Headlight Reflector

Cosi said:
Hey Tom

Any old foil will do if your in strife but I’ve found that the best brand of foil was Comalco, made in Australia and I tend to sway towards either Sika or fullers spray adhesive

The key is to make sure you put the shiniest side out, this is probably the most important part of the process, the rest is pretty easy, obviously make sure the surface is clean dry and free of any contaminants. Pre cut a piece of practice foils, for a trial run, don’t worry if you fuck this one up , you can save the damaged practice pieces for jacket spuds later on. Oh one thing I forgot to mention, it’s best to remove the bulb and the reflector from the headlight bucket, I know this seems obvious bleedingly obvious but some people try to take this short cut
So you have your test piece cut for a practice run, bulb is out reflector is on the bench, you need to make a reflector jig, I made mine out of some timber to suit the diameter of the reflector, this a important part as the next part of the process requires the reflector to sit flat, I liken it to a egg in a eggcup setup. Get your practice piece/ pieces of foil and lay it in the reflector. Now this is my trade secret of how to get the foil nice and flat and even in the bowl, it sounds unconventional but I found that the best thing to use is a tennis ball, not one that you’ve been throwing for the dog or one that’s been belted around the Avalon tennis courts, fresh new out of the tin, I prefer to use technifibre or babalot brands myself but a Wilson Spaulding or Dunlop will do the job. Take a fresh ball, heat it to about 45 degrees Celsius and you want to gently knead the foil from inside to outer with the tennis ball to gently shape the foil to sit in the concave shape of the reflector, get it as close to perfect as you can, don’t worry if there is some fine crinkles in the foil, these will roll out with the adhesive, the key here is to get it as close to the finished product as possible, once you have achieved this it’s time to break out the spray,

Spray liberally but evenly, take your pre shaped foil and place on reflector, repeat the kneading process with the tennis ball working from the inside to the our edge, allow to dry normally about 30 minutes in the sun and finally trim up any excess and you should have a as good if not better than new reflector.

I have used this process many times, most of the qld guys have been running lights with this process for the last 10 years or so, it’s proven and it works, im sure there will be testimonials to follow from many happy punters.

I have also been working on different coulours and shapes to enhance the light refraction and to add a little custom style bling to customise the output, this is still a work in progress, so stay tuned

If you need any more advice, drop me a line

C
Click to expand...
Thank Christ someone is taking this seriously!
Excellent step by step description Mr C.

I have two of those reflectors in stock, one NOS and one that I had chromed...
What a total waste of time and money that was:rolleyes:

Would be very keen on some unconventional colour shades, yeah that would be well cool.

Well done Cosi
Outstanding!
 
Should I mention you could have saved some money and time getting that chroming done with a thread like this? Hope it informs anyone about this issue. I didn't know silvering wasn't equivalent to chroming or even close to it, I always wondered why cheap non-tripal plating Chrome rusted easily and was porous and allowed rust to form, thanks for that John. Even Cosis Shtick added to I guess my knowledge base. I haven't shelved what I am doing with whatever I have re reflector, I just haven't made up my mind. But I am going to do a La Clear while I am in there. I need to change my mid-fairing mount so the lower fairing legs are allowed to become more horizontal and improve the look and at the same time improve the fitting of rubber grommets on the fairing mounts to reduce vibrations and improve the way my mirrors work plus I hope to improve aerodynamics and at least reduce helmet buffeting with more room under the faring screen when I Follow truck at speed and this is a long shot reduce the dead flys on my helmet visor. That will be interesting if it happens. Plus I need 3mm of weld to be added to my lock stops so my handlebars stop hitting the instruments. All on the list and hopefully done before The Snowy Ride. I just like to hopefully improve the bike's performance as much as I can while fixing my dead headlight.
 
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Cosi said:
Hey Tom

Any old foil will do if your in strife but I’ve found that the best brand of foil was Comalco, made in Australia and I tend to sway towards either Sika or fullers spray adhesive

The key is to make sure you put the shiniest side out, this is probably the most important part of the process, the rest is pretty easy, obviously make sure the surface is clean dry and free of any contaminants. Pre cut a piece of practice foils, for a trial run, don’t worry if you fuck this one up , you can save the damaged practice pieces for jacket spuds later on. Oh one thing I forgot to mention, it’s best to remove the bulb and the reflector from the headlight bucket, I know this seems obvious bleedingly obvious but some people try to take this short cut
So you have your test piece cut for a practice run, bulb is out reflector is on the bench, you need to make a reflector jig, I made mine out of some timber to suit the diameter of the reflector, this a important part as the next part of the process requires the reflector to sit flat, I liken it to a egg in a eggcup setup. Get your practice piece/ pieces of foil and lay it in the reflector. Now this is my trade secret of how to get the foil nice and flat and even in the bowl, it sounds unconventional but I found that the best thing to use is a tennis ball, not one that you’ve been throwing for the dog or one that’s been belted around the Avalon tennis courts, fresh new out of the tin, I prefer to use technifibre or babalot brands myself but a Wilson Spaulding or Dunlop will do the job. Take a fresh ball, heat it to about 45 degrees Celsius and you want to gently knead the foil from inside to outer with the tennis ball to gently shape the foil to sit in the concave shape of the reflector, get it as close to perfect as you can, don’t worry if there is some fine crinkles in the foil, these will roll out with the adhesive, the key here is to get it as close to the finished product as possible, once you have achieved this it’s time to break out the spray,

Spray liberally but evenly, take your pre shaped foil and place on reflector, repeat the kneading process with the tennis ball working from the inside to the our edge, allow to dry normally about 30 minutes in the sun and finally trim up any excess and you should have a as good if not better than new reflector.

