Panther Kallista Restoration: Halogen headlight convertion

Home again and the last helicopter flight as I no longer work for Seajacks, hello MPI.

Before I went away last time I could not resist fitting the refurbed mud flaps, I riveted them to the support bar then to the car, I had to finish the job with bolts as I ran out of rivets but shall now replace these as the new ones have arrived.

They look like new.

Lots of purchases while away and thankfully the maple veneer I ordered had arrived, I have done a bit research into veneering on a thin substrate and the main thing to do is to "do to the back what you do to the front". Basically to prevent it bending like a banana, stick a cheaper veneer to the back, this is called balancing. I knew before I left this needed doing but it was sent snail post and didn't arrive in time, better late than never.

I also found a nice pair of 51/2" Lucas driving lights, they are quite old and a little pitted but I reckon after a good polish they will look great. I have decided to fit them directly onto the bumper as I am not too certain of the strength of the badge bar. I have made brackets to weld onto the bumper and these just need drilling, I have bought S/S rods, so ready to go. I shall wire these into the main beams

One of the main problems I was having was polishing the car as I only have a large polishing machine with a 7" pad so after a search of eBay I bought a 3" Sealey GSA722 polisher for around £28.

The waffle head come separate, works great.

I also search the web for the best wax and it seems that there are as many opinions as there are waxes so I went with the same make as the polish I am using which is Farecla G3, quite expensive for only 200g but great reviews and supposedly lasts for 6 months.

The main work today has been fitting one of the new Halogen headlights, these are made by Wipec and are great value at only £23.50 for the complete set.

I have had to do a little alteration to the wiring and I also bought a new plug, the shop only had one in stock so I shall have to search tomorrow for the second.

The new lights have a side light fitted for which there is no wiring on the headlight loom, to get around this I have fitted a piggy back to the side light negative then linked into the headlight negative so both use the same wire. I then fitted a new wire from the side light positive and shall link this into the new side lights on the wings and then down to the indicators sidelights so the power will flow from the indicator sidelight.

I fitted the rubber boots then fitted into the casing.

I gave them a test.

I have sent away for around 30 2 pin waterproof plug connectors from Hong Kong, so until they arrive I shall have to wait to connect and fully test.

The headlight rims that arrived are slightly different from the originals in that the securing bracket hole is on the rim as well as on the shell.

You can see, no hole on the original, other than this the new ones and the old are identical.

Very simple to fix this little problem, I just bought another S/S 5mm bolt and blanked of the hole, I used a very thin nylon washer between the paint and the head of the bolt to seal and prevent damage.

You can see the bolt in position, this does not impede the fixing bracket as it is a few mil further back. I also splashed out on 2 new sets of springs. I bought these on eBay for a couple of £ as the old ones had gotten into the same state as the old rims.

These are a nice tight fit and centre the lamp into the frame then its a simple matter of feeding the wire through the shell connecting bolt and hooking the bottom clip into position and pushing into place.

I prepped the bracket first so it just took a couple of turns to secure.

These brackets are threaded imperial either BSW or UNC so if as I did you have lost one of the round headed screws then you will have to tap out to 5mm for a new screw, unless of course you can find one with the original thread.

Once all together it looks like there are two screws fitted to secure.

Once all finished I put it back on the car to see what it looked like.

I was busy in my spare time on board making parts for the car, I had bought pieces of Buffalo horn which I was going to carve and inlay into the door cappings, well that idea has gone and I shall inlay black veneer Leaping Panthers into the door caps.

I managed to complete one Panther in the horn and my old fingers were so sore after a few nights of filing then sanding then polishing with fine grinding compound that I said one is enough and this shall be fitted in the centre console.

I had already cut the blanks on my dads scroll saw.