Glass & reflector separation

[JC T ONE]

Hi all,


I need some advice on how to separate glass from reflector, on a headlight / spotlight.

Its glued together with some White (hard) glue, just like on a Cibie headlamp.

And as the Cibie,s one of them has come apart due to age, but the other one wont move.


Jens Christian

[TuttSpeed]

Hi Jens,
I successfully removed the lenses on a pair of rectangular Cibie headlights from a Wood and Pickett car by soaking them in a strong solvent.
First I took a sharp knife and put a few scratches in the exposed surface of the hard white glue to allow the solvent to attack it better. Then I placed the headlights with the lenses face down in a plastic container and filled it up to the level of the white glue with Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). I also filled the inside of the lights up to the white glue with the MEK. I put a lid on the container and let it sit for a day. It is important to cover with a lid to keep the solvent from evaporating.
When the lights were removed from the solvent the white glue was soft on the surface so I cut away as much of the glue as I could with a sharp knife and then placed the lights back in the solvent longer and repeated the process. Eventually the solvent softened the glue completely through and the lenses separated from the reflectors with damaging them.
Other solvents may also work requiring more or less time soaking.
With regards to safety, this was of course done in a well-ventilated, out of the way area free from any sources of ignition while wearing gloves and safety glasses.

Derek

[JC T ONE]

Hi Derek,


thanks a lot for that I had an answer on another forum, but that was to put ít in a owen, and heat it.

This was not always a succes, said the guy = sometimes the glass broke.

Hence why I didnt dare use that advice, as I cant get a replacement

good thing is, that one of them has already come apart, so its only one light I need to fix.

This leads me to next question = where can get the reflectors resilvered ?.

Jens Christian

[TuttSpeed]

Hi Jens,

I didn't want to try heating either knowing it would be difficult to find another lens if one broke. The solvent method took a while but did not cause any damage.

There is a place here in the US in Oregon that offers headlight re-silvering, http://www.realsteel.com, but that is quite far from you.
A quick search returned this company in the UK,
http://www.ashfordchroming.com/headlamp ... estoration
I don't know anything about them but it is a place to start.

Derek

[JC T ONE]

Hi Derek,


yes the UK one is the best option, as parcel,s coming into Denmark from outside EU, is taxed (even if its old parts )
but collectors of stamps & paintings can trade freely now can anyone tell me the fairness of that ?????????????????????????

Anyone inhere used Ashford chroming ?


Jens Christian