P80 headlights Possible to Remove Headlight Reflector, rechroming discussion 8628402 8628403

[abscate]

TYC new

Dull

Taped

Hunan eyes are bad quantitative detectors of light, and it’s easy to screw up using a camera. I’m not sure how the iPhone averages so that’s an obvious source of error

It is clear that tape improves the collection of the light, but honestly if I hAve crappy lights I’m buying two Tyc lights at $95 each to solve they problem.

[FireFox31]

Interesting results. How did you power the lights in your house? Or are you stashing Nautic Blues indoors now too?

[matthew1]

Or are you stashing Nautic Blues indoors now too?

You should have seen what Abscate had to do to get those lights aimed at the dining room.

[Atis]

I just did the refurbishment some weeks ago (ok... a company did it for me).
So I just had to remove the headlight and take out the reflectors. It was pretty straight forward. You just have to take out the headlight assemblies, and then taking out the reflectors. You just have to be careful not to brake any plastic clips. There is a clip in one of the corners, visible from the front, a rubber tube at the middle and an another clip at the middle which you can reach from the back side. Everything had to be removed from the reflector (bulb, bulb holder wire spring, etc) and a local company removed the original "silver" layer, vaporized a new one and put a protective varnish on top. The 2 reflectors cost me ca. 50usd.
The result is amazing. Really like a brand new. Obviously I do not know how long it will last, the company states they are using the same technology as the headlight manufacturers. It is done in a vacuum chamber, but based on the price it does not look like something which is done only by one company in the world.
(It was funny, that the guy just looked on the reflectors in wrapped bubble foil and asked right away whether it is a Volvo... looks like this was not first Volvo reflector they did )
(link: https://gtreflect.hu/ unfortunately it is only hungarian...)

[abscate]

I’m taking donations to take 10 headlights over the Budapest for a week...

[850oldschool]

This could be a lead in the US:

https://www.vacuumorna-metal.com/content/restoration

[abscate]

This could be a lead in the US:

https://www.vacuumorna-metal.com/content/restoration

In Romulus MI right next to DTW

Target price per headlight reflector should be of order $10 per, probably reachable in a 10 piece bulk order. $50 isn’t competitive with TYC when you realize you get two bulbs , too

[Atis]

I’m taking donations to take 10 headlights over the Budapest for a week...

LOL!

If you may come to Hungary, you should take some Graflex lens and accessories with you as well (I have a pretty long list of those)...

[FireFox31]

Thanks for finding and sharing info about vacuum metalization. That seems like the procedure we need to properly coat our reflectors. I think it's a good idea to preserve original Volvo parts instead of buying aftermarket, so I'm interested in this project. Restoration may cost more than buying a new aftermarket set, but it may be worth it to keep the original beam patterns and build quality of the Volvo parts.

Who is interested in getting their headlight reflectors coated?

[abscate]

I’ll count up my Spares this week and report. I have at least 6 reflectors ( 3 sets )