Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

It's actually for car headlights that are no longer available. To replace
the internal reflector assemblies with modern ones, as the originals are
plated plastic which fails. But the glass outer cover has a fresnel lens
built in which the modern reflectors don't need. So would it be
economically possible to have copies made of the toughened glass outer but
in plain glass? Or perhaps some other material?

Am I right in saying you've got one light assembly thats lost
silvering, and need it fixed? For lights other than headlights the
simplest fix is paint the silvering white, but thats no good for
headlights. Glass can be silver plated glass using electrolysis. Before
people frown, yes it doesnt work like conventional electroplating, but
it does work. Put distilled water in the headlight plastic assy, put
silver electrodes in and pass 9v 1mA between them. Along the way silver
will fall out and plate the container. 1mA gets a small patch of plate
after many hours, so you'll presumably want more current.

There is also self adhesive mirror on a roll, if pushed you could chop
it and apply like a mosaic. Plating much better though! Hopefully
coating the plating thickly with clear varnish will help it stay in
place longer. Adding say 1% of fibre to the varnish should increase
lifetime further without having too much impact on optical clarity.

Redesigning the headlight optics doesnt sound an appealing prospect to
me, and it would look very out of chracter.

Almost forgot, another option would be paint the plastic with aquadag
or similar, and electroplate conventionally.

Some of these I've tried, some not.


NT