Light and Smoke

One restoration job you can do at home while the Minnesota winter encourages you to stay inside is the light and smoke vent covers above every set of two seats. The units have two glass lenses that focus the light to its passenger and two smoke vents with sliding covers to increase the intake of surrounding air. Each unit is held to the rack by two screws. When removed, they will typically show their 50+ years of wear.

There will usually be multiple layers of paint from the various interior rebuilds done by Greyhound and by later owners. In this example you can see at least three former paint jobs. Note the encouragment to 'Please Open When Smoking.' The glass lenses are, of course, in the middle, and the heads of the two screws holding this evacuator unit in place are visible next to the lights. The two holes are for the single throw toggle switches still up in the parcel rack space with the bulbs themselves. And the small rectangular openings at either end are where the smoke is pulled in when the slider lever (which protrudes from the square hole in the middle) is opened.

A look at the back will reveal what needs to be restored and what the tasks might be.

You will typically see rust, dirt, bug parts and a variety of historical miscellanea that need to be cleaned out. There is a felt or maybe horsehair-type seal that surrounds the light lens sub-assembly and that will need replacement.

When the lens sub-assembly is removed (the two screws and washers at either end), the unit can be removed from the cover. The two glass lenses are held in by 3 metal brackets with a screw and washer for each, assuming parts haven't been lost in the past as in this case (one missing bracket).

The lenses can be easily cleaned with Windex, but if missing or chipped/cracked, you'd only be able to hope to find a replacement from someone who had removed these units from an RV Scenicruiser conversion.

The brackets can be brushed to remove the corrosion, as can the screws and washers, although the latter can be replaced as well. Note that the entire lens housing is surrounded by what appears to be a paper seal which will typically need replacement. I may use plumber's tape unless I find something more suitable.

In the photo above, you can see the remnants of the paper seal which surrounds the lens sub-assembly. The entire metal surface will be cleaned but not painted since there is no need to do so and it preserves the part numbers and the helpful notation: Outboard Left Front. The black rectangular seal I will probably replace with adhesive-backed felt or something comparable. Both seals were undoubtedly designed to keep out smoke and keep in the light.