Well Bill, I think they can't guarantee the job because the vessels are made or metal. However I did some research and it seems silvering can be done in several material including metal. Is this right? Do you think it will work?

Hmmmm....thought mine were glass. Been a long time since I had it done though and memory fades quickly these days.

Anywhoo, yeah. I don't see why it wouldn't work. Silvering is done on all kinds of mediums including metal. It was silvered originally so i don't see why it wouldn't work. Its not that expensive so maybe just try one to see how it turns out before getting the other one done.

Cheers,

Bill

A quick Google search on silvering + headlight turns up Steve's Auto Restorations.

I have no personal experience with them, and so can't vouch for them.

Hi Juan.

I tried to get some info on the Hella website but
I'm coming up empty for now.
I guess any place that sells Hella products should
be able to get info on the PN#s and they also
should be able to get the vessels themselves.

On the other hand the resilvering seems the most
cost effective way to go and will be available for
a long time to come.

I on the other hand need the plasic adjustment pieces
and MB doesn't sell them at all.
Maybe Hella or Bosch will, who knows?

Louis.

__________________
Not always the smartest but certainly not dumb?

A little plating knowledge is a dangerous thing and I only know a little. Silvering with silver has about 2-3 years before tarnishing and fading starts to becomes a problem. Vaccum depositing of bright aluminium with a clear coat to stop oxidation is the preffered method today. Lasts far longer and has greater reflectivity that even bright silver but the two are not that far apart. I was always concerned about the bulb temperature damaging the clear but some reflectors are plastic based products so that concern may be questionable. I am throwing this in because this thread is starting to grow and what is finally decided is important to many perhaps. I personally find the west coast option too expensive if a simular result can be affected either locally or in a better fashion. This area requires some knowledge from people. The silvering at mirror shops seems to be cost effective but vaccum depositing of bright aluminum is not too pricy either usually. I have no ideal of the composition of the clear coat over it yet. Also I still am not sure of how mirrors are plated. Had a quick look at mirror supplies for plating mirrors. I do not think they are done by conventional plating methods as the glass is not a conductive surface and as far as I know electroless silver was not available years ago but again I might be wrong. I will await someone mentioning or find the information I seek about exactly how mirrors are plated before commenting more. No doubt about it that a lot of reflectors out there need done. Replacements are usually far too expensive if even available at all.

I have limited knowledge of how antique mirrors are resilverd. Heres what I know....

First, the old silvering is stripped off using methylene cholride stripper, being careful not to scratch the glass. In other words most likely ragged off.

Secondly the glass is cleaned/rinsed.

Third the glass is polished using the type of polish that any jewelry maker or silversmith would use to assure the glass is blemish free. Probably a two step process i.e. emory working up to the red rouge.

Fourth the glass is sprayed with the actual chemical that contains the silver stuff. Don't know what it is exactly. Old mirrors were done with mercury. Possibly is still done that way.

lastly there is another chemical that is gray paint like material that is brushed on top of the side that is silvered. I think this is done to protect the silvering.

Wish i could be more specific but I am not in the business of mirror resilvering. I do know the chemicals being used must be serious stuff because the EPA has shut down many of the resilvering businesses.

Cheers,

Bill

I mention my trevails with this on this thread:

107 Euro Headlight Reflectors Refinished Very Well - WITH TAPE!!! (long)

I have two Euro sets for a 107; the first, I had resilvered by the shop mentioned. It was EXTREMELY expensive and for that price (and reputation of restoring antiques) I expected perfection; I didn't get it. Nonetheless, the silvering has held up two years; I polish (with silver cleaner for silverware) them every six months but this could be overkill. I think if you have good gaskets for the front glass they can stay bright and last a very long time.

The statements about the reflectivity of chrome vs aluminum vs silver are true. My "tape" restoration of my second set turned out extremely well (but read entire linked thread, the polishing part is critical in making a fair job into a great job).

