reflectors

[Guest Ken G]

I thought a quick look in the yellow pages would find this, but no. Can anyone suggest where I can get the reflectors in the front side-lights and headlights resilvered, preferably in the San Francisco Bay Area so I can take the reflectors in person.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)

[ply33]

For you headlights, I would recommend you check out Uvira. At one time they provided a service where they would put a glass sealed vapor deposited aluminum coating on your antique car headlight reflectors. While aluminum is a trifle worse than freshly polished silver as far as reflectivity is concerned, the end result is a reflector that should never need more than very occasional cleaning. My reflectors were done by Uvira about 15 or 20 years ago and are still in perfect condition.

Uvira, Inc.

310 Pleasant Valley Rd.

Merlin, OR 97532

Telephone: (541) 956-6880

Fax: (541) 476-9096

email: uvira@terragon.com

If you wish to have your reflectors plated locally, you should be able to have that done by most plating companies. I have used an outfit located in Santa Clara that might be able to do the work (they have done some chrome and nickle plated parts for me).

[Guest]

Ken:

(Oops ... this posting is largely redundant as I see that Tod has beaten me to the punch ... thanks to Tod and all of the

AACA regulars who provide so much useful information to the rest of us ...)

Although this isn't an answer to your specific question about resilvering, you may want to check out frequent AACA poster

Tod Fitch's excellent web site where he had a good discussion related to headlight brightness (http://www.ply33.com/Repair/lights.html).

There he discusses getting good brightness out of vintage lens/bulb/reflector assemblies. I believe that rather than resilvering, Tod and a number

of others have chosen to use the process from a company named Uvira (owned by Bill Atwood in Merlin, OR; email: uvira@terragon.com) that

"re-silvers" by putting a glass-coated reflective aluminum film on top of a polished, nickel-coated reflector.

Although I have not done this to my reflectors yet, Bill Atwood did give me the name of a Bay Area plater with whom he has had good success in

producing the polished, nickel-plated layer that Uvira uses as their "starting material". That recommendation was:

Superior Wheel & Bumper, 408 - 947 - 7781, 1616 Pomona Ave., San Jose, CA 95110.

So, I apologize for not specifically answering your question about re-silvering, but hope that this information may prove a useful

alternative. As I say, I haven't done this to my reflectors yet (since it doesn't need functional headlights to sit in the garage ...),

I think that the Uvira process looks like an interesting alternative to re-silvering.

I hope this helps,

John

1937 Pontiac 2dr touring sedan

[Guest Ken G]

Tod and John,

Thanks for the suggestions. I will investigate, but Uvira sounds promising.

It isn't urgent for me either, in that the car isn't running (but there's progress) and in any case I don't intend to take it out at night, but I would like to improve the appearance, and the present dull reflectors don't look good (at least they are not rusty). The side-lights are merely smaller versions of the headlights, with reflectors, and of course they double as direction signal lights; in fact, I have cheated and made them serve as direction signals only, since I would not drive without the headlights on so side-lights are really redundant. I found that without adding relays, the 7-wire turn signal switch could not make rear brake lights double as turn signals AND the front side-lights double as turn signals (only one or the other), so short of changing the front to two-filament bulbs and more wiring, something had to give.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)

[Guest]

Any good local silversmith should be able to replate your reflectors. Silver is silver. I had mine done years ago by a store that sold silver plate. They did an excellent job. By the way I replaced the cork gaskets on my lenses and use only the polish recommended by the silver plate shop. I polish them twice a year and they are still great after 38 years.

Happy hobbying