Today I went on my rounds of the local consignment shops. I try to do this regularly as part of my life long, so far, quest to find an old LaPeppina or Caravel espresso machine. Some day it will be there, today was not the day. All was not lost though. I found this sweet old flashlight.
It is branded ABC, which I find to be pretty cool. Dont know why. The light was manufacture in "HONG KONG BRITISH EMPIRE" Another cool thing.
I put in a new set of D sized alkies and measured 5 lumens in my I.S.
Here is a beamshot
My wife laughed and said that she told the kids, not long ago, that I would get on an old flashlight collecting kick. She doesn't know what she is talking about.
I love this light, who knows where it been.
The dog likes it too but she likes everything I like.
I would leave it as it is. If you want a high performance light and/or in good condition there are much better options than pimping an oldschool light like this... :) Keep it true!
It’s going to stay like it is. I have been shining it around the garage all night. It brings you back to when flashlights just were not very bright but you were glad to have them. When this light was new someone probably thought it was the cats a$$. And it was, still is.
I like it! I'd leave it as is for sure. However if you find something similar without all the character or if you find another one or two if would be cool to keep it looking the same on the outside but having it redone on the inside to put out much more light.
Hotwire...for round two!
Edit: I went and looked around on ebay a bit. The more I looked around the more I really appreciate yours. When I was a kid there were metal ones (not quite that cool looking) and there were plastic ones and some that had some of both. THe metal ones were silver (bare aluminum).
I like the fact that yours is painted red and some of that is coming off. Much more interesting than a completely bare or a completely painted one.
Maybe I'll keep an eye out for something like that as well. You should take a picture of it sometime among some of your modern flashlights just for the contrast!
Thanks to this thread I found a light similar to yours on ebay for a “Buy Me Now” price of $10 + $5 shipping. It is made in HK by Warco and is green where yours is red but otherwise it looks the same. Supposedly it is in good working order including the bulb. I wanted a retro looking flashlight and I’ll soon have one!
It’s beautiful! There is also a blue one. I’m going to keep my eyes open for the set. Full report when you get it. I didn’t realize that the momentary on buttons matched the paint color. Looks like there might be some kind of logo on the side. Let us know when you get it.
Pair of 32600s and an ROP High bulb. 7-900 or so warm lumens for an hour. And if you live in the US - cheap bulbs. An ROP Low bulb will run for a couple of hours at eye melting brightness.
Or even longer on an XM-L.
But the ROP needs no modification - so is easily reversible. But the ROP is a 30W+ bulb. Heat can be an issue...