Ideal paint for recoating lamp lenses

[reddbak]

The Bullet Head flasher pods I bought three year ago had faded badly and the super-bright white LEDs were showing as white dots when illuminated through the lenses. About a 45 degree viewing angle. I couldn't find a lens coating kit at any of our auto supply stores or online for that matter.

It was then I remembered mixing coloured lacquer paint with clearcoat to give depth to my airbrushed murals back in the day.

I called in to the local hobby store for some orange lacquer and ended up purchasing a small bottle of Tamiya Orange Clear enamel paint. This must be used for imitating lenses on model cars, thought I.

At the workshop I removed the lense and LED bulb. I washed the lense and bulb in soapy water before blowing it dry with my trusty compressor.

To reduce the concentrated light from the LED, I diffused the lense by lightly dry-sanding the bulb with #400 grit sandpaper. Then it was a simple matter to dip the bulb into the paint, holding with a clothes peg so i wouldn't drop it inside, removing and setting it to dry.

For the lense, I poured about 10ml of paint into it's cupola and gently rotated the paint around until it covered the viewing area, before setting it on an angle over the bottle opening to drain back.

My mobile phone pics don't do justice, but I now have four very orange lenses and the now diffused amber LED's can be seen clearly from a 120 degree angle. They also quite noticeable in sunlight. In reality you don't see that white glare in the lens, the whole lense is illuminated.