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Restoring a 60 year old traffic signal

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Robert Haas

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A large 12" stop light by the LFE corporation. This is pre LED so it used incandescent bulbs. It hung on a corner in a small town in Florida until it was replaced in the 70's. It was then gifted to a retiring city maintenance man and his grand son inherited it. It has been hung outside his grandads house for the last 40 years. It is in pretty rough condition but I am up for a challenge so I said I would take it on as a side project.

So here are the pictures of it as it arrived at my shop.


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Glass lenses and aluminum reflectors.
 
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Robert Haas

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Began disassembly. Lots of oxidation and rust where it could form. I might have bit off more then I can chew with this one.


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All of the rubber seals have gone back to the elements so to speak, hard, and cracked or outright disintegrated.

Dissimilar metals have fused. All ferrous materials are rusted to dust.

So with the help of my three favorite penetrates,

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A good soaking and I was able to get it apart
 
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Robert Haas

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The aluminum reflectors were ugly, I honestly thought they were unsavable, however with a lot of elbow grease and some Blue Magic brand metal polish they are going to be very usable. I am polishing the back as well as this will be a full restoration and when the owner opens them up I wnat the inside to be as nice as the outside.

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Robert Haas

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The Glass lenses were so hazed. Decades of **** baked on to them made them completely obscure.

I soaked them in a lacquer thinner bath for a couple of days and then used a cerium oxide pumice glass polishing compound on a felt power buff to cut the crud off of them. It worked. I was able to bring back the sharp brilliant colors of this American Made glass.

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That gets me current. Will continue on the reflectors and lenses. Then I will focus on the lens hangers and hardware.

The housings will be a big project but one I should be able to pull off.
 
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Lassen Forge

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Apr 26, 2014
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Can't wait to see this one come back from the dead!

When I was on the bridge we used something similar to these on the traffic metering lights coming off the toll plaza - the incandescent bulbs they used were 90W 120V from GE with the front (meaning the half furthest from the screw in part) half surface reflectorized to shine back onto that aluminum reflector...

Good news is they're a standard bulb base (not a Mogul base) so you could use a "normal" bulb in them, but those reflector bulbs make them pop. I know someone who also has a former pole mount (with a walk/dont walk box under it, another bit of analog coolness to look for)...

Keep your eyes peeled at municipal auctions, sometimes you will find parts (and controllers) out there...
 
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Robert Haas

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dwall174 said:
Were you lucky enough to also get the old style Electro-Mechanical Controller with it?

I helped a friend of mine work on one of those old controllers years ago.
It was very interesting to see how those old controllers worked!

Now days there all digital-electronics.

Doug
Click to expand...

I ordered a sequencer that I can program. This will live in the owners "Man cave" so I thought it should have some options. The sequencer can be programed for a random display or hooked up to a sound trigger.

I am going to build a stand or wall mount too.
 
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iajonesy

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Iowa
Are those things 110 volts? I would think you would be able to source the electronics fairly easily. I always thought I'd like to have one but never found one close by or cheap enough. Yours is looking good so far. Keep us posted.

Any new truck projects?

Mike
 
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Toolfool

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Tallahassee, FL
Robert Haas said:
I ordered a sequencer that I can program. This will live in the owners "Man cave" so I thought it should have some options. The sequencer can be programed for a random display or hooked up to a sound trigger.
Click to expand...

Have a link to the sequencer ? I've had a traffic light waiting years for a rebuild.
 
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Offcenter12

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Feb 3, 2018
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Now this is cool! Thank you for the detailed description of products and techniques. That information is always useful for hacks like me. :thumbup:
 
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Robert Haas

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iajonesy said:
Are those things 110 volts? I would think you would be able to source the electronics fairly easily. I always thought I'd like to have one but never found one close by or cheap enough. Yours is looking good so far. Keep us posted.

Any new truck projects?

Mike
Click to expand...
our build is still going 2 years in so far:thumbup:
 
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coljar

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Belpre, Ohio
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[/url]anonymous pictures website[/IMG]

I'll be watching your progress. There is a mint 12" hanging in my son's old bedroom in the house. The one in the picture above is going in my garage along with a Walk/Don't walk signal.
 
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Stadger

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Nov 19, 2016
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I hope he's paying you well. Don't be surprised if you see it hanging outside in the weather when you're done.
 
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gte718p

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Mar 12, 2009
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Robert Haas said:
ok I'll send you 20 bucks, build me 2 of them and keep the change :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I’m down. Unfortunately one of the down sides of living in Hawaii is it takes me about two months to get parts from China. I have a fairly steady stream of parts coming, but no relay boards right now.

If you want to make your own with the parts listed, I’ll give you the code and wiring for it. The cool thing is you can literally make it do anything you want. When I lived in VA parts from China normally took three weeks.
 
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jkherd

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Mar 22, 2009
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Southwest Missouri
I found one at a flea market, it isn't as old as yours but with a little cleaning and a controller off amazon I think it turned out pretty good. Yours looks great! :thumbup:
 

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