tail lights

looks like silver tarnish!

I wonder if some silver polish would brighten the old ones?

Had the same issue with my Lincoln and people kept honking their horn because they realized too late that i was actually indicating before a turn. (red tail lights are unusual on this longitude) Did a "high tech" fix and what a difference it made ;-)
Main ingredient for the fix showed on photo

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Did a "high tech" fix and what a difference it made ;-)
Main ingredient for the fix showed on photo

What are those? Rolls of chrome/foil tape?

no , the reflector "paint" isn't that strong... tryed a little bit with WD40 and already removing the "paint" and revealing the white plastic... it's not like a chrome layer on the ones we are used to , ok, those have some copper/brass body.Those were sometimes peeling of and chips could even cut in your fingers ! Next in shop i inform if such paint exists ?

Tail light and side marker reflectors are vapor-deposited aluminum and the coating is only a few atoms thick, so polishing makes things worse. Some owners have laboriously laid in strips of chrome tape, others have used 'chrome' paint. Some have decent results but IMHO never as good as the OEMs had 40+ years ago.

I've thought about building a rig to do this: the concept is simple. You put the meticulously cleaned housing in a vacuum chamber facing up and rig a piece of thin aluminum welding wire with outside connections. Pump down the vacuum chamber and dead-short the wire connections to a 230V 50 amp dryer plug! The wire explodes from the overload and aluminum vapor is deposited on the entire chamber and everything inside. This is approximately how your originals were made shiny. The mass of the wire is important since there will be an even layer left on the entire chamber; the alloy should be 1100 series- dead-soft nearly pure aluminum.

The other option is brand new buckets. This is one reason I bought new GR-4 tail light assemblies for our car...

Its tape used for taping insulation on HVAC domestic installations and its super thin and very sticky.

I found some super thin (0.001") reflective tape but so far only found being sold by the case

3M 8437 Metalized Film Tape Silver about $70/roll

Before I got the "brilliant" idea to use that tape I used some good old plane Kitchen silver Foil with a few drops of glue here and there. The result was at least as good as the Tape. I just changed to tape to make it a more "clean" mod. The fact the the foil has a tendency to make wrinkles/creases just makes the lights able to reflect better. The photo shows the right side with foil and the left side without. Sorry don't have any photos with the tape but the result is the same.

High tech silver foil installation!

The light intensity improvement on the land-yacht looks great!

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Originally posted by Bosswrench:
The light intensity improvement on the land-yacht looks great!

yes, i comes with kitchen,shower and dinette... and alot of bulbs ...
but OK, we also repaired some with kitchen alu foil... even fuses ...

chrome paint

I looked for something that had good reflectance, was easy to apply, and wouldn't really be missed.

I found these things. I don't remember what they were used for, but they work great.

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Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
I looked for something that had good reflectance, was easy to apply, and wouldn't really be missed.

I found these things. I don't remember what they were used for, but they work great.

do they come in flavors ?

Flavors? I don't know. They come in different colors though. I like the silver Mylar the best.

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
Flavors? I don't know. They come in different colors though. I like the silver Mylar the best.

think you must have looked to much episodes of Star-trek , sorry.

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Originally posted by Belgiumbarry:

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
Flavors? I don't know. They come in different colors though. I like the silver Mylar the best.

think you must have looked to much episodes of Star-trek , sorry.

Well I don't know Barry. Beam me up Scotty.

They are all serial numbered if you unroll them far enough.....hahaha

are they "matching" ?

I don't know anything about them. What are they used for?

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Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
I don't know anything about them. What are they used for?

i think , IMHO, to make your flash light watertight ?

Well back in the old days they were used over the barrel of an M15 to keep the wet weather out.
The party colors were dangerous though on patrol in the jungle.
Flat black would have been best but those didn't exist then but I think the edible ones did?

I painted mine with Krylon bright aluminum, but also added "Ron Francis" high intensity lights they look normal but put out twice the light, check them out https://www.ronfrancis.com, very satisfied./‎

quote:

Originally posted by Belgiumbarry:
just for info... as i had some minor cracks in the tail light lenses around the screws i was searching here new ones....i found at Italian car parts the "last" NOS set they had.. bought them for 350 € ( 480 $ ) , the lenses are intact but what me most wonderd was how my reflectors were not that "shiny" any more.....one only sees it comparing to a new one !

and no, it's no dirt or dust , can't wipe them clean.

Me glad