Headlamp Reflector Finish

[ddoan]

This is what the backside of my Dexta's headlamp reflectors looked like two weeks ago:



After lots of elbow grease, I got the reflectors to look like this:



Without going into a lot of detail, I discovered that the silvery finish on these reflectors is chrome plating. There is a local chrome shop in my area and their charge to re-chrome a headlamp reflector is $75. So, I bought this:



Upon spraying it onto the reflectors, they looked like this:



I wasn't sure how reflective the lamps would be, so I hooked one up to the battery under my forklift cover. This is what I saw:



When the spots disappeared from my eyes, I figured that the lamp was bright enough.

My question is, will the paint hold up, and is it a safe alternative to chrome? Keep in mind, the paint cost me $3.80. But, it is not recommended in situations where the heat will exceed 200 degrees F. My other thought was to replace the reflector with a new one, but I don't know if Butlers - or anyone else, still sells them - or, at what cost.

It's been an interesting journey. And may not be over yet.

Don

[TOH]

I have wondered the same question myself. Last fall I repaired the plough lamp in my dads MF-135. The reflector was so bad that I decided to try the paint. It was a similar product than yours. It is named chrome paint but I believe it is made from aluminium. Only time will tell if it will go dim again but I can always repaint it if it does. And the plough light won't be used very often (perhaps once a year) anyway so heat shouldn't be a problem.

[Aussie Frank]

Hi Don,

TOH is right the standard bulbs used in your lights will not reach 200 F and even with Quartz Halogen bulb replacements I would expect the reflector to remain below 200 F as it is not in direct contact with the bulb.

However if you do decide that you need to go down the replacement path I can recommend Goffy Lighting http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffylighting.htm as a great source of odd lighting parts to suit British bulbs. They do mainly motor cycle stuff but I found that they were the only place that you could find a 6 1/2 inch reflector and lens that would fit my E27N lights. Not an exact match to the butlers parts but you could probably adapt the reflector off one of their reflector and lens sets to suit your lights. They do all sorts of sizes.

Maybe not much cheaper than rechroming, but I would want a guarantee from the shop that your reflectors don't come back with lots of holes in them before I handed them over given the rust on them. Most shops in Australia would tell you that there is no way to rechrome the reflectors you have because the metal is too thin to go through the pickling process.

Regards Frank.

[Brian]

Very interesting solution!

I too have headlamps to repair and the way I was considering was to buy new lamps and strip them for the parts I need to rebuild the old ones.

[ddoan]

Brian,

I forgot to include this photo of my finished Dexta headlamps:



Unless you have multiple component defects, I think you could restore your existing headlamps. It's just that the reflectors seem to flake off their chrome and copper coatings, begging to be replaced or resurfaced.

At this point, I could disassemble and reassemble my headlamps blindfolded. It's not all that complicated once you get past the rust. I kept a close photo diary of the disassembly to make sure they went back together properly.

Don