Adding lightness & light part 2

With some lightness and coating added to the headlamp pod's mountings, I started fitting everything back to the car. But not before some final coating. With the pods permanently in the "up" position there is a fair chance of being blinded by (sun)light reflecting onto them. So they were duly coated matt black. I had hoped to finish this little project in the few hours available today. The right hand side went pretty smoothly ...

But while refitting the left hand headlamp support and pod I was reminded of the fact that while restoring the car many years ago, that had been a bit of a struggle too. The complete assembly was sitting to far to the inside, clearly visible in the pictures below. The right hand side ...

... and the left hand side ...

As a result of this the pod was touching the edge of the aperture in the front panel. At the time I thought I had fitted the pod incorrect onto the lifting mechanism. But it turned out that the mounting panel was fitted rather badly to the car's body shell. So the spacers I used than between headlamp support and bulkhead were duly refitted. This improved the positioning of the pod enough to give fairly even gaps, although I did use a rubber strip between pod  and bodywork for extra peace of mind. After that it was time to refit the headlamp bowls (also treated to a new layer of black powder coating) and wiring ...

Remains fitting the headlights and the rubber headlight surrounds ...

Adding lightness & light part 1

With my two roadworthy TR7's of the road again for a three month period starting on the first of December, it was again time for another little winter project. This time for 't Kreng, shedding a few kilograms from the front of the car. It was actually one of the jobs meant to be carried out when the bodywork would be tackled. The original plan had been to weld in a steel support in the headlamp holes in the nose panel, and bolt the headlamp pods directly to these. This would not only shed a few kilograms but also make room for a nice big air filter cone in the space were the lift motors used to be. But as that looks like it is still a few years in the future and the lift mechanisms of the headlamps were showing clear signs (and sounds!) of wear, I decided to go for a temporary solution. Remove the lift motors and replace them with some simple supports between the lift-motors' steel mounting brackets and the alloy hinge platform.

But with the headlamps removed and the lifting mechanism dismantled I had a better look at the available space and parts. It was immediate clear that all that was needed to fix the lamp pods in the "up" position were some rather simple supports. But I also noticed there was a lot of steel on the original brackets that would lose its function, and as such could be removed. This not only reduces weight even more, with the bulk of the remaining weight sitting further back (which is always good). It also provides room for a future adaptation to fit the already mentioned air filter.

When I started this little project the plan had been to fabricate a simple support from steel strips, bolted in place using the original mounting holes. But with the temporary fix becoming permanent meant the design for the necessary supports needed to be tidied up a bit. So instead of one, I decided to go for two supports per side, machined from aluminium. Using my AutoCad skills and modern technology to fabricate these ...

Apart from that it only needed drilling a few extra holes and removing some material from the alloy platforms (where the spring is mounted) to get everything together. And to underline their permanent status all parts were powder coated ...

before they were re-assembled ...

To be continued ...

FHC resto nr. 46; Rear lights

This is a typical restoration job that is quite easy to perform at home. But to do it properly takes a fair amount of time. Some pictures, first the rear lights as they came of the car ...

From these pictures it is quite clear that a fair amount of dirt has accumulated inside the rear lights over the years. Mostly pretty easy to remove with a mild detergent, warm water and some assorted brushes. But with a car that has been repainted somewhere in the past it is almost inevitable that there is some overspray on the lenses due to inept masking (lazy buggers). I used a surgical knife to scrape of the overspray, after that the affected areas were polished with #1200 and #2000 (wet) emery paper. For the final polishing I used tooth paste, works a treat ...

The housings/reflectors also had collected a fair amount of dirt over the years. So much that I needed heavier equipment to remove dirt and corrosion, and prepare the surface for painting. A friends shot-blasting-cabinet proved perfect for the task ...

After which it was time to add some bling with chrome paint from a rattle can (VHT Plate Finish) ...

Assemble everything using new gaskets ...

And fit them to the car together with the new licence plate and production tags ...

After that I searched through my cable looms today, more on that later ...