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Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Vulgalour
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Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Vulgalour »

Image


Image


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Unsure on which colour is going to be best to repaint the interior of these light units. They look to have originally been an off-white, a previous owner has repainted one unit in red oxide which is obviously pretty useless. Should I repaint the interiors in an off white, a bright white, a chrome, or something else?

classiclife
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Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by classiclife »

From a generic stance, silver is probably the best reflective colour you can use.

A very bright silver is used in Exhaust VHT paint........... I'd use an aerosol for a proper application.

An example: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144026334394 ... SwVqJgDaTo

Regards.

Richard.
1968 Daimler V8-250 Saloon
DLOC East Sussex Branch Secretary
DLOC 2.5L V8 & V8-250 Registrar - https://www.dloc.org.uk/v8-250
DLOC 2024 International Rally - https://www.dloc.org.uk/rally-2024

Simon Hyslop

Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Simon Hyslop »

The off white colour is the original. I suspect the reason they used this colour is because the purpose of a rear light is rather different to that of a headlight. A headlight is used to project a beam of light as brightly and far as possible in a focussed beam. A rear light suffers from being small and dim so the aim is to make it look as large as possible, particularly gto distinguish it from the smaller light of a bicycle or motorbike. For that reason, a sort of matte white colour is used to diffuse the light as much as possible making the light coming out of the lens fill the lens area as much as possible and making it look as big as possible. Shining a desk lamp on a whitish wall will serve to show the large spread of diffused light obtained.

A highly reflective surface will, on the other hand, reflect the light that hits it directly (except that little does due to the position of the bulb) and project it straight back out at the same angle it entered at. All the side emitted light will bounce back and forth across the side walls without leaving the unit. A typical tail light bulb contains no reflector unit in the front of it to be reflected back out from the rear of the light unit and so a white interior serves to scatter and diffuse all the available light . Separate reflectors with aluminium backgrounds should be fitted which are designed to reflect the projected light from a headlamp straight back into the eye of the driver behind. It would be an interesting experiment to paint one silver and one white and view the difference, if appreciable, on a dark evening. On the other hand, try reflecting a desk lamp against some tin foil compared with a white wall.

Vulgalour
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Vulgalour »

Opinion seems divided right down the middle on this one as to whether white or silver/chrome is best. However, since the reasons for using white offered are the same as Simon explains above, I'm inclined to think it's the better option. I also like the suggestion of painting each one a different colour and then testing them side-by-side so we can get a nice definitive answer. They are incredibly easy to wire up thanks to the sprung wire clamp fitting on the back so I can test them very easily off the car. I'll be sure to share the results once I've tried it so we can see what difference, if any, there is.

Brian-H
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Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Brian-H »

This ebay listing for "LUCAS 464A (572673) RED REAR LENS genuine still boxed brand new original" https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324138630367
shows they came originally unpainted
Image

different seller, slightly different Lucas part numbr "LUCAS 464 (572672 RED REAR LENS genuine still boxed NOS original"
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274672373517
also shows they came originally unpainted
Image

Peter Grant
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Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Peter Grant »

Hi Brian,
Aren't we talking about painting the interior of the light housing, not the glass cover?
The rear lights on my Special Sports, which i think are the same Lucas light fitting are painted a matt off white also.
Cheers
Peter Grant

Brian-H
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Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Brian-H »

Just testing Peter - to see if anyone was awake down-under at 1am UK time :lol:

In all seriousness, my excuse is that it's dark and still hot indoors here so all the windows are open in the room and brightness and contrast are turned right down so as not to attract mozzies, so the pictures all looked like lenses, and I did wonder why people were discussing how to paint rear lenses - after your post I checked on my phone and the 3rd picture looks very different :oops:

Searching with "-lens"

464A pair but look reconditioned https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255033293764

a used 464 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254977936498 looks unmolested

classiclife
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Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by classiclife »

Excellent information supplied by Simon and yes, interesting to see the outcome of the different colouring options.

Regards.

Richard.
1968 Daimler V8-250 Saloon
DLOC East Sussex Branch Secretary
DLOC 2.5L V8 & V8-250 Registrar - https://www.dloc.org.uk/v8-250
DLOC 2024 International Rally - https://www.dloc.org.uk/rally-2024

Peter Grant
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Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Peter Grant »

Dear Brian,
Your reply is hilarious.
It was actually 9.00 a.m. here but thank you.
The idea of a heatwave in England or even humidity attracting mozzies always seemed fanciful to me, until I started travelling as an adult and realised that Europe (and England) were both prone to uncomfortable summer temperatures and humidity.
Have you any of those plug in mosquito killers? You put a little pad of cardboard soaked with insect killer in and presto, they all die (including any fish kept in the room, and probably sundry other valuable creatures)!
Cheers from a cold and windy Sydney.
Peter G

Brian-H
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Re: Lucas 464A - best interior reflector colour?

Post by Brian-H »

I've only got knock-down spray at the moment Peter, and nearly run out. Last time I used one of those plug in mozzie killers was on a holiday in Greece a few decades ago (might still have it in the loft). I used to love hot weather, worked in Nigeria in 42 deg inside a large open building under construction with Nigerian labourers sitting against a wall watching the mad englishman drilling holes for cable ducting (because it was too hot for them to do it). Then when I was ready to get everything working, discovered contacts in the contactors in the electrical machines stuck together due to the heat. I used knock-down spray there and had a mozzie net to sleep under in the 'guest house' (might still have that in the loft). These days 30 deg is my limit (which is what it reaches inside by late afternoon), and I'm so glad that the nights cool down outside so as to get the inside of the house back down to 25 deg. That heatwave over the west coast of USA/Canada must have been terrible because apparently it never even cooled at night.

Anyway, pictures taken of my monitor with the brightness and contrast turned down - getting close to 1am again I see.
DSC_0323.JPG
DSC_0322.JPG
The pictures looked representative on the camera, but I've no idea what they look like above, I'll take a peak in the daytime when I've turned the brightness and contrast back up :geek: --- EDIT 1:25 - just looked on my phone again and yup those pics above show what it's like on the monitor at night with brightness and contrast turned right down (on the monitor the pics in those pics above look like black squares)

PS never been south of the equator - not only are the seasons out of phase but apparently the stars are upside down too :lol:

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