H4 Hella Euro headlight restoration

[dakdak]

G'day all,

It's been a while since I've been on the forum, and thought I'd share my restoration of a Euro headlight. Although this Hella headlight assembly is made in Australia, the concept will be the same for LHD and RHD vehicles. The only difference being that this style of headlight was used till 1967 in Australia, when they stopped being manufactured here and resorted to assembling VeeDubs imported from Germany from 1968 till 1976.

I thought I'd start this thread, as I could find very little information about restoring this type of headlight assembly, as the information was mainly for the sealed beam units. This restoration also applies to Bosch headlight assemblies made the same way.

Anyway, here's the headlight I started with.

Crusty old thing from about 1964 or later.

The bucket in the photo below is plastic. Yes, Hella replaced the earlier metal bucket to a grey plastic bucket in about 1964 in Australia. I was in luck that it was neither cracked or distorted as plastic would become after nearly fifty years.

Disassembling the headlight assembly and waiting what was in store for me. Care must be taken when removing the spring clips. They can fly out and become lost, or worse, take an eye out. This assembly only had three spring clips installed.

The reflector wasn't in the best shape, and needs to be replated. The chrome outer ring looks better than it does in the photo. The plastic bucket was in exceptional shape, with very little discolouration to the plastic. The lens is not cracked which is a major bonus.

The bucket as you can see is intact.

The chrome ring is also in good shape with no dents.

The lens bears the Hella name, with "MADE IN AUSTRALIA" across the bottom.

After a bit of elbow grease cleaning and polishing the parts and renewing what had to be renewed, here is the assembly and final product.

Firstly the lens. Rinsed and then washed with warm soapy water and a sponge with the finest of scouring pads to get as much of the dirt out of the fluting inside the glass.

Next is the lens with a new rubber seal.

Next. The reflector was replated in chrome. Not bad for AUD45.00 per reflector, and the finish is fantastic. There is no other way to restore your reflector. Others try "chrome paint", but there is no substitute for the real finish.

Then we have the plastic bucket cleaned and polished with "Silvo" which is a fine polish for chrome, sliver etc. The discolouration was polished out, and the gloss restored to the plastic bucket.

The chrome ring came in for some special treatment being polished with Silvo. The result is fantastic.

Mounting the lens onto the bucket.

And the finished product. One restored headlight assembly.

The spattering on the back of the reflector is the chrome from plating. This isn't seen when installed, so it matters very little. To me anyway.

The parts that had to be changed or replaced that were missing are:

1. Rubber seal for the lens (split).
2. Rubber grommets for the beam adjustment (hardened and cracked).
3. I bought new spring clips, but they didn't fit. I had spare old clips and reused them (reused the original three and had three spare).
4. Screw and spacer for the chrome ring attachment to the mud guard (missing).
5. Replating of the reflector.
6. I did not refit the internal reflector that sits in front of the bulb, as I run P43 halogen bulbs (60/55W). These bulbs are too long, and give a better light than the old (45/40W incandescent bulbs)

In total, it took a morning of cleaning, polishing and assembling the light assembly (not including the plating of the reflector) to have a new and ready to fit spare headlight assembly. I can safely say that the headlight assembly is mostly original and maintains the look and gives a good light.

The headlight assemblies that had the metal buckets were either polished metal, chrome or painted a light grey. I have some of these assemblies that I will be restoring in the future. Again, these are the Euro or H4 assemblies and not the sealed beam units.

Is the finished headlight assembly in "concourse condition"? Nope. For my purpose it doesn't need to be, as I use my '65 Bug on a daily basis, and I just need parts that work well or spares ready to go. If they look better than they work, it's not much value to me.

I hope this helps with those of you that have these types of headlights and gives a bit of an insight into these assemblies.
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The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth - persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

JFK

[AlteWagen]

The reflector should be "resilvered" as described in this thread

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=175446



here are the pages to the dead link. Interestingly it states that resilvering is 90% reflective and chrome is only 70%

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[dakdak]

[hitest]

Looking good sir. Now let's get those rings looking even better!

Buy a brass brush (about three times the size of a toothbrush at a hardware store). You can scrub around that riveted tab and it will look new again. When you're done there- use the brush to detail the parking light bulb assemblies.

You can also use them around the lettering on the glass lens. really get in there. When the letters are clean the whole lens looks better. Don't be shy about hand-buffing the glass too.
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[veedub13]

Reviving an old discussion I know..

I'm in the process of restoring my euro spec lights too and have a question..

How many rubber grommets are there?

2 for the adjustment screws, and how many to secure the reflector to the housing(as pivoting points?)? I ask because I see many new headlight sets with only 1 additional grommets, with some left out. Are grommets used differently (or on different sides) for LHD and RHD cars?

Thanks!

[bnam]

I'd like to know as well. Repaired missing clips on a pair of headlights on a friends bug and one side had none (apart from the adjustment screws) and the other had 2 in addition to adjustment screws.
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1971 1302LS Convertible (RHD) owned since '74
Click to view image
1965 Karmann Ghia Coupe - under restoration
1966 Fiat 1500 Cabrio (with 1600 Twin cam)
1952 Citroen TA 11BL

[veedub13]

[hitest]

I use short, cut sections of rubber tube- available in the vacuum line department of your better car parts stores. Grab a couple feet of different diameters- because with a larger size you can slice a rubber washer for the ("c"-clip- type) pivot on later model beetle headlight assemblies.
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[theastronaut]

Since this got dredged up, neither silver or chrome is ideal for a reflector. Silver is correct for very early headlights (before sealed beams in the US) but it doesn't last long. They should be vapor deposited aluminum which won't fade like silver and is still **optically** reflective. Both chrome and silver/VDA look like a mirror finish but chrome isn't optically reflective, so it'll mess up the beam pattern. Saying that chrome is good enough is kind of like saying it's ok to drive with headlights that have only 70% of the light aimed in the correct direction...
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Strive for perfection in everything. Take the best that exist and make it better. If it doesn't exist, create it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough."
-Sir Henry Royce, co-founder of Rolls-Royce

'64 Beetle Sunroof OG Bahama Blue
'63 Beetle Vert
'66 Beetle
'88 Festiva L
'89 Festiva L
'64 Chevy C10
'66 Chevy C10

[RareAir]

I had the headlight reflectors for my ‘47 re-silvered. They look awesome!

On a side note, do not use Ammonia based cleaning products on the Silver surface. It destroys it and tarnishes it into a Yellow hue. I found out the hard way
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1947 Typ 11a
1954 Typ 117
1956 Typ 151
1959 Typ 117
1959 Typ 265
1961 356B
1966 Typ 151
1966 Typ 241