Cibie Oscar and Super Oscar Driving lights

I Love Cibie driving lights, there was a time when they were the best money could buy, maybe they still are :) everyone who needed the best driving lamp bought them, most of the worlds rally teams have at one time or another used them, LeMans cars used them......

They come in spot, drive and fog lenses. Spot has a clear lense, the other two might be hard to work out from photos so ask the owner. Early ones have a grey painted back and chrome rim, later ones are all black. The lower mount comes loose and some have been "fixed" by drilling out the original aluminium rivets and replacing with bolts, ugly but it does work. As supplied they are NOT waterproof, which does nothing for the not too flash reflector coating!!!! you need to seal them up with electrical tape around the gap between the rim and main housing (and anywhere else water can get). Why are they like this? they are French.....

UNFORTUNATELY, the plating on the reflector is not as long lasting as a lot of other lesser brands (Im being nice). Once this starts to detoriate the lamps are NOT WORTH OWNING, they are junk, you will need to buy new reflector assemblies. People say "still work ok" this translates to "the bulb works" you could be buying an expensive bulb.....

this is a good one (spot lense) This one is a dud (drive lense)

You cannot "rechrome" the reflectors, they arn't chrome for a start and the process is expensive IF you could remove the lense from the reflector, they are a ONE PIECE unit. Chrome is no where as reflective as the original coating anyway so forget it!.(they are vacuum aluminised from new) not sure if new production ones are better, hopefully they are

You cannot buy a new "lense" you have to buy an assembly and they are NOT cheap, an Oscar/Super Oscar lense assembly is about A$150 each!

I wonder why people do it but why buy something used for more than its new price? unless the reflectors are mint factor in A$300 for a new pair then add postage and the price of the lamps? bargin ? doubt it.

Funny thing is you can get new Oscars for A$270 plus postage........ so why muck about with old ones past their use by date? If you stick with the damaged reflectors, be prepaired to be shocked at the lack of light these will give you, probbaly worse than a set of $40 K-Mart specials......... I would buy new Cibie's as they are still so much better then the average lamp its not funny.

You can also buy these in shops (you know, shops in buildings, not cyber space) CHEAPER than on here, yes you might have to ring around, probably even visit the shop, give it a go it might be a fun outing.... :) you might save some money.

BUY NEW ONES!!!!!! dont muck about with lamps that are now past their best. If you found this helpfull or interesting please tick the little box below :)