Restoring old spot light

[Mark42]

I have an old spotlight that has the remote control cable rusted solid. It is set up to push/pull for up/down, and twist for left/right movement of light. I am looking for a replacement and found these at mcmaster/carr, I think these cables will do the twist action as well as the push/pull action I need.<br />

<br />The 36" long cable with threaded ends may just work, but before I order it, I thought I should check with you folks to see if you know of other suppliers of this sort of thing. <br /><br />This MFG boat (not mine) has the same spotlight:<br /><br />

<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />Mark.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Restoring old spot light

the cables your looking it a shift and throttle cables

 

[Laddies]

Re: Restoring old spot light

sorry about the spelling it= at a= are I wish I could type too.

 

[G DANE]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Mark 42 If you look in Wal-Mart or Home Depot I am sure you will find one of those extention rotary cables for drills. With your mechanical skills I think it should be possible to shorten one up and use it. If not possible, go to a sail boat rigger and get a piece of stainless rig wire and get someone to crimp or weld the ends you need on. Both of these cables are double winded and can be used as a turning/push pull cable. Last option will require reuse of your old external cable.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Thanks for the ideas, G Dane and laddiesservice. <br /><br />I am hoping to find something less expensive than the link I posted, about $25 plus shipping. I have thought about throttle/brake cables, but they are not thick enough for the twisting action, and would not support a 2" knob on the end too well.<br /><br />Will have to continue checking out Wal-mart, depot, etc.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Mark.<br /><br />PS, I almost tossed this light out, but when I found out the prices for new ones, WOW, it is worth fixing. The problem with the new lights is that they look, well, new. They don't have the '60s look. So this pitted old light will have to be sanded, fill pits with epoxy and painted white using epoxy paint. Can't afford to have it chromed with all the pitting that would need filling. And seeing as the hardware on my boat is white, it should match nicely. Lucky for me the bulb is still available.

 

[Eggkr8]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Hi Mark,<br /><br />I can't tell you how happy I am to have you just that much further into your project than I am to mine. I still have my old, pitted, non-functional light on my boat. I already learned that the new light look new and you cannot get them from the same genre. <br /><br />As an alternative to chroming, I was thinking about filling the pits and then powder coating. I have seen the results of a powder coat color called 'almost chrome', when you apply a clear powder coat on top of that color, it is really good.<br /><br />How about looking on EBay for another light and trying that route? I will even let you do it before I do so I can see how well it works on your boat first! (haahaahaa). <br /><br />I have a friend who's company does some powder coating for their product. I was gonna ask for a favor and give someone a case of beer to 'almost' chrome a lot of my deck hardware and accessories

 

[Mark42]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Eggkr8,<br /><br />I check e-bay regularly but have not seen spot lights. The power coating sounds like a good alternative. I am trying to keep the expenses down on the boat. I also saw some "hammered metal" look paint that might be a interesting alternateive too.<br /><br />At least I have all winter to get it ready.<br /><br />Keep the suggestions coming! Don't forget to keep us updated on your progress.<br /><br />Mark

 

[petrolhead]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Hey guys, have you considered vacuum plating? I use it at work quite a lot and it's reasonably cheap, the great thing though is that you can chrome plate materials other than metal, like plastic for instance.<br />This means that you can fill the pitting on your old spotlight with ordinary body filler, paint it with epoxy primer and rub down till it's really smooth, then plate it.<br />For items that will be handled or exposed to the elements it's best to lacquer over the chrome with 2 pack acrylic, otherwise it scuffs too easily.<br />I've done fibreglass fenders for 50s style custom cars, motorcycle crash helmets, hood ornaments, all kinds of stuff.

 

[gewf631]

Re: Restoring old spot light

How about checking old (car) junk yards? These lights look like the ones on Police cars, and I've seen them on taxi's as well. Might not be exactly the same, but shouldn't cost all that much either.<br /><br />Sooner or later, those cars have to wind-up somewhere...

 

[thejeepster02]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Hey Petrolhead<br />Can you tell us more about Vacuum plating, I never heard of it.<br />How do you apply it, is this a auto parts store item?

 

[Eggkr8]

Re: Restoring old spot light

The vaccuum plating sounds interesting. I have never heard of it before. Can you tell us more? Costs, what type of shops to look at to perorm this work<br /><br />I was thinking of using body filler on my pits (wow if someone didn't know this was a boat forum, that would sound real funny). I am not sure if body filler will conduct static (for those that don't know powder coating is a process where a piece is statically charged and then very fine powder is 'coughed' over the part and is attracted to the charge. Then it is baked, the plastic melts to the part. It is VERY strong

 

[Eggkr8]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Hi Mark,<br /><br />I just tried EBAY and entered 'spot light boat' and got a few hits. there were two 'vintage options, one was REAL old (brass body), the other was close to our genre<br />Other than that, all modern units<br /><br />hmm.... I am now thinking about how to do a halogen upgrade on my lights' and keep the body

 

