Tail light restoration

[mojarra2929]

Any recommendation to restore my tail light housing?

Housing back cover finish is galvanized. Any special primer for galvanized steel?

What about tail light housing reflector interior paint?



Thanks

Miguel

[redridge]

Originally Posted by mojarra2929

Any recommendation to restore my tail light housing?

Housing back cover finish is galvanized. Any special primer for galvanized steel?

What about tail light housing reflector interior paint?



Thanks

Miguel

check this guy out... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4TOAuZaGfI

[GH85Carrera]

There are options.

One is to try the long process in the video above if total originality is your goal.

There is no paint or spray-on way to get the reflective finish. That is an aluminum vapor done in a vacuum chamber. There are companies that can "chrome" the plastic but I have no ideas on who or how much.

My tail lights on my 85 were in decent shape and not really bad, but the reflective finish was not very reflective, and the tail lights and more importantly, the brake lights were dim.

One of the guys on Pelican sells a great upgrade. It is a LED board that replaces the old bulbs. It is just a flat board, with an array of bulbs that makes for a wonderful improvement for the driving lights, and most important the brake light are BRIGHT. On a recent group drive through the wonderful roads in Eureka Springs area one of the other guys there in a SC even came and asked me about my brake lights because he could see how much brighter than normal mine were.

The LED boards are not a cheap fix, but there are a great upgrade, and the reflective coating is just irrelevant as the LED point to the rear. He has a rectifier he also sells that keeps the cruise control working if that is important to you. It was to me, so I bought that as well. I love my cruise control on highways. Never need it on the curvy roads, but for long road trips it is great.

Here is a thread about his tail lights.

LED Brake Lights

[machete]

I had the same problem with mine. Restoring the rear lights was going to cost half or more the price of new ones. I already had the led bulbs, so I bought new rear lights and add leds all around. Look for superbrightled or The retrofit source for the led lights.

[Dpmulvan]

Chrome powder coat or silver duct tape, the stuff used on ductwork and furnace connections makes a good reflector.

[spoke]

This is a Triumph TR6 rear light assembly that the owner lined the reflectors with chrome tape (Air duct tape?). Looks pretty good from here.

[group911@aol.co]

Those are Euro spec lights so most of the interior is supposed to be white which is easy. The rear cover can be galvanized but I don't think the housing can be plated the same as it's a different metal.
I think I'd consider powder coating the housing just to have a good coating.
Also, for the inside on US housings, they make some really good chrome spray paint right from the can. I did some H1's with it and was surprised.

Originally Posted by mojarra2929

Any recommendation to restore my tail light housing?

Housing back cover finish is galvanized. Any special primer for galvanized steel?

What about tail light housing reflector interior paint?



Thanks

Miguel

[Liam O]

Im doing this at the moment for the second time.

The first time being 14 years ago and on that occasion I used chrome spray paint.

Its still holding up.

As for the zinc dipped covers Ive painted them with a couple of coats of Galvafroid.

[Mr. Merk]

From Daniel Stern:

clean the reflector bowls behind the bulbs with alcohol, then paint them
with "Ceiling White" paint (specifically! Not just any old white paint;
go to a paint store and get Ceiling White), which is practically ideal
for the task. Second preference would be "chrome" spray paint.

Then the exterior signal lamps can safely be made 45% brighter with
special high-efficiency bulbs available (only) through the Honda parts
system.

The single-filament variety with a single contact in the centre of the
bottom of the bulb's base (rear turn signal, reversing lamp) is
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFP9P4O/?tag=2402507-20 .

The dual-filament variety with two contacts side-by-side on the bottom
of the bulb's base (brake/tail and park/turn) is
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFDIN0K/?tag=2402507-20 .

I used the "chrome" type paint when restoring the tail lamps in our '64 Plymouth. Now they are far brighter than my 2005 GMC. I'll try the ceiling paint when I get around to installing the lightweight plastic tail lamps in my 911.

[Mr. Merk]

Originally Posted by machete

I Look for superbrightled or The retrofit source for the led lights.

Those are not good sources for LEDs that work well in our lamps. They are often bright on their own but don't effectively light up the entire tail lamp. Here is how to determine if they will work well. Philips used to offer a legit LED but they have since discontinued that line of LEDs and replaced it with something inferior.

The +45% Honda bulbs (made by Stanley) linked above work great in our lamps and are currently the best option available.

[skinnerd]

A better source for LED brake light "arrays."

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/854989-led-brake-lights.html