Headlight Restoration Begins…
Every night I’ve been taking on a new project and continue working on it once previous projects hit a pause (like waiting for a weekend to use loud power tools). I started the process of removing the headlights from the Jeep including undoing all of the wiring (in prep for the new wiring harness). It wasn’t too complicated of a process, though I had to un-solder the wiring to the headlights internally. After some sandblasting and then some red oxide primer, they are ready for OD Green paint!
Driver’s side Headlight with rotating bracket (so you can change the bulb easy… see the next photo for how it works) before taking it apart…
After removing the screw bolt from the bottom (by the yellow wiring) the entire bracket rotates up. That allows you to change the headlight bulb or, more cleverly, shine light into the engine bay for work at night.
The modern soldered wiring. Originally the bulb was 6v, but the jeep was upgraded to a 12v system so this bulb is a post-WW2 12v.
All the pieces (minus the bracket) for the driver’s side headlight including the grounding cable (left). See that big bolt screw under the headlight shell in the center of the photo? We’ll come back to that bolt!
Layers of paint and rust on the headlight back shell. But what’s cool is you can see a LOT of the WW2 US Navy paint!
Passenger’s side headlight, you can see how rusted and bad looking that bracket is.
Passenger’s side headlight removed, with the bracket removed as well and the grounding wire.
Here’s that bolt I mentioned earlier… see that cursive F? That’s another Ford stamp from WW2!
Grill minus the headlights and the smaller blackout ‘marker lights’ below them.
After sandblasting the back headlight shell and the tray/ring for the driver’s blackout light that sits on the fender. Note the F stamp on the top of that ring (top of the image)
And, after sandblasting the headlight brackets, found more original F stamps!
Before and after showing some of the driver’s vs passenger side which I haven’t gotten to sandblasting yet.
Red Oxide primer on the driver’s side headlight shell. Ready for OD Green paint!
Red Oxide primer on the driver’s side headlight shell. Ready for OD Green paint!