I have used this process many times, most of the qld guys have been running lights with this process for the last 10 years or so, it’s proven and it works, im sure there will be testimonials to follow from many happy punters.

I have also been working on different coulours and shapes to enhance the light refraction and to add a little custom style bling to customise the output, this is still a work in progress, so stay tuned

If you need any more advice, drop me a line

C
Click to expand...
Of course, by far the best Comalco product was made at Tiwai Point in New Zealand, so that will give the best results. Still AU bauxite though.
A tennis ball is good, but you can also use a rams testicle, as long as you’ve disconnected it from the ram, or at least discussed the process first.
Oh and don’t use the foil failures for spuds if you’ve already applied the glue, a rookie mistake that everyone makes the first time.
Cheers!
 
Sorry to jump in on this one at such a late time in the conversation..A sealed beam is not what you have sir Vince I can assure you of that as if it was it wouldn’t have a bulb in it now would it as they have a filament.

VInce seem to remember but maybe I am wrong as my memory has been affected over the years by a number of brain cells being wiped out by the consumption of alcohol to name just one of the many substances that over he decades may have taken their toll..

However it was my recollection that you needed the rubber seal at one time.. … anywho it is rather a simple process to remove the glass and the polish the reflector with a soft cloth and then reattached the glass… stay away from silastic or sikaflex as you need butyl mastic as it will flex..

John GASH hmm seem to remember it meant something different but again like I say my memory is not that of what it would used to have been … hmm

Back in the day I too have used Cosi’s technique back in the day with various levels of success but … since have wrapped the chain guard on the 1200 and no one picked it am thinking that wrapping the reflector may well be a better and more modern solution to the foil as the wrap comes with an adhesive of sorts … hell its been on the chain guard now since the bike went back on the road so hmm that might be the way to go moving forward.. not particularly worried about the heat affecting the adhesion or long term affects as these days tend to run LED globes or bulbs for those in other parts of the world who may or may not call guards wings or such.
Also worth noting is that with the wrap as apposed to the foil its a tad easier to work with if you are careful with a heat gun as it does make it a bit more pliable and as such will make it less effort in getting it to follow the contour of the light… something which was a PITA with foil especially if the contact started to cure before job was done…guess the secret to success as with any form of adhering something to another surface, as even in painting, the detail is actually in the preparation. From memory we used acetone .. but guess that a good qualitry alcohol might also be useful for this purpose ..

The other problem or elephant in the room if you like is that with the alfoil technique you then need to be careful of not using too high an output globe as if it is too powerful the extra refractions of light of which the Alfoil tends to produce actually has a negative effect at night esp in the wet as the intensitity of the extra light tends to reflect back of the road advisory signs which are yellow and then this reflections bounces back onto the water droplets which have accumulated onto the visor and then causes refractions of the the light which basically then makes it near on impossible to see where the hell one is going… therefore its advisable that once the said reflector is treated with the alfoil technique, note have not tried the wrapping so that is something of which cannot comment on the affects, that the headlight aim is carefully checked and adjusted and would suggest that perhaps on the slightly lower side of drop that would be what would be considered the norm… if that makes sense at all.

Foot note the reflector in the drummer still seems OK a week on from when the headlight was half full of water .. hmm those who were present at that particular point in time will know what am talking about here .. and believe it or not the lights still work even the Parker but the same cannot be said for the Voxbells … hmm they are seeming to become somewhere of a commodity these days much like spark plugs..
but there has been some folk working on a plan of fitting mini horns inside the Voxbell shell and keeping the original look .. so that could well be a project for a wet weekend if one has the time.. but me well have been on the blue submarine today playing with some Guzzi’s……..I mean it was already dirty.. sorry I digressed …

Now I do hope that I do not get into any dam trouble by posting a link but there is where I got my wrap from nice sellers prompt postage and yep just like the foil you can actually get different tinges so am thinking of a blueish or maybe an orange hue on it.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/152972491941

and in keeping with proper protocol I did check and was assured that it was not made in the land of where the great wall was..
 
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It's definitely got a bulb so it's semi seal or a separate reflector and separate glass. My fuzzy memory is the first and I added that rubber gasket over the sealed glass and glued reflector and now from Piet that's something I shouldn't have done. When I can swim across my yard I will pull it down and maybe take some pics. I need to replace the tacho backlight rubber bulb holders and bulbs as well. Std so I remember is 3watts, I think I have all the bits including soldered and shrinkwrap connectors plus 4watt bulbs. Even with the speedo backlights working I couldn't read the speed heading home with no headlight, maybe using 4watt will fix that, or maybe bifocals.
 
