Ok , pre war P 100 headlamps. Does anyone have a clever trick for removing [ and replacing] the hinge pin at the very top of the lamp?
I recall the post war P100L had a similar hinge, but at the bottom.
It’s not just me ,but Rob will also need to know one day.
If not , I wonder if Peter’s friends on the Old Car website, might have a suggestion.
Hi Ed,
If this is for rechroming I suspect removing the rivets holding the hinge to the shell might be the best bet although refitting might involve glue! 
Peter
Peter
yes that could be a trick , a tricky trick The rivets are soldered over inside and the ones underneath on the mounting chromed outside. If I could remove the pin, I could polish the rim and body separately.
Isn’t this fun? Every morning I wake up to another aspect in the ownership of these wonderful cars.
The brown half-buttons on both mine are a tiny bit loose. I can get a razor blade in the gap and move them a few thousandths, indicating to me that they are just shoved on like washers, but the shaft ends were afterwards either mushroomed out a bit, or soldered. It looks like brass, and I see a bit of what looks like solder inside.
If you have one you are willing to experiment with, try a soldering iron and see if it is soldered, perhaps with a razor blade or Stanley knife in the gap to pop it off.
If it is mushroomed, then file off the mushroom and either make new pins or solder the buttons back on.
If you wait a few days I’ll try unsoldering mine.
While on the subject.
What’s likely to happen to the enamelled Lucas logo during rechroming?
I have just sent a damaged one from a later, bottom hinged, P100 in to be rechromed to see what happens before sending my actual pair in.
Graham.
Well, curiosity sneaked up and trounced me when I wasn’t looking. I just had to know.
They are soldered. I applied my soldering gun and Stanley knife and it popped off. The button has a blind hole. The shaft is 1/4" diameter and the end is 3/16" diameter.
Slightly bent so it took a punch and a bit of light hammer touches to get it out.
Yes, I left the bottom clamp on and remembered to take out the bulb first.
Rob
That is really great. i’ll go and have a practice on some scrap P100s
The ‘nut’ wasn’t originally brass, just theplating has worn off.
Graham
The badges can be replated over the enamel . That is how they are manufactured… stamped.- enameled and finally chromed. The chrome doesn’t adhere to the enamel . Or you can buy new badges from Paul Beck. For the true pedant , the colours were slightly different pre war to postwar. I think Paul Beck has both versions.
Rob
Looking at the first pic you posted, it seems like that end has the’ washer’ soldered to the shaft, and perhaps only one end has the cap. . I n the pic I can see a line of solder around the smaller part t e bump] on the e
So in effect, they have made abolt witha nut that instead of being screwed on is soldered on… for aesthetics
You could unsolder the badge the better to polish the area it sits on, then carefully solder it back before plating. I suspect that’s how the factory did it.
Tomorrow you and Rob can have alook at the silvered pieces that sit around the reflectors for cracks. It’s hard to find undamaged ones. Which is probably why I have more bodies than complete lamps.
I have one good and one was cracked (had it repaired)
Hope to end up with two angle dipping lights.
Graham They do repair but a butt joints won’t hold. I did some and braced them behind with some brass soldered to gt a decent footprint.
I actually sacrificed a badly cracked on to get shaped parts cut from it to fit the shape at the back
I also found that soldering shrank the rim by a few thou and had the get the local glazier to grind about .005" off the edge of the lens.
The sealing round the edge of the glass is jus the old black cloth electrical insulating tape. correct width and all.
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