The "66 El Camino that I finally own" Thread
Discussion
v8.jimmy said:
sorry, I don't have a clear wall in my garage
It doesn't have to be YOUR wall. Any wall will do.v8.jimmy said:
it's still guesswork if they are too high or too low unless you are doing that every day and know exactly what is right.
Pull close up to the wall. Mark the height of the light on the wall. Back up a car length. The beam should be slightly below that centre height.v8.jimmy said:
I have done it with a sheet of ply in front of a car
There y'go, then. Don't even need a wall.v8.jimmy said:
but it's still guesswork
Yes, it's guesswork. Of course it is. But it's more than good enough to be the difference between a pass and a fail. If you find the beam's too low or too high when you're actually driving it, you can then fine tune it. Let's face it, most testers will only fail beams that are WAAAAY out anyway.gotta love these guys....................
flawed at the start, you can't legally drive it anywhere other than straight to the test station for first MOT as it isn't registered, so unless you go at night which is a no, but suppose could wait till winter, and unless you can stop at a wall en route.
p.s. only been in the trade for 35 years, so obviously I know absolutely nothing at all. I love the way keyboard experts on forums like to dig people up for the smallest thing they might say, just shows some people have too much time rather than too many cars
and on your last point, a fail is a fail, and back to my original point which has obviously been taken WAAAY............ out of context, a good working relationship with an MOT tester often yields the opportunity to DO IT RIGHT............... though I appreciate not always, but when possible is better than going back and adjusting after you drive at night and notice that lights are either showing you the front bumper or blinding somebody, but then again, why take the easiest and most sensible route. So, to recap, you don't have a beam setter and if you don't have a wall, you can always go buy a sheet of ply.LOL
Anyways this kind of crap is taking away from the OPs thread about his truck, so let's get back to that but I think I'll butt out now and just e-mail him from now on.
flawed at the start, you can't legally drive it anywhere other than straight to the test station for first MOT as it isn't registered, so unless you go at night which is a no, but suppose could wait till winter, and unless you can stop at a wall en route.
p.s. only been in the trade for 35 years, so obviously I know absolutely nothing at all. I love the way keyboard experts on forums like to dig people up for the smallest thing they might say, just shows some people have too much time rather than too many cars
and on your last point, a fail is a fail, and back to my original point which has obviously been taken WAAAY............ out of context, a good working relationship with an MOT tester often yields the opportunity to DO IT RIGHT............... though I appreciate not always, but when possible is better than going back and adjusting after you drive at night and notice that lights are either showing you the front bumper or blinding somebody, but then again, why take the easiest and most sensible route. So, to recap, you don't have a beam setter and if you don't have a wall, you can always go buy a sheet of ply.LOL
Anyways this kind of crap is taking away from the OPs thread about his truck, so let's get back to that but I think I'll butt out now and just e-mail him from now on.
Edited by v8.jimmy on Monday 31st August 10:45
Edited by v8.jimmy on Monday 31st August 10:58
Edited by v8.jimmy on Monday 31st August 11:00
v8.jimmy said:
jagracer said:
assume from the reg it is pre 65 which means you could have left it as it was.
It isn't registered yet................99t said:
As for the headlight adjustment, I always do it for the customer unless the car fails miserably on other stuff and even then we do them on the retest.
Edited by jagracer on Monday 31st August 11:41
TooMany2cvs said:
v8.jimmy said:
sorry, I don't have a clear wall in my garage
It doesn't have to be YOUR wall. Any wall will do.v8.jimmy said:
it's still guesswork if they are too high or too low unless you are doing that every day and know exactly what is right.
Pull close up to the wall. Mark the height of the light on the wall. Back up a car length. The beam should be slightly below that centre height.v8.jimmy said:
I have done it with a sheet of ply in front of a car
There y'go, then. Don't even need a wall.v8.jimmy said:
but it's still guesswork
Yes, it's guesswork. Of course it is. But it's more than good enough to be the difference between a pass and a fail. If you find the beam's too low or too high when you're actually driving it, you can then fine tune it. Let's face it, most testers will only fail beams that are WAAAAY out anyway.
jagracer said:
here it says 'Body by Fisher', does that mean Chevrolet didn't manufacture the bodies? Got the same thing on my Bel Air although the car was made in St Louis.
