500E Re-silvering headlight reflectors

[rucraig]

Hi folks,

I live in New Zealand and have a facelifted Japan-spec 500e. Moisture has got into the headlights and broken down the silvering on the reflectors. The headlights no longer project the correct beam pattern and I cannot get a "warrant of fitness" until I resolve this problem.

I have searched for a set of LHT headlights for a long time, with no success. I'm thinking that my only option may be to get the reflectors re-silvered. This cannot be done in NZ. Can anyone recommend a reputable provider of this service in the USA or elsewhere that could do this for me?

Thanks in advance.

Russell

 

[500AMM]

No affiliation, but this company based in UK appears to manage a re-plating process very well:

Headlamp Re-Silvering - Chrome Restoration Specialists

Headlamp Re-Silvering We offer a complete headlamp re-silvering service and we can restore all types of headlamps even sealed beam units! But we can only do them if they are metal and not plastic and we can remove the metal part from its surroundings. For example, sealed beam units that are...

www.chromerestorationspecialist.co.uk

I think there are others in Germany, but haven't checked.

 

[rucraig]

No affiliation, but this company based in UK appears to manage a re-plating process very well:

Headlamp Re-Silvering - Chrome Restoration Specialists

Headlamp Re-Silvering We offer a complete headlamp re-silvering service and we can restore all types of headlamps even sealed beam units! But we can only do them if they are metal and not plastic and we can remove the metal part from its surroundings. For example, sealed beam units that are...

www.chromerestorationspecialist.co.uk

I think there are others in Germany, but havent checked.

That's super helpful - many thanks.

 

[AMG5PT4]

So, does than mean all E500E headlights are now NLA? I have looked at Japan Yahoo for years and saw many, many posts for Hella E500 headlights. Just looked again and don't see any Hella FS posts. I guess they are now NLA as well.

If you do ship your headlights for re-silvering, I strongly suggest double boxing and high levels of cushioning to protect the headlight. MB headlights are notorious for brittle plastic mounting parts for reflectors and inner parts that hold all the pieces together. Once these plastic bits break, you may be left with gluing the parts back together. I would imagine the re-silvering company has to remove the reflector in order to re-silver it - I hope they are extra careful!

 

[rucraig]

So, does than mean all E500E headlights are now NLA? I have looked at Japan Yahoo for years and saw many, many posts for Hella E500 headlights. Just looked again and dont see any Hella FS posts. I guess they are now NLA as well.

If you do ship your headlights for re-silvering, I strongly suggest double boxing and high levels of cushioning to protect the headlight. MB headlights are notorious for brittle plastic mounting parts for reflectors and inner parts that hold all the pieces together. Once these plastic bits break, you may be left with gluing the parts back together. I would imagine the re-silvering company has to remove the reflector in order to re-silver it - I hope they are extra careful!

Thanks for the advice about shipping. I'm thinking it might be best to disassemble the lights myself and just ship the reflectors.

 

[LWB250]

I've had this done on older MB Euro headlights, such as W108s and W112s. It's a very specific process that requires the reflectors to be stripped down to bare metal, first nickel plated and then silver plated and polished as I recall. I was lucky in that I had a guy who plated marine hardware for yachts that could do it, but he was always backed up so I would often have to wait to get them done.

Good luck in your search, as others have stated, be sure to pack them very carefully.

Dan

 

[GRAEME JOHNSON]

Once again its UK based I used a firm called Dual metalising for some SEC reflectors
They have a nice web site to look at
Graeme Johnson

 

[dionphaneuf]

Does anyone know of any vendors in the US offering this service they can point me to?

 

[rucraig]

Once again its UK based I used a firm called Dual metalising for some SEC reflectors
They have a nice web site to look at
Graeme Johnson

Thanks Graeme - will check them out.

 

[500AMM]

Russel, have you checked in Australia?
I'm surprised if you don't find a plating/silvering process there. It's closer to you, although it may not count that much as for the shipping cost anyway. Maybe member @HOFF in AU has some information. I came across an old thread on this forum; Re Silvering Headlights Maybe they have updated information on this.

That UK company has a note about reinstalling the reflectors at your own risk, something to think about. It is really, really hard to avoid touching the reflectors inside during assembly, and even touching with fine gloves makes marks on the plating. If I end up doing this at some point I would take of the lenses, cut some plywood plates covering the front of the headlight buckets and ship them in durable boxes. That way the reflectors are protected and you avoid any risk during assembly - plus the unobtainium 500E lenses are safely kept at home.

 

[rucraig]

Great advice thanks

 

[gsxr]

The company has to remove the reflectors from the housing, in order to plate/silver them, correct?

 

[500AMM]

The company has to remove the reflectors from the housing, in order to plate/silver them, correct?

Yes, reflectors will be removed anyway per their website - either they are dipped in a full nickel/chrome process, or resilvered & polished.