Recommendation for a place to refinish light bowls

[Otter74]

This is for my Saab, not my 911, hence OT. I have an '85 SPG With E-code headlamps (it came that way new - it was a Canadian car). last summer I hit a deer on a rally and got it back from getting fixed about a month ago. The headlamps were destroyed, and they've been NLA for forever. I lucked into finding one lamp, and I had a spare for the other side since I had replaced it a few years ago with one with better plating (I got that one from France.) Now the car is good again, but the plating on both bowls is terrible and the headlights suck.

Bowls were originally vacuum metallized, and I thought that since I live in Chicago I ought to maybe be able to find someone local who could do it, but anyone I call only works with businesses - they can't do onesies.

Can anyone suggest a business in the US that they know of that can replate a pair of headlamp bowls for me?

I'm open to good-enough DIY fixes (really, anything is better than the flaked-off plating they have now) involving paint, but I'd rather do it right if it's not stupid expensive. There is a Saab guy that gets this done but he's in England.

[masraum]

Maybe Shaun will know or have a contact.

[LWJ]

I used to work for a company that did large volume anodizing. And, I purchased lots of different plating for parts.

If you can determine the process name for "vacuum metallized" I suspect you could find a shop that does this.

I think you are referring to that silver reflective coating?

I am absolutely uninformed about this process but a search for "vacuum metalizing near me" turned up a number of locations!

My parting thought is this. When I worked at the anodizing shop, we had lots of people wanting to redo old parts. This was always problematic as there were impurities, dirt, and god knows what all on the aluminum. All of the contamination made for far less control on the outcome.

Good luck!

[Otter74]

@LWJ Yes, I'm referring to the silver reflective coating. I did do just such a search and found at least two places in my area that appear to do that kind of work, but both told me when I called that they only did volume work with businesses. Prep isn't an issue, as I'm confident in my ability to remove everything that's still on the bowls well enough for a professional to prep it for coating. I know there are businesses that do this, and I even know of one in England that could do the job, but I don't think I need to ship anything overseas.

[Otter74]

Update: yesterday I found, through a ten-year-old thread on a Saab forum, a place in MA that did this kind of work then. I wrote them and got a message back this morning from the place that that place sends their automotive work to. It's Instrument Specialties, Inc. in North Kingston, RI. $250 each, oof! But they can do it.

[LWJ]

Nicely done!!!

[GH85Carrera]

Wow, that is expensive, but rather specialized equipment for doing small jobs like yours.

Good luck.

[herr_oberst]

I can see why you'd want to keep those, but holy hannah, thats a premium priced process.

Good for you for keeping the SAAB original.

My anecdote; I found a pair of Cibie foglights from the early '80's late '90's at the local swap meet. $1 for the pair. Overall, the condition was good to very good, except that the reflection chrome inside the lens had disintegrated (as had yours.). I thought about trying to achieve a result on the cheap, but I really like the shape of these aux lights and they look just right and period correct on the car. They deserved to look 'right'. A few sessions on ebay and I found two original lenses, NOS, for about 85 bucks. I'm so glad I did it; the fogs look great for about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of a decent set of similar fogs of the same vintage.

[2.7RS]

http://www.audettecollection.com/

How about him?

He sells trades list post here.

Worth asking

[Otter74]

For reference, this is what they look like now. Much of the plating has completely flaked off, particularly on the RHS lamp. The E-code lights look terrific, suck less than sealed beams, have wipers and washers, and I never considered converting to US lights.

[Otter74]

I’m going to check what it would cost to get them from the guy in England - may be cheaper! And in the end aluminum HVAC tape may be good enough, and would cost me like $10 and a couple of hours, LOL

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I can see why you'd want to keep those, but holy hannah, thats a premium priced process.

Good for you for keeping the SAAB original.

My anecdote; I found a pair of Cibie foglights from the early '80's late '90's at the local swap meet. $1 for the pair. Overall, the condition was good to very good, except that the reflection chrome inside the lens had disintegrated (as had yours.). I thought about trying to achieve a result on the cheap, but I really like the shape of these aux lights and they look just right and period correct on the car. They deserved to look 'right'. A few sessions on ebay and I found two original lenses, NOS, for about 85 bucks. I'm so glad I did it; the fogs look great for about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of a decent set of similar fogs of the same vintage.

[Steve Carlton]

First brand new car I bought was a black 3D 900 turbo. I still miss that car. The SPGs are cool!

Is the glass on your driver's side headlight broken? What are the chances of finding OEM replacements on eBay or a SAAB forum or somewhere?

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Otter74

I’m going to check what it would cost to get them from the guy in England - may be cheaper! And in the end aluminum HVAC tape may be good enough, and would cost me like $10 and a couple of hours, LOL

I tried that on the tail lights for my 911. The reflective coating was just eaten up.

The chrome tape helped, but is a poor to pitiful reflective finish in reality. I ended up just using the LED boards for tail light from Spoke here in Pelican. They are a board that is an array of LED bulbs that are BRIGHT, and make my brake lights much easier to see, and I like that.

[Otter74]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

First brand new car I bought was a black 3D 900 turbo. I still miss that car. The SPGs are cool!

Is the glass on your driver's side headlight broken? What are the chances of finding OEM replacements on eBay or a SAAB forum or somewhere?

It’s not broken, but there’s a small hole due to something hitting it. I found a good LHS lamp from a guy in France in 2018 or 2019 and bought it, replacing the one you see. That’s one of the pair that was destroyed when I hit a deer last summer. I’m glad as hell that I had the spare, because I found a RHS lamp after a couple of months but not a LHS lamp. I have the lamp apart now and I’m going to fill the damage - I’m taking suggestions for this, as I haven’t done it before. Finding a replacement takes time, luck and maybe trolling European Saab people.

To my surprise, the guy in England can get both bowls done for 250GBP, which is a lot cheaper than 500USD for the place in Rhode Island. Old England beats New England!

[Steve Carlton]

Glad to hear you don't have the glass with the hole in it. How much is 250GBP with shipping to England and back? Can't be bad vs buying others in as good a shape as yours will be if refinished.

[Otter74]

Oh, I wasn’t clear enough - the lens with the hole in it is what’s in the car now. I replaced the assembly with a better one (good plating, good lens) years ago, and it got destroyed in the collision last summer. So this one went back on because I couldn’t find a replacement assembly. 250GBP is about $310 right now. The guy who has them done is well-regarded (he doesn’t do them himself) and they’re basically as new, better than the one on eBay now (though if it were a pair on eBay I would have bought them already)

I was going to sell this car last year, but then I hit the deer and that got put on the shelf while I got it fixed - the local Saab place recommended a shop but I had to find the parts myself, which took me 3 or 4 months. I swore when I bought this car that it would be catch-and-release because there’s always something else I’d like to experience, but I like this car so much that I kept not selling it. Still, I want a BMW Bavaria (a local guy I know gave me first dibs on his really nice one and I ended up passing because I need to eventually sell the Saab to pay for it and I didn’t know what my net cost would be - something I kinda now regret) or an E12, maybe even an E30 (I like 80s tech for maintenance and reliability) or a Citroen DS or CX or a Peugeot, etc. etc.

This has also been a great car because of my experiences with it - I flew out to Vancouver and drove it home to Chicago via the Olympic Peninsula, Portland, the Great Salt Lake (I wanted to see Spiral Jetty), and Denver. Embedded history is a lot of value for me - this is why I still have my Fiat and my SE-R.

[Otter74]

Thanks to whoever suggested John Audette - he can get them done. Same cost as the place in Mass, but if Im’ going to spend that much (I’m still looking for some place local), I’d rather give him the business.