As for the headlight adjustment, I always do it for the customer unless the car fails miserably on other stuff and even then we do them on the retest.
yes mate, body by Fisher on this and also on your BelAir (what year by the way? my wife has a '57, owned it for 22 years) as Fisher is/was the body division of General Motors, fully owned by GM.As for the headlight adjustment, I always do it for the customer unless the car fails miserably on other stuff and even then we do them on the retest.
Edited by jagracer on Monday 31st August 11:41
well done on the lights thing too, my bro also does exactly what you said, either on first test if it doesn't fail on other things, or at retest. Problem with these older vehicles is of course that the headlight trims and often part of the grille has to be removed to get at the adjusters, so the station I use tends to chuck me a screwdriver while he looks over other parts.
v8.jimmy said:
yes mate, body by Fisher on this and also on your BelAir (what year by the way? my wife has a '57, owned it for 22 years) as Fisher is/was the body division of General Motors, fully owned by GM.
Thanks for the reply, it's a 1955, I've had it a year and bought it from my cousin who I think owned for about 20 years, it was imported from Texas around 1997. Luckily for me my wife wont drive it as it's too big for her but she does have a 69 MGB as her fine weather runaround
I said:
Failure list:-
Front tyres
Battery insecure (I had forgotten to refit the clamp which was happily sitting on the workbench in the garage!
)
Headlight aim low (I had forgotten to check the aim after fitting the new ones!
)
It's been a slightly frustrating seven days waiting for new tyres to arrive, but I have finally had an email saying they've been delivered Front tyres
Battery insecure (I had forgotten to refit the clamp which was happily sitting on the workbench in the garage!
)Headlight aim low (I had forgotten to check the aim after fitting the new ones!
)
The El Camino had 14" x 8" rallye rims on the front and 15" x 9" on the rear, and I felt this made the front look a little under-wheeled.
I have thus swapped the front rims with my Camaro project since it isn't going to be needing them any time soon. These are 15" x 8" in the same offset so should improve the looks without causing any clearance issues and have now been blasted and powder coated ready for the tyres...
I won't know until I go back to pick it up at 5pm!
Sadly there will be no cruising tonight, once I've got a ticket in my sticky mits, I need to send it and various other bits of paperwork off to DVLA and then wait some more for them to issue a registration....
I may not take the absolute most direct route back from the MOT station however!!
Sadly there will be no cruising tonight, once I've got a ticket in my sticky mits, I need to send it and various other bits of paperwork off to DVLA and then wait some more for them to issue a registration....
I may not take the absolute most direct route back from the MOT station however!!
hey hey well done and I hope the MOT tester used his garage wall for the headlights and not that daft beam setter most use LOL.
Just had some V5s back from Swansea, one missing, one rejected because it requires a covering letter WHICH WAS SENT WITH IT, tossers and one which came back with 2000cc for the engine size FFS not on a yank!! Total incompetence from DVLA once again, however 2 out of 5 ain't bad........
You should be cruisin next weekend mate......
Just had some V5s back from Swansea, one missing, one rejected because it requires a covering letter WHICH WAS SENT WITH IT, tossers and one which came back with 2000cc for the engine size FFS not on a yank!! Total incompetence from DVLA once again, however 2 out of 5 ain't bad........
You should be cruisin next weekend mate......
v8.jimmy said:
hey hey well done and I hope the MOT tester used his garage wall for the headlights and not that daft beam setter most use LOL.
For god's sake... let it go!Congrats OP on getting the MOT. It was a pretty short list to start off with - hopefully a good sign. Looking forward to seeing the updates once it's back on the road!
king joke, do you remember what one of them is, and by the way I didn't start the s
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