Fixing the plate light
©Svenska Volvo 140-klubben/Swedish Volvo 140-club
In this article, Thomas and me will show how to fix the rear plate light to 140 67-72.
To make it worth the effort, fixing the plate light, the chrome layer under the plate light must be in good condition, beacause the thing we are going to work with here, is to the fix the yellowish and crackled plastic. If your plate light has got big cracks, and big pieces missing, you should consider finding another one instead. 
A tip is to search for cars on the scrap yard, that has the plate light, the frames for the flasher lamps and tail lights covered with paint. This was a hot styling trick, which many people adopted in the 80´s, this actually preserved the plastic and the chrome layer, and protected it from being damaged by salt and the sun. I have my self found a couple frames and plate lights that have looked like brand new when the covering paint have been removed.
 

One of the plate lights in this article was found at SVIS, which is a place where you also can search for one.
The thing to start off with is to dismantle the plate light from the car, which can be a bit tricky if the heads of the screws have been damaged, or if they are rusty. If they are stuck, you should try to drill the heads off the screws. Do not try to bend, since that can result in a cracked plate light.

When you now have got the plate light off the car you should drill out the rivets that holds the actual plate lamps. Remove the lamps and examine them. Depending on the condition of the lamps it can be necessary to fix them too. The lamps in this article just needed a blast with sand.
The plate light in the top is brand new. Compare it with the two below that we are going to work with! med. 
 

Robert drills out the rivets that holds the plate lamps. Be careful while doing this!
 

The lamps in this article just needed a blast with sand.
 
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Here, we have painted the bottom side three times with silver colored wheel paint. 
 		 The next step is to wash under side of the plate light, but when doing this you have to be very careful so the chrome does not come off.  It is just enough that a small part of the chrome layer is missing to make the plate light looking bad.
When I wash the plate light I put in some detergent and let water flush the dirt off. It doesn஥ed to be perfectly clean, it is just to get rid of the spiders nest and other nasty things. After the washing is done you can use kitchen paper to dry the water out, just put in the paper at the under side of the plate light and let the water dry out by itself. Do not use compressed air to dry the water out, since that will blow off the chrome layer straight away.
When itलy you should paint the under side of the platelight. I normally use silver colored wheel paint which I get from the gas station or a shop that sells these kind of things. The reason to choose silver is that if there is small holes in the chrome layer it looks a bit nicer with silver.
The function of the paint is to protect the chrome layer so it lasts longer. I put on at least three thick layers of paint, and it doesnୡtter if it flows a bit.  

Now it is time to start the grinding, and how much you will need to grind depends upon how yellowish and crackled the surface of the plastic is, the plastic is thicker than you might think so you can grind off quite a lot. The first of the two I am going to fix have some pieces of the chrome layer missing, and the color of the plastic is quite yellow. On the other one the chrome layer is in very good condition but the plastic has lot of crackles and has got a dark orange color.
When I am grinding a plate light I put it on top of a thick catalogue, this to prevent that small pieces of the chrome comes off at the edges of the plate light, this can easily happen when the grinding machine is vibrating.

I start off with an orbital sander machine fitted with wet and dry 80 paper, and you will see results straight away. You need to grind with sweeping movements so the plastic doesn৥t burnt. When you think that you have done enough grinding with the 80 paper, you can sweep some water over the surface, you will then easily see if there are any spots or areas that will need more grinding.
After you are done with the 80 paper, you swap to 180 paper, this is to remove all the deep marks from surface.
In order to make the polishing job of the plate light easier  
 

After you are done with the 80 paper, you swap to 180 paper, this is to remove all the deep marks from surface.
 
 
Here, you can see that the yellow surface disappears while grinding. ytan.
 
I highly recommend to do some sanding with 320 paper. When I am done with the orbital sander I normally switch to a smaller handheld machine to even out the edges of the plate light and other areas that are difficult to get access to with the bigger machine.
At this point you can use the silver paint on the under side of the plate light again, if any pieces of the chrome layer have come off around the edges during the grinding.

Now I am switching over to a buffing wheel, which I use together with pumice stone, and water, to polish the surface.  At this stage you should spend lot of time with removing all the grinding marks from the surface, until it೭ooth as velvet.  Flush with water and look for remaining marks, continue the work if necessary.
If there still are any yellow areas or crackles in the plastic, it might be necessary to go back to the previous step using the orbital sander. Itயt possible to remove all the crackles, but most of them are actually located close to the surface so it should be possible to remove most of them.
When I am grinding a plate light I put it on top of a thick catalogue, this to prevent that small pieces of the chrome comes off at the edges of the plate light, this can easily happen when the grinding machine is vibrating. Dont't forget to use eye protection!
 

Switching over to a buffing wheel, which I use together with pumice stone, and water, to polish the surface.  At this stage you should spend lot of time with removing all the grinding marks from the surface, until it೭ooth as velvet.  

I use 桵ml;xan㯰per polish, which does a good job on plastic too. Apply the copper polish to the surface of the plate light and polish with sweeping movements. Do not stop too long at the same spot since that can lead to that the plastic get burnt, and that happens very quickly.		 If you now have a plate light without grinding marks, and are satisfied with the result, itഩme for the final step, which is the final polishing of the plate light.
I use 桵ml;xan㯰per polish, which does a good job on plastic too. Apply 桵ml;xan䯠the surface of the plate light and polish with sweeping movements. Do not stop too long at the same spot since that can lead to that the plastic get burnt, and that happens very quickly. You should use a fresh buffing wheel. Never use the one from the previous step.
The plate light should after this step have a shining finish, almost like a mirror. When you are finished with the polishing you should wash the plate light, with just soap and water. Sweep over the surface with your hand and flush with water, do not use a brush since that can leave scratch marks on the plastic.

Now itഩme assembly the plate light again, and the easiest way to mount the lamps is, to use properly sized rivets. A tip is to make the holes in the plastic slightly bigger than necessary. That will prevent the rivets to create tensions, which can lead to cracks in the plastic. 
If needed you can also wash, polish and paint the lampglass so you don८d up with different intensity between the two lamps.

Now they are ready to be mounted on a car. One of them are going to be mounted on webmasters 142 -68, and the other one are going to be mounted on my fathers 142 -72, which can be seen at the Thursday gatherings at Brostugan (Stockholm) if anyone wants to see it live.
I think you should do some training on a scraped plate light, since itࢥtter to do the mistakes on that one instead of the one you are going to use on the car.
You can use the same procedure to fix rearlamp and flasher lamp frames, but then you should not use the orbital sander because that will crumble them into pieces. Itࢥtter then to use the small handheld machine.
This was all for now. The material for this job can be found in hardware stores or at the gas station.
Good luck!     

Text: Robert Scherman,
Photo: Thomas Näsström

The plate lights in the same order as on the first picture. Here you can see, that the brand new and not used (at the top) even is more yellow than the two that we have been working with!