Headlight ring for XKSS
Discussion
Okay so this deserves an actual reply as someone dragged it from obscurity.
Long story short I am overhauling the car and the rims round the lights were tarnished aluminium with lots of damage.
I took one off and polished it which worked well. Full of confidence I took the other off and started polishing it on a polishing wheel, half way through this it started to heat up same as the other one except all of a sudden it broke in two and propelled by the polisher on the broken end flew across the room.
I picked up the managed shiny spaghetti knowing full well replacement was going to prove a pain. It broke once more on straightening despite trying to put a few heat cycles into it, so now I had a headlight surround jigsaw puzzle.
After a few days of swearing and realizing this place was of little help with anything other than 'choose my new car', 'and should I upgrade the stereo in my diesel', I decided to try stitching stuff together with an aluminium tig welder. The end result was a frankenring headlight surround which changed the appearance of the car from a catwalk model to a cat that had swallowed a hand grenade.
Further attempts are revolving around making a greensand mould so I can cast a new one, cutting a new ring out of sheet and wondering whether it will bend to conform.
Efforts still ongoing.
Long story short I am overhauling the car and the rims round the lights were tarnished aluminium with lots of damage.
I took one off and polished it which worked well. Full of confidence I took the other off and started polishing it on a polishing wheel, half way through this it started to heat up same as the other one except all of a sudden it broke in two and propelled by the polisher on the broken end flew across the room.
I picked up the managed shiny spaghetti knowing full well replacement was going to prove a pain. It broke once more on straightening despite trying to put a few heat cycles into it, so now I had a headlight surround jigsaw puzzle.
After a few days of swearing and realizing this place was of little help with anything other than 'choose my new car', 'and should I upgrade the stereo in my diesel', I decided to try stitching stuff together with an aluminium tig welder. The end result was a frankenring headlight surround which changed the appearance of the car from a catwalk model to a cat that had swallowed a hand grenade.
Further attempts are revolving around making a greensand mould so I can cast a new one, cutting a new ring out of sheet and wondering whether it will bend to conform.
Efforts still ongoing.
Gotta love PH, I only came on to ask if anyone had any idea how to manufacture one, or buy one.
Not going to pay the prices jaguar charge to idiots that think they are buying a 'continuation'.
If its any interest, the eventual remedy was to use a aluminium TIG welder and slowly build up a bridge across the broken part. This was then filed, sanded and then polished to match. Finally it was heated up and bent to a wooden mould I made before refitting.
It was a bit fiddly but the result was pretty good. A picture of the car has been on my profile since I joined PH.
Will start another thread shortly to find opinion on whether to stick with the original looking side windows or get rid of them and replace with some nice trim.
Not going to pay the prices jaguar charge to idiots that think they are buying a 'continuation'.
If its any interest, the eventual remedy was to use a aluminium TIG welder and slowly build up a bridge across the broken part. This was then filed, sanded and then polished to match. Finally it was heated up and bent to a wooden mould I made before refitting.
It was a bit fiddly but the result was pretty good. A picture of the car has been on my profile since I joined PH.
Will start another thread shortly to find opinion on whether to stick with the original looking side windows or get rid of them and replace with some nice trim.
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