Translucent Stain/Paint for Light Bulbs......

[Meat Hunter]

Translucent Stain/Paint for Light Bulbs......

About 30 or 40 years ago I ran across some translucent stain/paint (in different colors) that was designed to be painted on incandescent light bulbs and could withstand the heat without burning.

For the last few months I have been searching the internet and everywhere else that I can think of to see where I can find some of this colored translucent stain/paint today.

Has anyone seen a source of this product in recent years?

[some seeing eye]

What color? What temperature - incandescent, fluorescent, LED? What bulb size? Dip in - can't use it all, brush on, spray on?

[BBadger]

I think it might be called "light bulb lacquer" or "lamp dip"/"bulb dip" specifically stuff like Rosco's Colorine. Colorine is discontinued, but there are other products like Foliatec GLOW or HATOLite. Those seem to be only available in Europe though.

You might ask around a theater lighting supplies shop if you know of one.

[Captain Goddammit]

You can also just get CFLs in colors at any big joint like H-D. I replaced the incandescent red and green side navigation lamps on my MV with those, I'd previously used incandescent bulbs with either paint or colored film around them.
Works much better.
I've since gone from there to colored LED bulbs.

[Meat Hunter]

Yup. Clorine was the name of the coloring agent that I used back in my former 70's flower child & back-to-the-earth life. It has been so long that I had forgotten the name. As with many things that work well, thanks for letting me know that it is no longer available.

I now have some new search words and options. Thank you....

What type of lights? On my little trailer, I have small 12v incandescent lights located above head height on all four sides. When I purchased my trailer from the factory, I had the company install them on all four sides so that I would have some "work light" if it were ever needed.

There are not many reference lights on at the BRC airport at night. I was thinking that I would paint several so that I could turn them on when I left my trailer at night and it might make it easier to find/identify.

I will also check out the CFL's at HD to see if I can find something that will work.

[Captain Goddammit]

Are you talking about automotive tail light sized bulbs?
The stuff at HD I mentioned was Edison-base household style.
I'd go LED for what you're doing for sure. Less power and brighter. One of the places with the best selection you could browse is SuperbrightLEDS (dot com). They (not just that place but "they" in general) make everything these days.

[trilobyte]

I'll throw out the 'just say no' to painting light bulbs comment. There's a reason why you haven't really seen it in decades - either worked poorly or not at all. As someone who's used colored bulbs for years (damn, for decades now that I think about it) the colored bulbs from back then sucked compared to modern colored bulbs. Painted/dipped bulbs were uneven in color, and incandescents in general are far more delicate and prone to fail (plus use more juice) than either CFL or LED. Over the years my camp has made a slow transition to better lighting, first from incandescent to CFL, and then a couple years ago we went LED as the bulb prices came down in price. I was surprised to see that the big box hardware joints were carrying affordable colored bulbs.

As for trailer lights, I think the way they work is the bulbs are largely always white, amd the color is achieved through differen't colored plastic diffusers or covers.

[mudpuppy000]

I think one of our camp mates used engine paint and that worked well. Probably anything that's rated for high temps.

[maladroit]

Oh for 2016's sake just use LEDs and be done with it

[Roundabout]

There are thousands of 12v LED lights on eBay for automotive application. I feel certain that you can find one that will fit the fixtures on your trailer. But order soon, because some of them take a long time in transit from China.