The Official 356Talk Forum

Posting here also as I am not sure the product forum gets many views

All, I am contemplating having authentic reproductions made of the sealed beam Headlight lenses offered by Hella on the later pre-A cars through early A's and the lenses used on the T2 A's through T6 cars. As far as I know these have not been available for years. Before anybody cries foul, we will only do this if we get explicit permission from Hella.

I know that slight variations exist so the types we are considering are:

- Early style with small Hella logo and elipse as posted by Chuck H. here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33980
- "Smiley" style lenses as posted by Jim B. here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33980

The million dollar question is how many of you out there would be interested in a set. Not doing this to get rich, just trying to help some of my own restorations and other out there. For the sake for discussion let's assume that the price would be in the $100-150 each range and cheaper if a lot of people express an interest.

I would be interested, but I am uncertain from this string whether the correct lenses for a Pre A car, #60240 are covered by the discussion and/or photos....

paul vantol wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:29 am I would be interested, but I am uncertain from this string whether the correct lenses for a Pre A car, #60240 are covered by the discussion and/or photos....

The same 60370 (1) lens was used from ~late 1952-early 1956 on U.S. and Canadian-market 356s.
This is the style with the small Hella logo, vestigial oval/ellipse and no other markings on the face, other than an indexing mark.
This is one of the two styles proposed for reproduction.

I'd be interested in the Hella 60370-1 lenses.

All,

Thanks for those that responded to my post. It appears, a bit to my surprise, that there is no real interest out there for an accurate reproduction. As such, I will likely not pursue this project as the economics will not work.

Thanks,

Joris

Joris / All, I've made the early Hella lenses in the past and sold out of them. I'm now getting more interest in them and would like to make another run but I have a problem in retrieving my molds from the glass foundry . If there is anyone in the Pittsburg PA. area willing to help then it would save me a plane flight to collet them. Otherwise it will have to wait until I have the time to book and take a flight. As I'm rather busy this might be a while.

I am potentially interested in a pair or two for T6 cars. (Sorry Joris, I didn't see your original post in the Product forum). Is there a team effort required to retrieve Rainer's molds? Sorry, I am not close to Pittsburgh.