to a club member that advertises in the G&D, in the services offered section. His name is Gary Wallace. Give him a call, he'll help you out! But the seal beams are a tad bit brighter though. Hope this helps.
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Joe's37

Joe,

Thanks. Since I just ordered the silver DIY kit. I will give that a try. My reflectors are clean and not corroded, but they have lost a lot of the original silver. I will give a report on how well this works when I am done.

Rich

Wazit, I’m not criticizing your math, just making a minor adjustment, just so we don't conrfused I'm sure you meant (65/6)*2=21.7 Amps. A 16ga is rated for 22Amps under a chasses or in a bundle but I’d probably add a safety factor of 50% and run a 14ga for a 20 amp ckt. This is another example why the industry went to the 12volt electrical systems.

And Rich, please do give a report on Caswells product, I for one would like to see some before and after pixs if possible. I would think that the reflector would have to have a mirror finish before you apply the silver to get the reflectivity that you’re expecting.
I've bought a couple of their systems, ”˜Copy Cad’ and a ”˜Brass plating’ set up but I'm afraid to mix up the chems since I'm a real chemistry dummy. I'm a little ascared to have the chems around the livestock and not sure just how long their shelf life is once they are mixed up.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have used the copy cad system (zinc plating) for 4+ years. It still performs well even though I don't use it very often and have not changed chemicals. I use a plastic bucket with a lid to keep things out. Just make sure to follow the directions.

I was rounding off to about 20 amps. I'm going to run a #12 from the battery to the relays to play it safe. I like to overkill a bit as far as electricity goes. I think the relays will look odd so I'm trying to find a place out of the way to mount them,but still be close to the lights.I think I'll go directly to the frame for a good ground. Thanks

Thanks Chip, I do some detailed radio restoration and actually bought it to do the chassis. That’s good to know, about the shelf life that is.

Man, 12ga would be way over kill for a 20amp ckt, your talking bout some heavy wire there Bud, that will carry 41amps.
DG

Denny/All,

I got my silverplating chemical today and I replated one of the headlight reflectors. The stuff actually works. I used some silver polish/cleaner to clean the reflecter first then gave it a good wash and rinse. Then I just put a small squirt on a paper towel and rubbed it on the reflecter. In no time at all, I had the entire reflector resilvered. I then did a sliver plated tray that we got years ago and it had two spots where the silver was worn through. That too went real easy. I don't know how durable this is, but it is putting real silver on the metal and it is not too hard to do. The cost for the chemical and shipping was right at $50.

Now for the problem. I should have repolished the reflector before I did this. I have a cloth wheel and some polishing compound and I will use that on the next reflector before I resliver it. The directions state what metals you can put the silver on, and if you wear down to the steel, you are screwed. So, I will be careful on the polishing operation. If this works well, I will polish and resilver the first reflector.

The one that I have already done looks pretty good, but I guess as the old silver corroded away over time, the surface was not as smoothe as original.

As I am now thinking, I should reassemble the headlight that I have resilvered and compare them at night to determine if I can see a significant difference. I will let you know.

Rich