Vintage dynamo restoration

[ren531]

I have been stripping and cleaning the dynamo lights my Raleigh Lenton came with going to paint them and refitt them, i need to find a new glass lens for the head light, the only thing i can think of is to cut one out of perspex, the back light is a battery powered one called starlight with a3. 5v bulb and a square battery of some sort, the dynamo is a miller bottle one very heavy with its own small back light, not sure if i am going to have them working or just for show.

 

[Cycleops]

You might find your local glass merchant could cut a circular lens for you.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Not sure I see the point in fitting a lighting set just for show, unless it's possible to get it working properly. The front won't be much good to actually see where you are going with, if it's just a plain glass lens that does not focus the beam.
You may even find the battery for the rear one is obsolete, in which case I would see if I could take the guts out of one of those small modern cheapo Chinese LED battery rear lights and rig it up inside the old rear casing. It would work better and nobody would ever know due to the red lens.

 

[ren531]

I have been toying with the idea of useing LEDs as replacment internals you can even get LED bulbs for some old lights, i going to paint them first and decide what to do about electrics later, i like them purely from an ascetic point of view the front is a huge thing with lots of brass the rear being quite different to anything I've seen, its a shame to have such well made lights that came with the bike sat in my spares box even though i dont realy intend useing it at night, i think it adds to the whole vintage look too, your right about the plain glass it wont focus shame it hasnt got the original

 

[mcshroom]

I'd say they are both ripe for a battery/LED conversion. Ok, the front would be a little bluer than normal, but you could have a useful set of lights that are in keeping with the bike.

An example of similar is given here - https://www.instructables.com/id/Vintage-bike-lights-to-LED-conversion/

 

[ren531]

Just an update on my vintage lights that i have been painting and cleaning, going to sort the electrics next.

 

[midlife]

Nice I can still remember the sound made when turning bike lights on with a knurled knob.. Pifco made them back in the 70's

 

[ren531]

Nice I can still remember the sound made when turning bike lights on with a knurled knob.. Pifco made them back in the 70's

Can you remember what battey they used, obviously they are obsolete now,, the bulb seems to be 3.5volt still looking into various options to make them work

 

[midlife]

Pifco front used an Ever Ready 800 I think which may have been 3.0 volt

back then there were a few square odd shaped batteries for bike lights. I had a feeling we had to get odd ones from Brown Brothers Factor's at stupid prices. Some sort of modern conversion seems the way to go.