Blackened rotators and strobe reflectors

[WhelenNDealin]

I got a Code 3 360 recently. Really neat bar! Took it apart for the usual clean up and noticed that the rotators and strobe reflectors were blackened. They're plastic rotators and reflectors and my guess is that the heat from both the 50W halogens in the rotators and the strobe tubes fried the reflective coating on the plastic.

Is there any way to fix this or am I going to need new rotators and reflectors? I'd rather try and fix it, but plastic is gonna be plastic and I don't want to damage anything. Probably fair to say that this really reduces the intensity of the flashes!

Any suggestions?

 

[tsquale]

I have seen some folks cleaning them up then applying metallic silver / chrome spray paint to make them look a little better. Otherwise maybe some of the metallic tape used on HVAC, as that is likely heat rated.

 

[WhelenNDealin]

I'd be more tempted to go with the HVAC tape route. It all depends how much shine it has. With the spray paint, my concern is the solvents in them taking a bite out of the plastic. I'm pretty wary of using spray paint on plastics unless I know for certain that the plastic won't dissolve or pit.

Still, either is worth a go as those rotators are cremated. Really reduces light output and considering that this is a pretty neat bar, I'd like to have it looking top notch!

 

[Nolines]

Doesn't rust-oleum make a spray paint for plastics? I have always wanted to try taping off the bulbs or covering them and trying a chrome paint to bring those back to life...

 

[dmathieu]

Chrome paint turns out pretty good, but not sure how heat resistant it is.

 

[WhelenNDealin]

Chrome paint turns out pretty good, but not sure how heat resistant it is.

If it has just enough resistance for display purposes, that'd work nicely. I'll have to research both the clean/paint method and the HVAC tape method and what I might do is try one with one rotator and one with the other and whichever works best will be used on the centre rotator. That or try the clean/paint method on all, see how it fares and then if it's not quite there, apply the HVAC tape.

But let's be honest here, sure plastic rotator reflectors are cheaper, but really not the best way to go, imho. Then again, this bar is mostly plastic. Not knocking it as it's a really cool oddball bar, but compared to say, the plastics FS used with the Arjent as well as with various parts, Code 3's quality isn't nearly the same. I was once told that about the quality of a Twin vs an SD.

 

[Nolines]

What about the ones they sell at pep boys or such, vht I think is the brand. High heat resistant.