MTFCA Forum

Does anyone know who restores brass side and tail lights. These are two tier made by the 'Indiana Lamp Co, Connersvile, Ind'. While I have a 1915 Model T Runabout, these lamps are off my being restored 1911 IHC J-30.

Here's two suggestions;

Britten Brass Works, in Michigan. His work is absolutely stunning, but expensive.

Classic Autopart Reproduction Service in N. Calif. I've never used his services myself, but heard good reports. You can google both to get contact information or to talk with them personally.

John Goedeken, in Iowa does very nice brass lamp restoration.

Same posting on the AACA Forum. I responded there, but recommend you restore them yourself. I added the video of brass sidelamp restoration that was dome for Model Ts some time ago, and these Indiana lamps are not much different. I'm still wondering if they are part steel/brass or all brass. From the pics it looks like they could be that type, which might make restoration a bit easier. It's not too hard to do them. Disassembly for plating the reflectors is pretty simple. Reassembly can be tricky but all the glass looks good, so I'd say make it a project.
Terry

Hello. Thank you all for your replies. Adam, do you have a contact address, phone number or email for John Goedeken? I don't think I have the skill, nor time even though I am retired, to do the restorations myself. The car has a long way to go and I do have some E & J's but it would be nice to put the original lamps back on the car some day.

Your lamps don’t look too bad, just a good polish and they will look 100% better. I bought a couple at Bakersfield and each took about six hours to get looking good, so if you pay it will be expensive.
This was the lamp when I started
And after

I know this is irrelevant but its a good brass headlamp story anyway.
About a quarter of a century ago a friend bought an Edwardian Daimler, that had Royal Family history attached.
It may have been when it was transported to Australia, or at another time, the car was partially dismantled for transit. During this time a truck ran over and completely flattened a box containing one of the (irreplaceable) brass headlamps. To all intents and purposes it was completely destroyed, the brass was ripped and creased and all the lenses destroyed. But another mate of mine, said he'd have a go at repairing it. After all, he did have a perfect one to model it from. It took him several months, but in the end he'd managed to get all of the brass repaired and in show condition. I saw it then and couldn't find any trace of the creases, tears and other damage I knew it once had. That left the owner with the task of finding (or having made) replacement lenses and reflectors. I never did hear if he did find them and he has now passed away.
I admire men with skills like that and I'm proud to call him a friend of mine.
Cheers,
Rob

If you are not confident with your ability to restore old brass lamps, I suggest you take them to a COMPETENT radiator repair shop. They will undoubtedly have the necessary skills to dismantle the lamp(s). You may then repair the individual components, before returning them to the shop for re-assembly. Polishing re-assembled lamps is relatively simple and straight-forward, although time consuming.

By the looks of those lamps they just need a good clean up and polishing. They look to be in really good shape from the pics. But maybe there is something that can’t be seen from just a pic.

Thank you again to all who responded. The lamps are actually quite brittle, they were on the car in a barn from 1921 to 1991 with wide swings in heat and humidity, and have some serious cracks. The headlights were in much better condition and I did get them restored. I have a long way to go on the car and need to start saving for the eventual need of paint, a top and upholstery so the lamps may have to wait. I do have appropriate E & J's and IHC used E & J's also. The IHC J-30 was a 40th birthday gift from my wife. A true barn find. I was supposed to have finished the restoration by my 60th birthday. I'm now 67 so maybe by my 70th? My attention now must be on my 1915 T Runabout for an upcoming tour. I have only driven the T in town and now looking at putting many miles on it. A new adventure.

Glad you provided a bit more information. If your lamps suffer from "serious cracks" as you state, then I'm afraid there isn't much you can do to them. Some cracks can be silver soldered and then buffed to blend the repairs in a bit, but they will soon crack some more. The only thing that can be done is to make new parts and that's probably where a professional restoration would be your best (and perhaps only) option. My recommendation is to find another pair - Indiana lamps are not that difficult to find, and I've even seen the IHC script on top at Hershey. If your tops are decent though, they could always be swapped onto a pair of plain non IHC lamps.
Terry