Our car came with Edmunds & Jones (also known as E&J) headlights, model 577. Edmunds & Jones was a company that provided headlights (and side lights) to many automobile companies. The model 577 was one of the larger headlights made by the company and could be found as standard equipment on at least one other automobile besides the MICHIGAN.  It seems to turn up on 1911 & 1912 EMF Model 30 automobiles. I have yet to be able to determine what other cars used the Model 577, however, the E&J branded headlights was ubiquitous on other cars, including on Model T Fords. The model numbers were different and the diameter of the headlights tended to be smaller.  When we picked up our car from Steve Dickey in 2011, all the lights were in several boxes that had to be retrieved from Steve’s attic.

One headlight was all together. The other was disassembled and the mirror was in pieces.

Overall the condition of the lights was O.K., and with the exception of one headlight, they were intact, but in need of both polishing and perhaps replating.

In January of 2019, I initiated the headlight restoration process by disassembling them.

Close examination showed that some of the headlight trim was nickel plated. The rest was supposed to be painted black – as revealed by removing various parts and seeing black painted metal underneath. Most of the black paint had flaked off or had been polished off, and the brass metal that was exposed had badly tarnished. Likewise, the nickel plating was super tarnished and flaking off.  I was told by my previous nickel plating guy that the steel band inside the outer door rim could NOT be plated at the same time we plated the brass door rim. So, I removed the steel band. This required cutting the welded band and compressing it a bit to remove it.  It also required me to slightly flare the back edge of the door rim that had been rolled or crimped to trap the steel band when the light was manufactured.

I got all the rest of the parts of the headlights ready by cleaning them thoroughly, priming and painting.

After consulting with a number of folks, I determined that perhaps my original nickel plating guy was not being completely truthful about what did or didn’t need to be removed to successfully plate the headlight door rims.  So……. I further consulted and switched to a different plating shop that came highly recommended by other Horseless Carriage Club members – SANCHEZ POLISHING & PLATING, in Escondido, Calif. (760) 743-4988.  As seems to be the case with all things that need plating, the cost ranges from “Ouch – that’s expensive” to “Nose bleed-expensive.” Sanchez is near the upper middle of that range. But they do REALLY NICE work.  So….. You simply need to reconcile yourself to my standard restorationist rationale that I share with Janet.  “It’s O.K., Janet, we won’t have to do this again for about 80 to 100 years.”

While we were waiting for Sanchez to finish up the headlights, we drove to Fresno to pick up my dad, Vince and then headed back South to the annual Bakersfield Horseless Carriage Club Swap Meet on April 13, 2019.  While there we picked up several really nice parts. I have been looking for an E&J #577 for several years now, knowing that we needed some parts and a reflecting mirror. Wouldn’t you know that we had to go to Bakersfield to find a part that we bought from a local Fallbrook HCCA member, Les Von Nordheim.  I’m very happy all the same. Thank you Les!

Parts from the EMF headlight were immediately usable for our headlight restoration.