A little off topic but thought some of you might want to see this and have some info on it.
I'm helping some friends sell some odd stuff they inherited when their dad died. One of those things is this World War II 60" searchlight. I know a little bit about these things but have never actually worked on one. The man who owned it used it for business promotion. It has been converted from the original carbon arc to an 18kw HMI bulb. It was done by a company in Hollywood. I'll have to check the paperwork again to find out the exact specs of the conversion. The generator is an old 35KW Onan with a 292 y-block Ford engine. The engine is locked up due to water leaking into the exhaust while it was in storage.

Just wondering if anyone has any more info on these things or has seen one of these conversions before? Any idea what it's worth? I'm not sure if the conversion adds or subtracts from the value. I'm just trying to find as much info on this thing as possible before they try to sell it. Anyway to determine the condition of this thing without a working generator? The mirror probably needs to be refinished and the glass would need to be cleaned on the inside. Otherwise it really doesn't seem too bad.

Thanks,
-Colin

 

the gen-set is not original, that should have a continental flat head 6 cylinder in it.

 

Somebody somewhere will want this, even if its just for the Batman conversion.

First place I'd start my "market research" would be eBay, aka FleaBay with good reason.