I hope your plans go well for you. I myself (and I'm sure others) would rather purchase reflectors that have already been refurbished than send ours in, since these are our daily drivers.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Please keep us posted. Both my fog and headlight reflectors could use a refurbishing.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

We should be able to do what you suggest as well in some fashion. It probably depends on how easy we come across enough good useable duds to develop an exchange program of sorts. This should not be extremely difficult. Just too early to tell at this point for sure. We will be still be flexable enough to work around a lot of requests like yours. It is quite reasonable after all.
You would just mail back your dud reflectors after recieving the replacements. If they are in simular condition less the cost of the coating we just call it even. That could work for us. I really would not like to see you charged for the bases as well as the refurbishment.
It cuts both ways as you do not want a rougher base than what you had originally either. Nor do you want to pay for another base or two since you already have them. At worse if it demand became extreme and that is hardly likely we might be able to have a die set made up and press out new blanks. The cost of doing that is not really great but I have some great concerns about infringment. You still can buy these new from mercedes or their suppliers I believe in complete lighting units but the cost is very high from what I understand.
We cannot cut our own throats or damage them. It is also unethical as they will be directing a lot of business our way I know.
On 114-123-126 models I think we will almost always be able to work something practical, satifactory and cost effective out for both parties. Unfortunatly easy solutions like this are not going to be possible with all the various other types of reflectors out there. The majority of them are not used on daily drivers so it is also somewhat of a mute point.

Not in this country. But back in South Africa my brothers 84 123 200's lights were so dim they were like faint candles. The reflectors were almost powder they were so bad.

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Do you think slightly higher wattage bulbs can temporarily help those out with bad reflectors? I'm talking about as high as you can go without electrical troubles, they don't recommend 100/90W with stock wiring, something lower ought to do the trick.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

count me in.

Louis.

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Not always the smartest but certainly not dumb?

The higher wattage bulbs might help a little perhaps. I certainly would not expect too much improvement as that reflector coating is doing most the work really. With poor reflectors the patterned/focussed beam is not produced properly either or very weakly. So you automatically have a unfocussed condition or a lack of gathered/directed light. This diffused light is energy spread more than the original intention.So it is weaker. Plus you loose all that light that is not reflected but instead absorbed by the bad reflector surface.
I was out driving in the country one night in my 39 ford with bad reflectors in the 60s. The road suddenly veered right or left. I could not see so decided rather than maybe rolling the car. Just to go straight into the woods. I managed to swerve around all the trees and drive back onto the road after getting rid of the speed without a scratch.
If you feel your lighting has deteriorated to the point of being a safety hazzard like mine proved to be. Get some two inch wide mylar tape with adhesive backing. It has good reflective qualities. They also reffer to it as chrome tape sometimes. It is not chrome by the way. That is just as well as chrome is a notoriously poor reflector of light. Chrome in fact absorbs so much light it is only about 50% efficient.
The tape does not look the neatest when cut to fit for your reflectors as you see all the seams. It will reflect light pretty well though. I reallly would not like you to experience a trip anything like I did.
If you always drive pretty well in urban areas or reasonable mult lane highways it is not as severe an issue. I think this would be a much better perhaps temporarily effective choice over the larger wattage bulbs plus is cheaper to boot.
The slightly tedious time to cut the mylar strips for butt seam fits iis probably not too bad. I guess you could make paper patterns to pre determine how to trim your next strip.
I think the bright shiney mylar tape is available at some if not most building supply places. You could do just one side first and compare the results with the bad side. Then come back on this site and explain your results and the difference. Should not be too time consuming to do one reflector
Another site member came up with the ideal. He did this and ran a little tutorial at one time. He was satisfied with the increased light output. The only difficulty is that the reflectors are a visual focal point on the car. Because of this and the tape being so bright you will see your butt seams. Also it takes awhile to contour the tape to the shape of the reflector. I thought a low heat blow dryer might just help mold the mylar to the reflector contour but I do not think he tried that.
The heat from the bulbs is not a threat to the plastic mylar base either. The light does not convert to heat by changing wave length upon contact with the bright coating. The potential energy just remains contained at the light waves frequency and reflects away as it should. No absorption no heat.