one of My 33 headlight reflectors is very dull. I heard that red dry rouge may shine em up. So I got up early this morning, making sure not to wake her, toook her rouge from her bag, snuck out to the garage(before first light) put some on a soft cloth and rubbed in a small area for a while, and got nothing. Maybe she's buying the cheap makeup again, or maybe I heard wrong from the beginning. So before I take her out to the woodshed, should real rouge really work?
(She's looking over my shuld now, so you know she's laughing.)I think its laughter..

You're probably thinking of jeweler's rouge. It sold as a bar which is applied to a polishing wheel. It will produce a nice shine but I'm not sure if it will work on the reflectors.
There is a good discussion on this topic in a post dated May 26, 2010 "renovating headlamp reflectors"

Not sure but I think that is the wrong rouge. I just happened to be polishing the rough looking 31 headlights I got to replace the painted ones on my 1930 with brasso, it helped alot on the reflectors but I am going to try something else to get more shine. It did work real well on the chrome outside though, they look great now

Hum.....since the reflectors are coated with silver why not try silver polish?

OMG, I am laughing so hard. Rouge/makeup make a lady's cheeks look red, hence rouge (French). As said, jeweller rouge is what your friend meant, but it is too course and will grind right through the silver on the reflector. A good silver polish is in order, but be gentle, the silver coating is not that thick.

[quote=Junkyard Dog]Hum.....since the reflectors are coated with silver why not try silver polish?

[/quote
I dug out her silver polish last week,that did nothing. So, Hum....away Dog!

If silver polish didn't work on the reflectors then there probably isn't enough silver coating left to shine. The best thing to do is to get your reflectors recoated with vacuum sealed aluminum and that way they never have to be polished again. With that process the reflectivity remains at 90% forever. And, also with that process the headlights are as bright as sealed beams.

Your reflectors need to be nickel plated first prior to sending them out to be sealed with aluminum.

JunkYardDog...Where can I have the Aluminum sealing done? .....

Uvira Inc
310 Pleasant Valley Road
Merlin, OR 97532-8871
Phone: (541) 474-5050

JunkYardDog, Thanks for the fast response!!!

You bet! Glad to help out.