Brighter headlights?

[Cubatoo]

Thank you John, I put the brighter bulbs in but in the wrong position! I was still a bit tired from the infection ( thats my excuse) so still as woeful on dipped beam. I am going to sort it out tomorrow then decide if I need extra bright high beams too.

 

[John Woodward]

Thank you John, I put the brighter bulbs in but in the wrong position! I was still a bit tired from the infection ( thats my excuse) so still as woeful on dipped beam. I am going to sort it out tomorrow then decide if I need extra bright high beams too.

On both of my Puma's I have the Osrams in the dipped beam and some cheap eBay Xenon bulbs for the main beam, they weren't great in the dipped beam but are Ok for the main beam.
I've also put the bulb's in the wrong light, but only once !

 

[MerthO]

I have tackled this problem last spring. Since I had one extra pair of headlights from the scrapyard, I decided to refurbish them. I had the reflectors recoated in silver, i polished the projector lenses and sanded, polished and waxed the outside plastic lenses.
I have also put in some Osram Nightbreakers and the difference is quite remarquable compared to the previous state of the light output. The only downside of those Nightbreakers could be their stated shorter lifespan, but I have already covered around 5k kms with them and they are still holding up great. I am even less bothered by this fact, since I do not use the Puma as my daily anymore.
It is still not as good as xenon lights on my other car, but I see much better at night in the Puma.
Unfortunately I could not find any photos where the light output is clearly visible. I will upolad some, when I take them.

 

[John Woodward]

I have tackled this problem last spring. Since I had one extra pair of headlights from the scrapyard, I decided to refurbish them. I had the reflectors recoated in silver, i polished the projector lenses and sanded, polished and waxed the outside plastic lenses.View attachment 12187View attachment 12188View attachment 12189View attachment 12190
I have also put in some Osram Nightbreakers and the difference is quite remarquable compared to the previous state of the light output. The only downside of those Nightbreakers could be their stated shorter lifespan, but I have already covered around 5k kms with them and they are still holding up great. I am even less bothered by this fact, since I do not use the Puma as my daily anymore.
It is still not as good as xenon lights on my other car, but I see much better at night in the Puma.
Unfortunately I could not find any photos where the light output is clearly visible. I will upolad some, when I take them. View attachment 12191View attachment 12192View attachment 12193

I have been using Osram Nightbreakers for many years on several different cars, think that I've only had one fail and that was about 8 years old, a Phillips Extreme vision only lasted just over a year, replaced with the Osram Nightbreakers, and that was 4 years ago and I mainly use the car at night in the winter.

 

[GreenEyedPuma]

I was interested in the post above from MerthO, back in April, especially about getting the reflectors from the back of the projector units re-silvered. However, with him being in the Czech Republic, I didn't think it was asking where it was done, for anybody here in the UK.

I've just watched an old episode of Car S.O.S., which featured the restoration & conservation of an old British Army 1941 Austin 10 Tilley Utility Truck (Series 5, Episode 10). It showed them taking the headlamp units to a classic vehicle headlamp restoration business in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, called "Genius of the Lamp". They showed the re-silvering process for the reflectors on those. I have looked online and although the show was a few years old, the business is still going, if anybody else thinks it would be worth trying to get it done on Puma headlamp dipped beam reflectors. Of course, it would need the whole projector & reflector unit being dismantled, which I think from memory was riveted together. Possibly this business could dismantle, re-silver and reassemble, as they appear to restore classic vehicle lamps, rather than just re-silvering reflectors!

While I still had my old Puma, I hand polished the outside of the clear polycarbonate outer covers with a plastic cleaner and UV Protection polish, which did really improve their look on the car. I did also get as far as cleaning up the inside of (just) my drivers side lamp. I split it and cleaned all the traffic film from the inside of the outer cover, the front & back surfaces of the projector dome and as best as I could, of the reflector. The reflector was probably worse than the "before" image from MerthO's post and photo's above, with worse tarnishing than his.

