Early Brass Headlights, how do you remove the reflector

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JTT3
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First Name: John
Last Name: Tannehill
Location: Hot Coffee, MS
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Early Brass Headlights, how do you remove the reflector

Post by JTT3 » Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:43 pm

Forum for those that have experience or good ideas, I am trying to restore a pair of 366 headlamps. My dilemma is in the early headlights the reflectors appear to be floated in solder around the edge & the early reflectors were encased at the edges with a metal ring. In this case the reflectors are in good shape structurally, one needs to be re-silvered the other is very decent. What I’m trying to achieve is their removal without cracking them. My first thought was to use a heat sink to keep the glass from cracking but I’m not sure that will work since a lot of heat will need to be applied around the outside of the lamp to melt the solder. I don’t want to crack them! Any experience or ideas will be greatly appreciated. Best regards, John

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Topic author
JTT3
Posts: 1348
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:57 am
First Name: John
Last Name: Tannehill
Location: Hot Coffee, MS
MTFCA Number: 49460

Re: Early Brass Headlights, how do you remove the reflector

Post by JTT3 » Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:52 pm

Anyone have any ideas?


Drkbp
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* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1914, 1925
Location: Houston, Texas

Re: Early Brass Headlights, how do you remove the reflector

Post by Drkbp » Thu Apr 29, 2021 11:25 pm

It sounds like you have a mirror mounted in a steel ring like some Victor acetylene lamps.
They may have been soldered in. I do have some of those reflectors but they are made to
be held by small screws and nuts.
Could you take a picture and I may be able to see if they are the same.
If so, I have pictures of the front and metal straps on the back.
They are different than the heavy glass Mangins.

Ken

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