MTFCA Forum

After disassembling and reassembling my headlights to polish them I ended up breaking a lens. Is there a source for these or do you have your local glass company cut them? Thought I'd share the before and after as well. Bottom one is before. Second is after vinegar bath. Third is polished. Turned out pretty good with minimal work.

Are they clear, got a measurement ?
I have lots of lenses...

Thanks for the reply! Yes, they are clear. I will double check the diameter tonight and let you know.

I took my rim to a glass cutter. He cut it 1/8th smaller for expansion. Was cheap to do.

Thanks for the information! Do you happen to know the original glass thickness? Mine seem very thin. Also, was there a gasket between the glass and rim? It seems like this are is prone to breakage with direct contact between the glass and the brass.

1/4 in is what he used
No gasket, but he put silicone around it, to help hold it

I have a whole box full of clear lenses, 1/8" thick I believe.
I think they're the size of the electric lights, but have no tabs, just round.
Let me know when you can on a size...I have others also.

I was told between the glass and brass rim was a piece of sash cloth. I went and got a couple lenses cut and rolled up some cloth strip I cut from a sheet or something, I can’t remember. I put it in and then the glass and retainer. You never know what’s in there since it’s not visible and stops the rattling.

Diameter is 8.75"

Sent you an email Lorien.
I have 1 - 8-3/4"...

This may be sorta off topic, but I very recently learned something about gas headlamp repop and modern glass lenses.

I was out driving over the lunar landscape that passes for one of the main roads around here, and hitting one pothole caused the passenger side lamp door to come open and the lens to drop out and smash on the road. It was a really nice original lens.

I happened to have a replacement on hand that I had had cut from modern thickness glass at the same time that I had replaced the lens in the driver's side lamp. The new, thinner glass fit fine in that lamp, nice and tight (but not too tight), however, in the passenger side lamp, the thinner lens was way too sloppy with about 1/16" gap between the retainer and the lens. That was why I had been using the original lens in that lamp, though the fit was only OK, not real good.

At first I thought that the trouble was with the repop door; it had the bead for the retainer too far away from where the lens fit. But a closer study showed that wasn't quite the case. The door's retainer bead was fine. What the real issue was, was that, in that passenger door, the door's front flange that the lens bore up against was too flat. This caused the lens to sit too far away from the retainer bead and allowed the 1/16" gap between the lens and the retainer.

The fix was simple; just make a wood disk the same OD as the diameter of the flange, set it on the door, carefully support the door in a light press with a large bed, and press that flange inward a tiny shade over 1/16". That effectively closed the gap, and now the retainer holds the new lens tightly in place. No slop, but there is enough clearance on the circumference to allow for expansion in use.

And, of course, now I always double check to see that the knurled thumb nuts holding the doors are very tightly turned down before heading out on a drive.