Headlights

Hi

Nice quiet weekend with just a few jobs done, basically I can't progress onto the bigger jobs until the tunnel carpet arrives.

The first job was the gear stick surround, I had the underlay cut and the holes tapped so it was just a job of finishing it off. Ray had supplied a nice vinyl cover which had to be trimmed and glued in place.

I had shortened the gear stick when I made my attempt to fit an extension to the gearbox, unfortunately this did not work due to the drive shaft knuckle joint being a little close and I never did get around to extending it again, so the vinyl surround had to be trimmed to suit the shorter stick.

I fed the surround through the base plate and cut around then clamped in position to get the best fit, once happy I got the glue gun hot and stuck the surround to the underside.

  I trimmed around the holes and screwed in position.

Will look better once the carpet is fitted to contrast the chrome and the cream against the red of the carpet, I had bought the Panther corporate logo gear knob on eBay a while ago and fit it on the stick. If anyone thinks of buying and fitting one of these knobs then be aware that they do not come threaded so you either hammer it on which probable would damage the decal or as I did tap out to 10mm and screw it on.

The door trim also arrived, If I had of realised that this trim was the same as is used for the windscreen seal I could have saved a few pounds by ordering together.
Anyway it went on nicely, it just needed a rubber mallet to persuade it to fit in place and I left the ends long until the dash cheek plates are fitted then I can see where to cut.

I have also fitted the corner covers and these just need riveting in position.

Late yesterday Phil the electrician came round for an hour and figured out the problem I was having with the residual current coming back to the driving lights when in dipped, and as always it came down to an earth problem. Phil was also unhappy with the size of the wire I used for the headlights and driving lights although I bought from an auto electrical dealer for headlights, so he brought round some huge 3 core wire that he said would be best.

Can you tell the new wires, a hint (there blue)

So today's job has been rewiring the headlights, the problem lay in me trying to be good and running a separate cable from the driving lights and connecting to the main beam wire in the box plus the earth wire to the headlight earth. I have removed this wire completely and have run a short wire from the driving light to the headlight and connected to the main inside the headlight, the driving light earth wire was cut and riveted to the light body which in turn is bolted to the bumper.
Would you believe it, everything works perfect, no more residual current running back through the earth.

Sidelights

Dipped

Main beam

I am getting a much greater understanding of the car electrics by making these mistakes which after all is what this restoration is all about.
Phil is coming around again tomorrow night after work to check out my work and to see what else needs doing.

See ya Paul