What is the finish of the tail light housings on a 68?
The reflectors inside of my housings are a dull chrome/aluminized plating. Was the entire housing finished this way?
After stripping the exterior of the housing of paint and other crud with paint stripper, I was left with a dull, bare metal surface. The interior reflector finish was unaffected by the stripper.
I think the outside is just the bare metal finish. I used some reflective aluminum tape on the insides of the housings and 2357 bulbs for a brighter appearance. Polished the lenses as well, seems to have improved visibility a bit.
That's what I am hoping. Mine have a dull, bare metal finish on the outside. But, I am wondering if the inside is a plating process. My thoughts are that when a part is plated, the entire part is usually dipped. If that's the case, the entire housing would have been a dull chrome plating.
I thought maybe the environment could have removed this plating. Plating is usually pretty robust, so I'm not sure if this is the case. The inside seems to be a plating because the paint stripper had no effect on it. Maybe there was a process to plate the inside only.
Upon inspecting the cleaned and dry housings, I can see remnants of the plating on the exterior lip, and some of it on the main body of the housing. Most of it is on the bottom where it would have been more protected. There is especially a good amount on the surfaces of the mounting tabs that were against the sheetmetal openings)
I tried to take pictures, but no matter how I tried to change the lighting and camera settings, it was hard to tell where the plating remnants were.
I'm beginning to think the whole housing had this dull chrome plating, inside and out.
Can anybody look at their housings and tell what you find?
All the ones that I have seen that were supposedly "correct" as per a concours level resto were painted with an aluminum type paint/finish that has a weird satin look to it. I've seen a pair that a guy did with the product called "Aluma-blast", it's a restoration type product that I think Eastwood sells...
I glass bead blasted mine all over and then spray the inside with some "chrome" spray bomb. Used fine plastic polish on the lenses and the lights were nice and bright. Barry
They were given an alodine treatment and silver paint on the inside. Alodine looks silverish gold when new, but becomes dull silver over time from oxidation.
I don't have a short answer to that, but basically I went in to full honey-do mode to work down a four year back log and then we moved. And then there's a lot going on at work. I'm hoping to find more time here now that things are slowing a bit.
Awesome.....wish I had more time to drive it, but did get away on 2 overnite trips of about 400 miles each, plus lots of evening cruisin. Sure would like to move as well and get my guys garage and hoist tho!
