Headlight re-silvering

Has anyone tried painting the inside reflecors gloss white rather then having them re-silvered? I can not find anyone in the BuffaloNY area who re-silvers anymore due to enviromental concerns. How about just painting them reflective white?

 

Studies were taken on headlight and tailight brightness with a variety of different type deflector colors.
White was found to be the most effective.

 

Thanks Pete:

I got the idea from advise about painting the inside of my 41 Chevy taillights gloss white to give more light reflection. Has anyone else tried this?

BC

 

Brian,

Here ya go. Are you using those 33 Pontiac lights? Or have you found something else?

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125092&highlight=silvering

 

I've never seen anyone paint the headlamp reflectors of their early cars. I suppose a reasonable test would be to paint the refelctor of a flashlight and see what happens!

I've been promoting painting the insides of taillamps gloss white for probably 30 years since reading it in a magazine and doing it on every car I've owned since then.
Kinda like painting the underside of the cowl and backside of the dash gloss white, makes everything easier to see and brightens up your life too.

 

I painted the inside of my taillight housings with that aluminum silver paint that always looks so shitty on everything else.

I did one side and then looked at them at night.

The silver side seemed to be twice as bright as the light that was still black inside.

I think silver is a better choice than painting your reflectors white.

 

Is that rattle can aluminum silver. It's not that hammertone crap. Anyone know what brand etc?

BC

 

Unlike tail lights, you can see through HL lenses. I think white reflectors would look "unusual" in the day light through the lens.

You might check with some powder coaters. They claim to have some "new" stuff that is supposed to be just like chrome. (yeah I know but my buddy has seen it and he claims it is nice.) I just think it would look better in the afternoon.

Several years ago they were selling reproduction reflectors with halogen bulbs for Fords. (back when people restored their originals instead of ordering new ones) You might check the sizes for something to adapt.

PS. I use white for tail lights also.

 

Yep, the nasty "ghetto-chrome" .97 per can bright aluminum.

 

Steve's Auto does re-silvering. http://www.stevesautorestorations.com/headlight.php

I believe Bob Drake offers new reflectors in lots of sizes that may just happen to fit your original headlights.

In one of those magazine articles, I think they compared a black painted bucket, a silver painted bucket, and a white painted bucket, and the white was the brightest. Surprised me.

 

Black is the absorption of all light.
Silver is somewhere in between.
White is the reflection of all light.

I rest my case. Try gloss appliance white in your taillamps, you'll spray over that silver in a minute.


The process Steve's uses is, I believe, a high tech coating of an aluminum alloy which is used in space program stuff. It will not tarnish like silvering and has reflectivity something like 98.*****% of silvering. Not bad, but you must have really nice OEM reflectors only, repops are not made to the close tolerances that OEM units are. If you choose to modify for modern halogen bulbs do so before having the reflectors coated.

 

Does anyone know how much of a headlight's brilliance and sharpness of focus comes from the reflector and how much from the lens?

 

What about the guys that re-plate plastic parts? Did you ask Sandoro? Kind of a goof, but he seems to know a lot of people when it comes to antique cars and getting stuff done.

 

OldcarMike that is a good question! The type and candlepower of bulbs have changed alot since the '30s and the math of the reflectors (and lenses) have changes too. My '33 Willys headlights seems tilted back (factory) but have strange shaped buckets that reflect the light down. The reflective material is somewhat tarnished. I adapted 9004 bulbs but the lenses (factory) seem to disipate the light more than it should. Bottom line is that at 50 MPH I am overdriving the headlights and nothing I do will solve the problem if I keep the factory lenses.

 

I think I will just have the reflectors re-chromed. They appear to be brass and I think it should be easy to chrome them. Thanks for all the help.

Brian