headlight reflector refurb advice

Val
Val Member
edited March 2013 in HUDSON
In refurbishing headlight reflectors would I have them silverplated or chromed? Or someother method?

Comments

  • Geoff
    Geoff Senior Contributor
    Silver plating has always been the preferred method for most reflected light. However there maybe a more modern substitute.
  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    edited March 2013
    Don't chrome them. It is nowhere as reflective as resilvering.

    The original way would have been silverplating and that is what I did, about 10 years ago. It's held up pretty well, no tarnishing found whenever I've removed the lens to replace a lamp. Eventually, though, they'll tarnish -- just like they did originally.

    However, there is a "new, improved" way to do it. A company called Uvira, out on the west coast, applies a glass coating to your reflectors once they have been plated, and this seals in the plating for good. They supposedly will never tarnish. You, however, have to have the reflectors nickel plated and polished first, then send them to Uvira. I'm told Uvira charges about $75 a pair to have the reflectors glass-sealed, and that is on top of whatever it costs to have them nickel plated.

    Uvira Inc.
    Attn: Mr. Bill Atwood
    310 Pleasant Valley Road
    Merlin, OR 97532-8871
    (541) 474-5050

    If you want to have them simply silver plated and be done with it (as I did), it's a bit simpler (knowing full well that you may have to go through this again in 20 or 30 years). You could try a local trophy shop just for fun, but if you google headlight reflector resilvering you'll probably find some companies. I have seen quotes of $75 per reflector, but the place that did mine (maybe 10 years ago) charged only about $55 total, and that included shipping. The fellow's name was Craig Riker (in Toledo, Ohio) and I think the number is 419-290-4442 so you could ask if he still does resilvering and what the price would be for a couple reflectors. Anyway, look around.
  • StillOutThere
    StillOutThere Expert Adviser
    I had '33 ET8 reflectors done by Uvira 30 years ago and my most recent pics of the car show they are still brilliant. The car actually lit the road with 6V. WORTH IT.
  • Val
    Val Member
    Thanks for the advice guys, I will certainly look around and check into that Uvira.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories

In this Discussion