Over the years, in desperation, I did try various and ever brighter higher brightness Xenon bulbs (+130%, +150%, +200%, etc.) which did improve light output a bit, but never seemed to be as good as when the car was new! Unfortunately, the higher output bulbs seemed to cause heat damage to the wiring connector plugging into the dipped beam bulb and I had to use those HB3 replacement connector plugs & wiring tails, which are marketed as "ceramic", but aren't really! The strange thing is, that only ever happened on my drivers (right) side headlamp, not the other one!

I really can't remember my Puma ever having such poor headlights from new, certainly not until the first dipped beam bulb blew, at just under 5 years old. Until then it had never been an issue! That makes me think the poorer and poorer light output, seemingly getting worse the older the car got (despite the ever increasing output Xenon bulbs I tried) was probably down to the gradual tarnishing of the silvering of the reflectors the bulbs are plugged into! Maybe decreasing Earthing efficiency also, but I never got down to proving that to myself!

Is anybody prepared for any possible expense to give re-silvering a go and report back? Oh, the thought of feeling safe driving a Puma at night again, might be worth it?

I have been Puma-less for coming up to 3 years now, but still hold out hopes of getting one again some time, but being able to enjoy it at night as well!

 

[red]

That's a mega post about a very specific subject for someone that has one of the cars let alone for someone that hasn't had one for three years! Great effort!

 

[Cubatoo]

I was interested in the post above from MerthO, back in April, especially about getting the reflectors from the back of the projector units re-silvered. However, with him being in the Czech Republic, I didn't think it was asking where it was done, for anybody here in the UK.

I've just watched an old episode of Car S.O.S., which featured the restoration & conservation of an old British Army 1941 Austin 10 Tilley Utility Truck (Series 5, Episode 10). It showed them taking the headlamp units to a classic vehicle headlamp restoration business in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, called "Genius of the Lamp". They showed the re-silvering process for the reflectors on those. I have looked online and although the show was a few years old, the business is still going, if anybody else thinks it would be worth trying to get it done on Puma headlamp dipped beam reflectors. Of course, it would need the whole projector & reflector unit being dismantled, which I think from memory was riveted together. Possibly this business could dismantle, re-silver and reassemble, as they appear to restore classic vehicle lamps, rather than just re-silvering reflectors!

While I still had my old Puma, I hand polished the outside of the clear polycarbonate outer covers with a plastic cleaner and UV Protection polish, which did really improve their look on the car. I did also get as far as cleaning up the inside of (just) my drivers side lamp. I split it and cleaned all the traffic film from the inside of the outer cover, the front & back surfaces of the projector dome and as best as I could, of the reflector. The reflector was probably worse than the "before" image from MerthO's post and photo's above, with worse tarnishing than his.

Over the years, in desperation, I did try various and ever brighter higher brightness Xenon bulbs (+130%, +150%, +200%, etc.) which did improve light output a bit, but never seemed to be as good as when the car was new! Unfortunately, the higher output bulbs seemed to cause heat damage to the wiring connector plugging into the dipped beam bulb and I had to use those HB3 replacement connector plugs & wiring tails, which are marketed as "ceramic", but aren't really! The strange thing is, that only ever happened on my drivers (right) side headlamp, not the other one!

I really can't remember my Puma ever having such poor headlights from new, certainly not until the first dipped beam bulb blew, at just under 5 years old. Until then it had never been an issue! That makes me think the poorer and poorer light output, seemingly getting worse the older the car got (despite the ever increasing output Xenon bulbs I tried) was probably down to the gradual tarnishing of the silvering of the reflectors the bulbs are plugged into! Maybe decreasing Earthing efficiency also, but I never got down to proving that to myself!

Is anybody prepared for any possible expense to give re-silvering a go and report back? Oh, the thought of feeling safe driving a Puma at night again, might be worth it?

I have been Puma-less for coming up to 3 years now, but still hold out hopes of getting one again some time, but being able to enjoy it at night as well!

Now you have mentioned it I may give this a go further down the line. This year I am concentrating on bodywork.