Turning 1940’s Blast Proof Submarine lights into Porch Lights
While bumming downtown in Omaha, I was looking for odd, interesting items for my Vintage Addict store. I came across these 1940”s Explosion-proof lights. The shop owner, who has been in the business for 40 years, had never seen anything like them. He had six of these unusual lights. They were still wrapped in newspapers from 1963 but they look 20 years older. As the lights did not have any holes for wiring, I was not sure about making them work. But I slap myself and repeated the antique buyer mantra “the best time to buy an antique is when you see it, as it probably will not be there when you come back.”
Not many pictures here, the project was pretty straightforward, and I buy some LED dust to dawn sensor lights to use with them.
The breakdown was very simple to unscrew the brass ring and separate. Each light still had the original rubber gasket.
Next I simply sanded the bodies down, cleaned and painted with Enamel and clear coat.
Finally complete and installed!
The switched on the side really do work!
Also, these lights did not have dusk to dawn sensors, but I found LED bulbs which do! So they look great at night.