Headlight resilvering

[sjensen at mindspring.com]

All:

I had a set of 100/5K NA euros that the reflector plating was trashed, I
ended up cutting some of the ricer chrome tape into one inch wide strips
and 'replated' them that way.  Much better light output and much cheaper
than replacing the whole reflector.

There's a writeup in the archives somewhere.

-Steve Jensen
87 5kcstq

Original Message:
-----------------
From: David Conner conner at cfm.Ohio-State.edu
Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 11:33:30 -0400
To: aukdav at ccsdana.net, quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Headlight resilvering


Dave,
I went through this with a set of 100 style Eurolights.   These have
plastic reflectors.  Are yours metal or plastic?

Past list discussion included recommendation of a place in Toledo, OH ...
D&D Plastic and Chrome Plating which did a good job replating (vacuum
metalizing) plastic reflectors for Dave Head a few years ago.  It appears
this company no longer exists ... I even drove to the listed address and it
isn't there.  I checked with a local shop here in Columbus, OH that
refinishes metal objects, makes bronze baby shoes, etc.   They said >no<
U.S. based facilities can do chrome plating anymore due to environmental
regulations.  This shop said that any US company advertising chrome plating
services must be shipping the work overseas to circumvent the regs.  I
found nothing in Hemmings.  The local company could not offer any
suggestions, but they think there are places that do vacuum metalizing of
objects like the headlight reflectors.  Another lister mentioned that they
found a company, in California I think, that does this but they would only
deal with volume orders.

There is a list of possibilities at...
http://www.finishing.com/Shops/index.html

I could not find a source for purchase of new reflectors.

My experience is that the light output will suffer a lot from the degraded
reflectors.  I improved my lights greatly by carefully placing aluminum
foil shiny side up over the damaged area.  You must get it as smooth as
possible... wrinkles will diminish light output.

Please let us know if you find anything new, especially information on
purchase of new reflectors.

Dave C.
Columbus, OH

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