I did find a vacuum plater in Canada later, also not cheap; the good news is that I think they have an "office" in the US so that they can avoid the US-canadian shipping expenses (what the heck happened to NAFTA). I had something else done by them, so I can't say if they could do bowls; I wasn't entirely pleased with their work but I gave them something extremely difficult to do, so they might have done the best that was possible.

http://www.cvvacuumplaters.com/

I don't know if they can or will do headlight bowls.

Crazy, but possible: if you have a large planetarium in your city, chances are that they have a vacuum chamber for aluminizing mirrors. It might not be large enough to do this kind of work, and I don't know if they would actually do it. Maybe a "donation" would help?

P.S. I have lots of tape left over.

__________________
86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

Beleive it or not, silverplating mirrors has been done for maybe 150 years. It's done by precipitation. Some the chemicals involved are very nasty/acid. Telescope mirrors were made of a shiny metal called "speculum" until this technique was perfected, maybe in the 1850-1870 time frame.

It is also possible, I think, to sputter conductive metal onto glass, and then electroplate that, but that may be a fairly exotic technique.

__________________
86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

Strife, that was really informative and will help many members see where the road is again at a very reasonable cost. I suspect when you are bufffing the tape adhesive is made to flow aiding to the leveling effect. I have to wonder if pre warming the reflector a little might aid in getting rid of more wrinkles. The buffing is adding heat alone so a little additional heat before buffing might improve the process. Also your cleaning and waxing is possibly leaving a coating behind to protect the surface. Or if the clear film is still on the tape that is the anti oxidation coating for the bright aluminum itself. It sounds like mirrors are done with vapour deposit or precipitation as well so that should be an acceptable method for plastic and metal reflectors. I have considered ordering in a bright silver solution as reducing silver to the ionic level and using non propiortory brightners might involve too much experimentation. But perhaps not as it is very old technology. Or perhaps doing the vaccum deposit thing with bright aluminum if I can locate the protective overcoating chemical. It gives me some faith as I did not consider before that the reflectors being a reflecting surface enable the heat to be reflected away. Those bulbs run really hot in my opinion. Either way I have been considering for some time doing this and providing a reasonable cost service to other hobbiests like myself. The border between us is no problem. There also is no reason the cost should not be reasonable in nature. Creative use of available legal methods can legally wipe the border out. It is totally legal for example to charge handliing charges for example and they do not attract customs duty. In fact items below a certain value are passed right through the border avoiding customs in my experience. I personally dislike price gouging and have never had a mental problem with a fair and ethical mark up. I should also mention that a tape I used to call mylar transfers the aluminium to the object by heat transfer with the carrier film separating from the aluminum. If that stuff was still available it might make application appear to be seamless but would certainly take some experimentation to see. We used to use it for places on plastic where the original finish was damaged. You simply took a household iron or equivelent Put the tape where you wanted to do the transfer. Applied heat and the heat activated adhesive backing transfered the product to the plastic leaving the clear mylar tape to peel off. I suspect the applied heat also made the mylar highly conformable to the irregular surface as well. But that is probably an obscure product and the tape width was perhaps 3/4 inch. Still very good for replacing missing chrome appearing highlights on say 60s plastic dashes rather than masking extensivly and using vapour deposit methods. My interest of course is driven by my needs as well to some extent. I own quite a few reflectors that need done. If I decide to set up to do my own why not do others as well? Fortunatly I own but do not operate a complete plating line that I aquired in trade for one of my ideals years ago. Doing headlight reflectors would allow me to operate a very small portion of it with no basic enviroment concerns as the operation itself is so small. To build a vaccum chamber is not a stretch either as again most reflectors are reasonably small.. At present those mirror replate places seem to probably be the best approach as the cost is apparently relatively low and they are spead across the country. Nowhere as low in cost as your tape method though. In fact about the only thing I can think of is we should do the preparation work for that process application before dropping our reflectors off for silvering. The surface to be plated should be 2000 grit smooth. This thread is starting to get really interesting. Nice to see the prior initiatives in tackling this area.