LED could be your friend here Vince as just quietly OEM was 3.4w but are they all working … but man we are in 2022 so Led all the way for me these days just quietly

Now if you look hard at the blue Tritone class‘s A7C72611-DCE5-44C6-82F8-1B82911E4DB5.jpegDED8F9CE-F852-4723-BFEB-E1CF30CFA21B.jpeg headlight reflector you will see the water still in it … funny thing that but as a testament to the pureness of the water in the Kalang river there is no tide mark in it one week later…….hmm same couldn’t be said for the prince of darkness indicator it still had some water in it but all good nice and dry there too now…but having said that they also still actually worked so that is amazing for Lucas huh … sorry was just reflecting on that if it at all makes sense
 
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K, LED it is. They make a parallel pin LED the same as a 4watt incandesce. I am happy you said feet down for the crossing. Swimming isn't my first choice, neither is a wet sleeping bag.
 
Vince said:
It's definitely got a bulb so it's semi seal or a separate reflector and separate glass. My fuzzy memory is the first and I added that rubber gasket over the sealed glass and glued reflector and now from Piet that's something I shouldn't have done. When I can swim across my yard I will pull it down and maybe take some pics. I need to replace the tacho backlight rubber bulb holders and bulbs as well. Std so I remember is 3watts, I think I have all the bits including soldered and shrinkwrap connectors plus 4watt bulbs. Even with the speedo backlights working I couldn't read the speed heading home with no headlight, maybe using 4watt will fix that, or maybe bifocals.
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4W bulbs will eventually burn/melt the bulb holders and possibly the instrument dials, they just get too damn hot. Stock fitment was 3.4W, a small but deciding difference. Hard to find, so swap to LEDs, at least for the idiot indicator lights. LEDs may not work well for clock illumination, their lens throw light straight out the front instead of diffusing evenly around 360°.

piet
 
Thanks, Piet, as usual saving me possible damage, nothings simple. I don't do much night riding and only use my lights in bad weather in the day time, sadly plenty of that lately with the 3rd La BLA BLA wet event happening this year. We have a month's rain forecast this weekend smashing The Bathurst car race right now. 200,000 people camping on that mountain in that rain, reminds me of our recent camping.
 
2622 said:
From memory we used acetone .. but guess that a good qualitry alcohol might also be useful for this purpose ..
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I presume by "good quality alcohol" you mean a single malt Tasmanian whisky.

BTW, pure water is not electrically conductive, so won't short out electrical stuff. It's only when it has impurities in it that it becomes conductive. That's why your lights still work when half full of Kalang River. If you'd taken a dive in salt water, it would be a different story.

This has been an interesting thread.
 
Just my comprehensive list of long-standing maintenance for 30 years, I bought the instrument bulb holders probably 3 years ago and have waited patiently to finally fix the blown tacho backlights. I would rather ride them than fix them or make them pretty. But after 100ks of busy nighttime expressway with no headlight, it's time to fix that long list of broken bits before the next 2000k Snowy ride.
 
Just had my 200mm reflector re-silvered at £100. i thought this was a lot until I saw the price of replacements. Most chromers don’t do it but found company talking to classic car forums.
 
Cool 100 quid huh 🤔 you could sure buy a lot of foil or reflective wrap for that much dough
Hope it all works good for you then and it’s water proof still then again it only needs to be that if fitting to a sub like I did 😂😂
 
Makes me laugh when you see on TV either Home Reno or car shows do a 100-point restoration in a week. I have probably 6 long-term things I want to sort while I am in the Headlight, it's called doing a La Clare and every one of them has blown out time-wise. I have wanted to modify the fairing mount for years but kept putting it off. I knew it would be extremely difficult to do the cut and shut to achieve what I wanted and that's exactly how it's going. Just sketching and describing it is very tough, I apologised to the poor bugger I conned into taking it on. BTW that's happening all remote from the bike, as I said it's a bloody tough job. This mount is welded to the steering stop and that needs 3mm added to stop the damage the instruments are taking. I am also replacing all the oil cooler rubber mounts as 40years seem to cause rubber rot. I bought these probably 2 years ago but there the wrong size, so I need 3 of the right size. I also need to replace the tacho backlights, but doing that means the headlight needs to be removed but I cannot do that till the fairing mount is done as I need to align the headlight with the new fairing position, Ad infinitum. Each little job needs to be done before I can do the next little job, which reminds me of Critical Path Analysis developed to build Nuclear Submarines. Probably 2 days max becomes 2 weeks so easily. The original job, fixing the dead headlight hasn't been touched yet, to busy doing those 6 others, hope it's just a blown bulb in the end. I forgot to mention a couple of things I found, one surprise was how loose the steering stop was, it had a loose 3mm knock, apparently, the big niloc had come loose in the 30 years it has been there added by me when I first bought the bike, it will get some Loctite. I also have another faring mount that passes right through the steering head in 6mm stainless threaded rod, it broke while I was unscrewing its bottom niloc, over the years it must have been over-torqued and twisted and sheared into 2 bits. It's pretty long and can over-twist easily.
 
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