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Vintage headlite reflector painting or plating?

2K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  1971BB427 
#1 ·
Headlite reflectors on my 1948 Simca are real dull, lost plating, lost shine.

This car will Not be a street driver, it will be a drag car in a gasser style.. , I just want the reflectors to look decent through the glass lens.

Paint them with a spray can? I dont want to bust the budget on something that only needs to look decent through the lens

Photos of one reflector, I used a SOS pad on, I also tried some Wenol polishing liquid on same lens too.

You can see what looks like copper showing through on this , so I guess lens was chromed.



The top part of this lens is untouched by me. On the left was cleaned with SOS pad.... on right side I used the blue tube of Wenol

 
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#2 ·
I tried a few different spray can methods but they really just come out as a shiny silver finish.....which may work for you. If you go to youtube and type in Chrome paint finishing you'll see quite a few different application techniques. Jay Leno has a guy on there that has a 3 step type process that may be the thing you want, it really makes the parts look like chrome or as close as you're going to get.
 
#3 ·
silvering or powdercoating chrome will both work. The chrome powdercoat does NOT like to be handled. They normally put a clear over it, which changed it from chrome look to more like polished aluminum. I bet if the headlights are sealed, the chrome-look wouldn't need a clear anyway. talk to your local powdercoater. be mindful of the film build since you have to reassemble it
 
#6 ·
I repainted some older tail light housing in the same condition. I sprayed them a bright silver and I am using these on the street. They are very bright and there are no problems seeing them.
You are using this on a drag car.................just spray them either bright silver or white..................do not powder coat something when you can finish it for the price of a can of paint.
 
#7 ·
I've used the "Fake" chrome spray paint in tail light housings and front driving/turn signal housings, and it seems to work there, and have seen white used there also, white seems to make a softer, more diffused glow.

I don't know if white is going to look good in a head light application compared to something at least trying to be reflective(fake chrome or bright silver)
 
#10 ·
#11 ·
I had some gloss white paint here. Tried that first. Did not look quite right behind the clear headlite lens.. Behind a red lens on tail lite, I bet that would work very nice

bought some Valspar metallic paint in silver. Looks good.

Thanks for the help

 
#12 ·
Too late now, but I was going to recommend polishing them with Mothers paste polish. The reflectors on my old Austin gasser looked like yours also. I used Mothers paste and they came out really looking great! I could still see some thinning areas, but since the reflector was so shiny they were impossible to see through the glass when it was assembled.
 
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