I have gone through the travails of restoring a pair of 1955 Lucas SLR 576's,
and thank those of you who responded earlier during the process. We were able
to get through it and are down to the wire (literally)
The big trick is getting the glass and reflectors to separate. I followed a
lister's suggestion of boiling them, which succeeded on the third effort. You
have to get the water to go down into the paper thin gap between glass and
rust/glue on the reflector. If you clean around with an exacto, and then
reimmerse the units into the boiling water a few times, it eventually works
free.
I had the reflectors re-silvered using an electroplater who works in all
finishes (Sabin Metal Refinishing in Hillsdale, NY, who does top end work, and
got them back in a week as he is doing the whole car).
There is a thin laquer coating on both sides of the reflector. The rears of
all the ones I've seen runs from light honey to deep amber. I was surprised to
learn that the same coating, albeit thinner, is on the reflector side. I
didn't notice until we got through boiling the reflectors, and the heat turned
the concave side as dark as the backs. In disassembling one, it was apparent
that the plating was originally applied to just the reflective side, and that
the backs must have been coated bare steel with a coat of the laquer to act as
a plating resist medium. We decided it was less labor intensive and cheaper to
silver both sides, and probably a better weather protectant, as the corrosion
which sets up is at the very edge of the metal, where it meets the glass, a
predictable result if you are entrusting the weather proofing to a coating of
laquer. I believe the laquer may also have been used as the 'glue' to seal the
reflector to the glass, as there heavy deposits of laquer in the seam on one
(the other had a silver colored 'dope'). I intend to reassemble with a
heat-resistant silicone, which has better bedding properties and will make it
easier for the next sucker to go through this in 20 years.
Also, I've fabricated a pair of adjustable brackets that mount to the inside
bolts of the bumpers and support the lights through the apron. The brackets
were Cad-plated, and have adjustments in all three directions to allow
micro-alignment of the apron, bumper and cowl. The lights fit through 5/8"
i.d. by 1/4" thick grommets in the cowl, and have a bedding of rubber between
the apron and the brackets so that there is no direct contact between the
light mounts and the aluminum. To my taste, the lights look great mounted
directly on the apron vs a light bar, particularly on a 100 because of the
grille configuration. I made a lateral adjusting piece that locks down with a
1/2" threaded post and lock nuts so that you can get the precise same offset
from the bumper brackets on each side. The whole shot was cad-plated for
weather resistance. If anyone would like information on either the lights or
the mounting brackets, please contact off-list.
Allen Miller
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