Originally Posted by JB3

if you do this, how are you going to hang on the door frame and fire your tommy gun one handed? You need the running boards for a place to stand.

I suppose you could fire from the bed, but it wouldn't be traditional

Originally Posted by compu_85

A better option might be to mount a Bi-Xenon projector behind the original lenses.

-J

Originally Posted by barry12345

The heat would not effect a true silver plating. As for vaccum metalising the reflectance of the surface stops heat buildup to signifigant temperatures. Most of it especially the radiant component is reflected and goes right out through the lens. That's for either type of finish.

Bright aluminum used in vacuum metalising will oxidise in normal atmospheric conditions so it has a protective coat sprayed on it for your type of application. Real silver will tarnish with time. Real silver is not cheap usually in comparison. Still you might luck in but you must request really bright silver. Chrome actually absorbs light but is really durable. So it is not practical.

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I was planning to nickel plate it since I thought that was what was on it originally....am I right? I was not thinking of ruining the silver coating I was thinking of starting a fire. In my experience halogen lights generate a lot of heat even when in an open fixture. These light buckets are sealed tight.

Originally Posted by barry12345

Bright nickel might get you by but it is seldom if ever used to my knowledge. I also suspect that it may be hard to find someone with a really bright nickel bath but could be wrong about that.

Bright silver was the technical standard for a long time. I was going to set up a bright silver bath as well because some are charging outrageous prices for this service.

During a much earlier thread some member used a guy that normally plates silverware and such. The price was reasonable. The halogen converter sockets unless they have changed. Require a modification of the reflectors back socket hole size. They also place the filament a little further out in the reflector usually.

This to me changes the width of the projected beam a little but they are quite acceptable and common. Probably about the only sane way to go today. Also there might be period standard bulb conversion units out there as 1940 was pretty much the start of sealed beams.

I would talk to some Studebaker owners of your vintage to see. That way you might just be able to put a nice sealed halogen beam unit behind the lens. There was nothing decent for the 39 buick as the reflector was one inch greater in diameter than any available sealed beam conversion. Still there was or Is one out there but it is ugly in my opinion. By thirty nine all headlight reflectors may have had a standard size. This is just a suspicion.

My random attention to the led under counter lighting has gelled. Today I had to pull one unit though as the junctions of the leds where doped with slightly different materials and I detected a slight shift to the violet spectrum. It was causing a slight color shift of the black splash tiles in the fixtures region. Or that pvc lighting strip was from another manufacturer if not a different production run.

Anyways 10 feet of lighting with 300 leds draws 1.2 amps at 12 volts or .2 amps at 120 volts. That's just 20 watts. I have not measured the a/c current to the switching power supply yet. Dropping the voltage one or two volts may make the overall draw stay at about 20 watts. We are talking about a lot of light here. The light is impressive and very well diffused.

There is no reason not to drop the voltage a little as they are over bright. So the expected 50,000 hour to 100,000 hour lifespan may be further increased and the hourly operation costs go down further. My suspicion is there will be a natural aging component with the leds so I may install a dimmer. In my humble opinion my solving the diffusion issue puts these light units beyond anything I have seen on the market. The fixtures are very attractive as well. I also will have to make a decision about how and if they should be marketed. At age 71 and not really needing the money or the wife perhaps not supporting me getting too active again I may just sell the package. That I have done before with other things.

Now I can get back to finding if the lights and diffusers that I slotted into the very top of the top widow trim. So they remain invisible as styish cheap background lighting can be finalized. There is quite a bit of concern about any heating in that confined environment. More than a 1/4 inch slot is too much for todays trim. Led strips seem to rise to a slightly higher ambient temperature over time but the losses are easily dispersed so far. My issue is will wood or the current particle board type moulding product allow enough dispersion of it with the diffuser. At least it is just more testing basically to find out.

Packaging this for consumption once I work all and any bugs out is simple. Could become almost a building standard application I suspect with time. The strips and diffusers in the trim are very easy to get in and out as well. The diffusers are where the technology is. No commercial produced led product on the market today has my diffuser type. Theirs did not work well and held up my under the counter lighting until I discovered a different way. That was proper light dispersion with reasonable losses. For quite a time I thought the issue may be unsolvable.

I need mental exercises to compensate for the mundane all too familiar tasks I do. Today for example I spent installing all the sheet metal products for a venmar system . Tomorrow it's start to install air to air heat pumps.

At least the air to air heat pumps are new to me. With my age and experience these things offer no real challenges though..

Originally Posted by C.Doner

I have used these supplies on glass. It is not that complicated. Getting a good mirror finish is difficult, but maybe you dont need it perfect. I was thinking of trying to re-silver my lights on the SL. They seem uneven in brightness. Who knows maybe this will help. Angel Gilding - Supplies and Techniques To Mirror Glass

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I have a pair of NOS reflectors that are similar to mine but the shape is enough different I cannot use them without modification. they are what I thought to be nickel plated and are sort of yellow compared to modern mirror reflectors. My reflectors are mostly corroded black with pits in them and I have to take them by the local plater to look at them to see if they can polish them good enough. They cannot do it if they are on an aluminum base. I assume they are on brass...?

From the illustrations of the halogen conversion bulbs it appears the base mounting would be relatively easy.