Chromed Lunar rebuild

Comment

Comment by andy ross on December 11, 2017 at 5:00am

Okay, Claude - pure chrome it is! No blueing - it's not hot enough, as you say...

Re copper Lunar, never heard of one! Have you? Interesting scope for a contrasting fill, as you say...

Yellow/orange a traditional Crestworth fill for early (copper) Astros, isn't it? It always looks good.... specially with that ace goo you've stockpiled... Or possibly something (MF?) royal blue +?? Good strong colours, anyway 

(I once saw a photo of a purple-anodised Lunar, hmmm, and there's talk of a Flocked version, never seen it)

Comment by Claude J on December 9, 2017 at 7:50pm

P.S. the blue you see in the photo is from a mathmos Jellywash hitting he adjacent wall

Comment by Claude J on December 9, 2017 at 7:48pm

I have waxed a few aluminum mathmos lamps when i took them out of the box first time in hopes of them not oxidizing. My older ones are all dull and need polishing when I unpack them next time.

This plating company also clear-coated the chrome Lunar with some specialty coating made for that purpose

I have no blueing
As i recall from my trike and Show Car headers,  it only got that cool bluish tint as a result of the excessive temps and only right near the cylinder head.

Maybe over time i might get some on the lower cone?, but doubtful as i expect it won't get hot enough.

SInce I have a lot of vintage goo, I am going to try to regoo the other White pearl Lunar lamp this weekend if I find time and energy.

I might try yellow lava and orange fluid  combination.

Maybe next refurbished Lunar will be just copper plated?

I can get that done cheaper locally instead of shipping  or delivering it 3hrs away

I think the Yellow/orange combo would look stunning and compliment the copper plating color

I am regretting not chroming the legs of my pearl white Lunar to make it look like minimum telstar,.

Dammit on the Mathmos logos decals, but i remember i have the material leftover from the garden railroad buildings/trains to make my own water soluable decals using the printer, then clear-coat them when applied.

Comment by andy ross on December 6, 2017 at 12:30pm

Yep, I'd forgotten orig Lunars were ally... but I use chrome cleaner on them - and so will you in due course on yours, I fear, you must have had a bike and cleaned the logo on the petrol tank... (just dated myself)

re decals, Math don't do them as retrofit, which is fair enough I guess

100% on "old lava" quality - there's a pic somewhere of a clear/clear Grande, quite superb

(btw, in my chrome defence, there is a rich, blue-ish tinge to good chrome (bike exhausts talk about "blueing" if I remember right from the dim and distant Triumph-al past), which your guys have achieved. Unmistakeable.

Comment by Claude J on December 6, 2017 at 1:17am

Sorry for not getting back earlier, i'm not getting email notifications of posts for some reason.

MIleHigh

Actually, that Lunar I had chromed used to be yours....

It does add a bit of weight and thickness due to technique

First polish, copper plate, fill dings with lead, sand with 4/5 progressively finer grits of emery cloth, polish again, copper plate again, polish again, chrome plate 3 more times, Polish again, Clear coat.

It was a bit pricy, but not every chrome plater goes that extra mile..

I want to get a 200% bottle and Kirk Holo Glitter for it, but funds are temporarily low

Andy, Thanks

Im glad my amatuer camera phone photography worked out to show the difference of chrome compared to polished aluminum.

I'll never worry about dullness and oxidation again.

All I need are some appropriately sized  british flag or Mathmos decals to complete it  :)

I do like the flow from the vintage lava. It's from the late 90's/early 2000 Grandes that I bought on a dealer buy out and saved when i converted them to color change. 

I must have 2 gallons of it saved..

I used a lot of SLES (@80ML)

Im finding the more SLES I use, the more gooey it gets,..(?)  which is backasswards from what I read. 

I used a whole quart in the old white colossus that took 6 quarts of Magma tower goo and it flowed like mad

Maybe its the extra coil?

I do like the neon yellow tint. It adds just the right touch of difference.

_____________________________

When I have money to blow, I may have the legs of the white pearl Lunar stripped and chromed to make it look like a millennium telstar.. Not sure yet.  Or maybe #3>?

I'd like to make a LUNAR color changing at some point

But it hard to find 135MM color change LED rings, 140mm are a hair too tight

Comment by MileHigh on December 5, 2017 at 11:00pm

Super nice!

I bet that triple plating added some weight to the lamp.

You can also make a custom Lunar bottle using 5 32 oz LL bottles.

I used the lava from 4 bottles and the fluid from 5 great flowing #03 LL bottles that were all made in the USA during the 90's and it turned out great!

Blue/White Lunar

Comment by andy ross on December 4, 2017 at 2:10pm

Well worth the wait, that is looking good as new.

Actually, it almost looks better than the NIB Lunars occasionally posted....

The triple-plating gives a richness and depth to the chrome, and that's a great lava/MF colour scheme too. The older LL Goo seems more highly rated - now I can see why!

It's perhaps biased - as a Brit - but I think the Lunar has to be one of the two best lava lamp designs of all time.

Comment by Claude J on December 1, 2017 at 3:16pm

The ability to photograph chrome is challenging.

It is difficult to be able to show in the photographs the complete beautification and transformation that this expensive process has benefited this lamp.