# Persons Model 219 rear reflector restoration



## Gary Mc (Sep 30, 2012)

Bought this Persons Model 219 rear reflector about a year ago for my 1930 Hartford which is getting a mild restoration.  After I received it I realized the glass was in pieces in the housing.  Looked pretty good & would probably have never been a problem but I decided to go ahead & do a mild restoration on it too.

Here’s before:





Here are the parts after disassembly.  As you can see the glass is 10 separate parts.  I am going to show the reassembly steps.  Disassembly would just be in reverse but let me give some tips here first.  During disassembly when you get down to just the actual reflector housing, determine where you want the bottom to be and at that point gently pry out the back in that location.  Bend the back as you pull it out being very careful to not distort the housing is key to this process.  You only want to have to repair this one area.  If the glass were intact in one piece you would have to pry up all edges which would make getting it back together a little more difficult.  Had my glass been in one piece I probably would have just tried to polish it up without removing it.




Next step was cleaning all the glass with Windex & then puzzling the glass back together using superglue gel going from 10 to 3 total pieces.  I stopped at 3 so I could get them back in without distorting the housing further.




Next step is polishing the 2 housings.  I used a buffing pad in my bench grinder trying both a Porter Cable fine metal polishing stick & Meguiar’s Boat/RV metal cleaner polish.  I like the Meguiar’s much better and used it mostly.  This is my go to product on chrome, nickel, & aluminum.  I love it and always get great results.  Key is to put product on the metal, buff on the grinder, and wipe off product repeating these steps over & over until you get the results you desire.  Keep in mind I was not looking for perfection just mild restoration, I wanted them to shine but was not looking to get rid of the scratches, just minimize them somewhat & eliminate the ozidation that had occurred over 80 years.




Next step was reassembling the now 3 glass pieces into the housing insuring a good fit on both sides remembering you need room in the housing for the back.  Keep in mind this is a puzzle and there will be a natural fit to which glass part needs to go first, second, third, etc.  Just keep trialing until it fits and remember to check the side that will show to insure the glass balls are correctly positioned.  Do not try to superglue the edges, instead use the gel superglue on the back side a little heavy but not enough to go through to the housing or glass balls.  Put aside until it dries.








Next step is cleaning up the back of the reflector housing & attachment that fits in the back of the larger housing.  After a distilled white vinegar soak to remove the rust I used a wire wheel in my bench grinder to clean these up and remove all the rust.


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## Gary Mc (Sep 30, 2012)

*continued......*

The next step after the superglue dries is to put the back of the reflector housing on covering the glass reflector.  Gently pry it in place with a small screwdriver.  Next I use my small auto body hammer with the entire reflector in my hand to gently tap around the edges until the back is completely enclosed.  This hammer works great for this application.  It is small & light.  Key here is to do this with the reflector in your palm & use very gentle taps.  Keep working it around the back edges until complete.  Again, be gentle as you do not want to break the glass again.












Now that the actual reflector housing is reassembled, full is assembly is next.  Slide the reflector housing onto the larger housing that fits against the rear fender carefully getting the tabs & bolt through the large housing.  Next place the small flat part into the back of the larger housing again lining up the bolt & tabs.  Then bend the tabs inward with a small screwdriver and replace the nut/washer & tighten it.  At this point gently using the small end of the auto body hammer with the entire assembly in your palm, tap down the tabs good.  Again use great care & be gentle.  Last, just screw on the nut & washer that attaches the unit to the rear fender to attach it to the bike for safe keeping until it goes on the bike.













After Restoration:












Total restoration time was about 3 hours. Hope this helps somebody else & good luck with your restorations!!!!!!! 

Thanks – Gary Mc


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## chitown (Sep 30, 2012)

Gary Mc said:


> Total restoration time was about 3 hours. Hope this helps somebody else & good luck with your restorations!!!!!!!




Gary,

Great job on doing it right! Many folks, well me anyhow, would just take some Brasso and a cloth and "give her a little shine back". Shame on me after seeing what can be done in 3 hours instead of my 15 minute cleanup job.

Thanks for the detailed photo's of the different process' involved.

Also, I wonder if similar to tracking your transactions and inventory via excel spreadsheets, do you track restoration hours as well. I am trying to do this but usually end up me scratching my head and coming up with an estimated number of hours I spent on a particular project. I'm trying to get better at tracking these things as I tend to be spending more of my "free" time working on these old beasts.

Chris


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## Gary Mc (Sep 30, 2012)

Thanks Chris & you are welcome on the write-up as it was intended to help others.  

On the spreadsheet I only tracked expenses on them so far down to the penny.  I know I should track hours too but I almost look at my time on these bikes just truly as something I enjoy (really love)  doing & as my form of therapy to forget rough work weeks.  I may try to track hours on my next build, my other problem with it is I'll be in the middle of something & just stop, go grab a cigar, & stare at the bike or a part for an hour or until the cigar is done so I lose track of time.  During that time I'm usually trying to figure out how to do something or think about what would look best, or you get the idea.....

Anyway thanks again!!!!!

Gary


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## chitown (Sep 30, 2012)

Gary Mc said:


> I may try to track hours on my next build, my other problem with it is I'll be in the middle of something & just stop, go grab a cigar, & stare at the bike or a part for an hour or until the cigar is done so I lose track of time.  During that time I'm usually trying to figure out how to do something or think about what would look best, or you get the idea.....




Yes I get the idea. I have trouble on weekends when I am doing a multitude of tasks at the same time; general yard work, smoking some baby-backs for 4 hours, tending to the wood chips and charcoal levels, apply some paint remover to my '31 Schwinn,  do some routine plumbing, check the cabe, remove house paint off '31 Schwinn, stare at the Schwinn for a while, eat ribs, drink a Duval, do final clean up from paint removal, check the cabe... well you get the idea.

Thanks again for posting and for posting in the right section is always a polite thing to do... thanks for that as well.

Out of thanks, and full of rib meat and Belgian ale,


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## SirMike1983 (Sep 30, 2012)

Well done- gluing those pieces back together carefully in a way that fits that multi-hole shell looks tricky. That metal sure shined up nicely too.


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## Gary Mc (Sep 30, 2012)

SirMike1983 said:


> Well done- gluing those pieces back together carefully in a way that fits that multi-hole shell looks tricky. That metal sure shined up nicely too.




Thanks SirMike1983.  It's really just like a puzzle & wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Shining the metal was definitely the most time consuming part.


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## Buster1 (Sep 30, 2012)

Gary,

THANKS!  I JUST got mine apart today and then saw this post.  What a coincidence.  Mine is off a '41 Westfield I am restoring and I had to buy new glass for it, but the housing is in great shape.

I actually intentionally clear coated the housing...but I'm not sure if I like it that way...I may sand it down and go with your method.  Nice!

Buster


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