eCode Restoration

[wingswheelshulls]

Anyone aware of a shop that restores eCodes, including repair and replating the reflectors?

 

The Koito thread and it's failing vintage Cibies got me thinking, again, about restoration of Euro headlights.  Several years ago, I imported a French spec diesel Land Rover 90 (Defender before they were called Defender) that had a great set of OE flat faced Lucas H4's.  They had a great light pattern, comparable to Hella and Cibie, and better than the currently available Lucas.  Thick lenses, heavy and well made, but the reflectors were starting to rust, so I replaced them w/ NOS Cibies.    I looked for someone to restore the Lucas but ran up empty then went on to other things.  Would like to get them restored.

[TobyB]

Ah- E-code HEADLIGHTS!
 

 

I was thinking maybe you wanted the E10 attached to the 2002, and I was gonna shriek 'blasphemy'

 

 

This has come up in other contexts, (more recent cars with specific reflectors) but I've never seen a solution either.

 

t

 

[ray_]

Restoration Service: BOSCH H1 Headlights

911BESTINCLASS.COM

---

. Bosch H1's are one of the most fascinating early headlights used on Porsches. The H1 halogen bulb was introduced in 1967 and Porsche used H1's on RoW (rest of world) delivered cars from then through most of 1972 when H4's were introduced. Basically a clever Rube...

 

;-)

[Conserv]

10 years ago, there was at least one U.S. firm and one U.K. firm that restored headlight reflectors — properly. The U.S. one, I seem to recall, was in some place such as Michigan or Minnesota (I apologize Mid-Westerners, for not being able to distinguish among states west of Pennsylvania and east of Oregon…🙄).

 

I was looking at this issue because I wondered whether it might be worthwhile having a set of Amplilux restored. I stopped that investigation when I discovered that restoration costs began at $500 (?) for a pair of lights — at a time when I could still find an NOS pair of Amplilux for less than $500.

 

Somewhere in this forum, I’ve discussed this topic previously, probably naming names. I don’t know how to find it. “Amplilux re-silver”? “Amplilux reflector”?
 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

['76mintgrün'02]

24 minutes ago, Conserv said:

Somewhere in this forum, I’ve discussed this topic previously, probably naming names. I don’t know how to find it. “Amplilux re-silver”? “Amplilux reflector”?

 

I recently learned a searching-trick that's been coming in handy.  Type in a topic and click search.  Then, click "more search options" and use the "search by author" option. 

 

I did that with "headlight reflector" and "Conserv" and got only 13 results.  A few do mention having them redone.  I'll let you have the fun of digging out the information/names.

 

https://www.bmw2002faq.com/search/?&q=headlight reflector &type=forums_topic&quick=1&author=Conserv&nodes=8&search_and_or=and&sortby=newest

 

Old Cibies sell well on ePay.  There was a recent sale of two 7" bulbs for $130 and they're corroded inside like mine.  The glue that attaches the lens to the reflectors is probably failing as well.  Yet, they sold for good money.  

 

I have a friend who changed out lenses and reflectors between bulbs and he said it was a pain in the butt.  

 

Tom

[visionaut]

I was reminded of this amazing old post on headlight restoration quoting Mr Stern…

 

https://www.bmw2002faq.com/forums/topic/153149-sev-amplilux-marchals-come-home-after-42-years/?do=findComment&comment=981170

[stephers]

There is a fellow on the Porsche early 911 registry named Jaudette   that redoes the silver on the reflectors        I would check with him

 

Thanks, Rick 

['76mintgrün'02]

7 minutes ago, visionaut said:

I was reminded of this amazing old post on headlight restoration quoting Mr Stern…

 

Thanks for digging that up.  This is the line I remembered from that post, "I wouldn't bet on it [them being in good shape overall] ...optical degradation of the reflector is grossly advanced well before you can see it with the naked eye; by the time it's progressed far enough to be described as "just a little imperfect" the lamp is dead."

 

Vintage stuff is fun, but my Cibies were DONE.  Here's the photo I shared in the Koito thread.  I do like the way the reflectors matched my paint, but decided it was time for some new ones.

 

 

Tom

[Gordon]

Following this thread. Cibie,  Auteroche, Carello, Bosch, Marchal,  etc.... Euro E-code headlights are becoming hard to find on this side of the pond. Hella E-Code are still easy to find. I removed the Cibie E-Code lights from both my tii and E30 and replaced them with Hella E-Code.  This was due to the numerous rocks and road debris on the roads here in Colorado. Sure enough,  the Hella H4 on my tii now has a crack in it due to a rock or road debris. 

[Son of Marty]

Still 1500 to 2000 bucks to restore is just too much money. 

[TobyB]

2 hours ago, Son of Marty said:

Still 1500 to 2000 bucks for a whole car is just too much money. 

 

[Mike Self]

In the antique car world (and I mean antique cars that pre-date sealed beam headlights, which arrived around 1939-40) there are companies that re-silver headlight reflectors for those vintage cars.  But there's a difference.  Back then the reflectors were usually brass, and the reflective material was actually (real) silver.  So some polishing of the brass and a silver plating job and you're back in business.  Those headlights were also easily taken apart, as the lens was usually clamped to the reflector with a cork gasket interposed.  

 

Our modern bulb/reflector Euro code lights have steel reflectors with sprayed-on aluminum as the "silvering" and then the lens is pretty permanently glued to the reflector.  Yes, they're way brighter (12 vs 6 volts doesn't hurt that process) but if the reflector is rusted, then it's almost impossible to get it smooth enough to re-"silver."  And then there's the trick of separating the lens from the reflector without breaking the former and/or damaging the latter.  That's why it's so expensive to restore our modern headlights. 

 

My Cibies have been surviving for a long time (15-20 years) and still look good--and I have saved old ones with corroded reflectors and good lenses, and others with broken lenses but good reflectors; the lenses can be re-attached to make one good headlight out of two bad ones...just in case

 

mike

[wingswheelshulls]

Thanks all for the feedback and references.   Given the consensus that modern corroded reflectors are believed to be unrestorable, and I agree with that, I may purchase a new Lucas set and try to disassemble them (using Daniel Stern's method) and attach the flat lenses.   

 

This will involve the family oven, so timing will be critical...not unlike below😃  I live dangerously.

 

 

Edited March 10 by wingswheelshulls

[D.martijn]

I had my reflectors redone in Germany.

I haven't installed them onto my car yet but the finish looks very nice.

Paid ~150€ 

[popovm]

On 3/9/2024 at 10:46 AM, stephers said:

There is a fellow on the Porsche early 911 registry named Jaudette   that redoes the silver on the reflectors        I would check with him

 

Thanks, Rick 

This guy, perhaps? http://www.audettecollection.com