Post by Miguel Parot on Nov 23, 2014 13:20:02 GMT -8
As foglights are a unique and essential part of a T34, I was not too happy with mine.
They were working, i.e. they would come when switched, but they would not light much...
So, I decided to have a look, and this is what I found :
A previous owner had sprayed the buckets (bowls ?) with silver grey paint.
I thought perhaps the original chrome would still be there, or part of it, underneath, so I took the paint off with a solvent.
And this is what I found :
No chrome at all left ! the buckets have been badly sand papered, what is left is just metal and rust...
So, now ... ?
Find NOS cups ? : definitely very hard, and - probably - very costly.
So I went for a re-chroming solution. A small business not far from home is just sepcializing in re-chroming bike and car parts.
I showed my buckets and they said it was OK, they would do it. The proper way : first polish the parts, then a first layer of copper, a second layer of nickel, and finally, a third layer : chrome. Here is the result :
This has costed me 130 Euros, = 170 US$. All automobile professionals that I have discussed the issue with tell me there is nothing wrong with the price, given the brillant result.
The "new", 51 years old, buckets will be back on the car in a few hours.
Good on me as we have heavy fog all winter long, the Saône river is known for that. Sometimes the fog does not even disappear during the whole day...
Last winter we had 5 days of fog in a row, a very depressing experience !
They were working, i.e. they would come when switched, but they would not light much...
So, I decided to have a look, and this is what I found :
A previous owner had sprayed the buckets (bowls ?) with silver grey paint.
I thought perhaps the original chrome would still be there, or part of it, underneath, so I took the paint off with a solvent.
And this is what I found :
No chrome at all left ! the buckets have been badly sand papered, what is left is just metal and rust...
So, now ... ?
Find NOS cups ? : definitely very hard, and - probably - very costly.
So I went for a re-chroming solution. A small business not far from home is just sepcializing in re-chroming bike and car parts.
I showed my buckets and they said it was OK, they would do it. The proper way : first polish the parts, then a first layer of copper, a second layer of nickel, and finally, a third layer : chrome. Here is the result :
This has costed me 130 Euros, = 170 US$. All automobile professionals that I have discussed the issue with tell me there is nothing wrong with the price, given the brillant result.
The "new", 51 years old, buckets will be back on the car in a few hours.
Good on me as we have heavy fog all winter long, the Saône river is known for that. Sometimes the fog does not even disappear during the whole day...
Last winter we had 5 days of fog in a row, a very depressing experience !