Re-Silvering a Reflector

[lewong]

I tried re-silvering the reflector on my Surefire E2E (instead of buying another bezel) after some people said the green tint of my Veleno Designs E-Series LED drop-in might be caused by the reflector.

First I tried "chrome" paint. I removed the stock reflector coating with solvent and then I sprayed painted the reflector area. The paint wasn't reflective enough – the beam was just a large diameter circle with no hot spot.

Then I tried a product called "Mona Lisa Silver Leaf." I used some size (adhesive) and glued the silver leaf to the head. It worked OK.

More details and photos here.

 

[Tally-ho]

Waho !...congrats for the worldwide exclusivity: sort of Mona Lisa OP reflector for a Surefire "la Joconde" E2E.
Next time, try gold leaf for warmer and "richer" tint.

 

[someuser]

A very good idea to me. Since I did screw up my E2E reflector anyway, I will try something like this. Did you use the pure silver stuff or the fake silver sheets? The pure one should do better as a reflective material.

Also if I remembered right, silver have better reflective ability then the bad nickel plating anyway. I will try to get the pure silver sheets and then blast it with a contact cleaner with silicon. This will de-oxidize the silver and leave a protective coating. I tell you that this is really what I suspect to be the prized "enhanced silver coating" is for reflectors. The differences is that method of coating the reflector and that's it.

lewong, I really do like your blog on modification on your lights. Thanks for you tips.