I hate that for you man, I had a barracuda with a XM-L2 in it and sold it because I couldn’t get into it. The reflector was decent on it but it wasn’t buttery smooth.
Dale what polish are you using m8? i never polished a reflector yet i have several to tune, bought even a dremel especialy for this :bigsmile:
I don’t want to derail the thread. But you car should be unaffected by the emmisions scandal as 2015 should have the new engine. What really bugs me is how many massively thirsty cars there are in the US and yet they seem to be shouting the loudest about the situation. I am not defending VW but here in Europe it is transpiring that this problem is not just VW but Vauxhall (GM) as well. And if that was not enough we have the new pinto with a lot of the vauxhalls as they are catching fire and trapping people inside. Vauxhall are denying there is a problem and not recalling any cars. So give me higher emissions any day.
By the way my Audi has 186000 miles on the clock and returns 56 mpg, on a rural run 68.9mpg. So don’t get down about your car I would pick a VW TDI over an F150 any day.
what does it mean?
Mitko, I use Mother’s Billet Aluminum Polish. I do it by hand, with a newspaper. I don’t like using a Dremel as it tends to leave swirls, or that’s my experience anyway, since about 1993 when I got my first rotary tool.
I used to do a lot of work with a gunsmith friend, who taught me that the paper in a newspaper polished better than cloth. I also know that polishing should be done in alternating directions, so with the machine marks being across the direction of the light’s path I sand those lines out by crossing them, then alternate when I polish. Newspaper is also excellent for cleaning the windshield of your car.
I cheated this time, mounted the reflector in the lathe and spun it up slow, used sandpaper to cut the plating and sub plating out and worked up to a 1500 grit finish, then started the polish.
It’s fairly grueling, no doubt about it, but the end result is an extreme high polish and an index finger any proctologist would be proud of! 
I got to looking at my Barracuda a few minutes ago and decided to try to get the pill out to de-dome it. Dang pill is glued solid, can’t budge it down in that deep reflector. So I took a chance and tried something a friend told me, I didn’t hot-dedome it but instead I tried it cold, pried the dome off way down in that well it’s in. And it worked! Now the beam is much tighter, even better focused.
How about 200.25Kcd for 894.99M throw in my Cuda? :bigsmile: Much better! Ringy, due to the ultra deep reflector no doubt, but much better. Maybe I can leave it alone now, or maybe I’ll make a tool and get that pill out and make it a single cell 6A beasty, who know’s what kind of wild hair I’ll end up getting up my * about this one! lol
Dale, it’s been more than a year since you polished it. How’s the reflector going? Does the polished surface oxidized?
Most AT reflector space are sealed from the battery compartment, perhaps some silica gel/O2 buster glued somewhere behind the reflector helps to stops the oxidation.
- Clemence
I sold the Barracuda in my sell off a couple of months ago. Moved a bunch of lights out that I wish I still had but the situation demanded it and it was what it was.
I have other lights I’ve hand polished the reflector and they don’t show any oxidation that I can tell. A favorite among those is the little FandyFire Rook. You’d never know to look at it that it’s not the stock finish, even now.
Great, because just the other day I found a knurled reflector in one of mine. I will polish it then. No easy access to a qualified silver coating here…
Thanks Dale