[Mark42]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Hi Eggkr8,<br /><br />Shouldn't be too hard to upgrade to halogen. If it has a round light, many halogen auto light manufactures make replacement beams housings that take a replaceable halogen bulb. Also most 5" and 6" round sealed beams can be found in halogen. JCWhitney.com is a good source for this sort of thing.<br /><br />Just remember to make sure you are not pulling more amps than your motor puts out. A lot of older motors have just enough output to keep the battery charged and not much more.<br /><br />Regarding the use of autobody filler, I have been told by more than one person not to use it on boats. Autobody filler tends to absorb moisture, and boats are subject to more moisture than cars. One guys first hand experience was to have it all turn to mush in just one season. Just to avoid problems, I would stick with Marine Tex epoxy for filling in the pits. <br /><br />Got to go. Wife has dinner ready!<br /><br />Mark

 

[petrolhead]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Vacuum plating isn't something you can do yourself, you have to take or send the part to a company that does the plating, it's done in a large vacuum tank hence the name.<br />Anyone ever seen plastic model kits that have chromed plastic parts? That's vacuum plating.<br />I have a company that specialises in vac plating nearby, they aren't that common but I know of a few others over here, I guess the phone directory would be your best bet to find one.<br />As for cost, given that you can repair metal parts with body filler and still chrome them, it often works out cheaper than conventional rechroming.<br />I take small items and they get chromed along with dozens of other jobs at the same time, they fill the vac tank with as many parts as possible to reduce the cost.<br />Actually I just did a quick Google search and found THIS company straight away. I note they don't recommend the process for exterior components, but I've found with an adequate coating of clear acrylic lacquer it can be quite durable.<br />As I understand it the metal used is actually aluminium rather than chrome, but you wouldn't know to look at it. The metal is vapourised inside a vacuum tank, and then condensed onto the surface of whatever is inside the tank, the layer of metal deposited is so thin and even that it appears highly polished like chrome. A clear coat is usually added for protection which can be tinted to give gold, bronze, brass or any other tint you want.

 

[Eggkr8]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Mark, there are two types of body filler. THe bondo stuff sucks up water like a sponge and should never be NEAR water. But then there is a type meant to fill in like small chips in the paint and minor irregularities, it comes in a tube and is more like a thick paint than anything else. I was thinking about the latter for filling<br /><br />Petro.... will vaccuum chroming really hold up to a boats environment with just a coat of acrylic on it? I have always had a problems with my models coming out of the box with chrome flaking<br /><br />Could you ballpark the cost? re-Chroming is VERY expensive, so 'cheaper than re-chroming' leaves a lot open<br /><br />cheers<br />e

 

[Mark42]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Egglr8,<br /><br />You mean the stuff we used to call "red lead"? I think it will work, but it has to be applied in thin layers and allowed to cure well because it does shrink if applied heavy.<br /><br />Too off work today because I am trying to kick a bad sinus infection that has been keeping me down for the last 8 days. Went to the doc yesterday and got an antibiotic (finally). So I have some time to do stuff like take photos and post them! <br /><br />Here are some pics of the light so you can see the condition of the finish, and its design. The cable ran in a plastic sleeve, which is mostly deteriorated, brittle and broken off. The part of the cable that enters the lamp housing is rusted solid. I'm going to have a hard time getting it free, but I'm sure it will come out. <br /><br />The bulb looked ok, but when I hooked it up to my charger, it only lasted a few seconds as the filiment burned up. Smoked the whole lens. Must have developed a leak since it was used last (maybe 30 years ago?). A quick check on yahoo for "GE 4405 12v spot light" found that a replacement is $7.73. It is only a 30 watt bulb. Being a PAR36 sealed beam, there are a lot of choices of wattage both regular and halogen, beam spread, and burn life. Check out some choices here: <br /> [url]http://www.bulbman.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=248 [/url] <br /><br />And here is the lamp. Notice how the back of the lamp has pits as well as turned fuzzy. The wires coming from the lamp housing go back into the base through the little hole visable in the fist pic so that only an inch or two show when mounted.<br /><br />

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[Eggkr8]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Hi MArk<br /><br />I had lunch today with my friend who is my 'powder coat expert' Well, he has done it and ran a few experiements with it. Here's the lowdown. 'Red lead' (never heard that before but a great name for it) will work. But he recommends steel embedded epoxy. What ever fill is chosen has to be able to withstand 400 deg F while baking the powder coat on. The wear resistance is amazing. His company left a 4'x4' sheet of steel with a matte finish powder coat in the main door way all winter. Come spring they rinsed it off and it looksed great. I think this is what I will do with all of my deck hardware, cleats and all.<br /><br />Funny you should mention the pics, I just took some before the snow came. I will try and figure out how to include a couple here

 

[Laddies]

Re: Restoring old spot light

that spotlite was built by attwood, the early ones had a copper housing like yours the later and replacement cables the housings were plastic there has got to be one around some where. I have had some luck freeing them off the boat by hanging them handle end up and keeping mercury powertune on the cable for a few days, that unit sold new for lest than $20. new in the early 60s

 

[Mark42]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Thanks laddiesservice,<br /><br />Until now, I could not identify that light. Now that I know what it is, maybe I can find one to salvage parts off of. I just want to make it work and look nice, it doesn't have to be a concourse restoration!<br /><br />Mark

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Restoring old spot light

Mark, Chroming is definitely expensive. I've struggled with this myself. If you can't find a replacement on ebay, the powder coat is a good idea. You can have it done fairly cheaply or, if you have a lot of things you'd like to do with it,like engine parts and such, a powder coating setup on ebay is fairly inexpensive. There's a lot that you can do with the method, aside from making a fairly resistent paintjob for old chrome, etc...Whatever you decide, good luck with it.