COOL CLASSIC CAR SPOTTERS POST! (Vol 3)
Discussion
That’s the one. Aluminium body fitted to an MGA chassis and registered as a Mercante in 1960. Apparently a well executed job.
Sold at auction a few years back and well bought at £2.5K. Apparently needed some recommissioning but now back on the road.
The kind of special that graced club racing back in the 60’s, race prep it and away you go…
Sold at auction a few years back and well bought at £2.5K. Apparently needed some recommissioning but now back on the road.
The kind of special that graced club racing back in the 60’s, race prep it and away you go…
Yertis said:
I need to put LEDs in my Triumph too. The originals are pathetic, can hardly see beyond the bonnet. Thinking about putting them in the Quattro too - they re not much better. Not sure whether its a. compared to modern LED headlights, b. drop-off in performance of old lamps and wiring, c. my aging eyes, or d. all of the foregoing.
It's likely that the problem is degraded earth connections at the lights or increased resistance across the contacts in the column stalk switch set, or a combination of both. In other words voltage drop, which can be considerable.
I fitted (fused) relays to a number of 70s cars (most recently my Midget) since the factories neglected to, and it's a simple and cheap solution. The stalk switch is fine for switching the relays and the relays power the lights with virtually no voltage drop.
It can make a huge difference to the lights without resorting to LEDs, which are a bit on the spendy side for compatible lamps.
Dunno if that helps...
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
Yertis said:
I need to put LEDs in my Triumph too. The originals are pathetic, can hardly see beyond the bonnet. Thinking about putting them in the Quattro too - they re not much better. Not sure whether its a. compared to modern LED headlights, b. drop-off in performance of old lamps and wiring, c. my aging eyes, or d. all of the foregoing.
It's likely that the problem is degraded earth connections at the lights or increased resistance across the contacts in the column stalk switch set, or a combination of both. In other words voltage drop, which can be considerable.
I fitted (fused) relays to a number of 70s cars (most recently my Midget) since the factories neglected to, and it's a simple and cheap solution. The stalk switch is fine for switching the relays and the relays power the lights with virtually no voltage drop.
It can make a huge difference to the lights without resorting to LEDs, which are a bit on the spendy side for compatible lamps.
Dunno if that helps...
Harry Flashman said:
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
Yertis said:
I need to put LEDs in my Triumph too. The originals are pathetic, can hardly see beyond the bonnet. Thinking about putting them in the Quattro too - they re not much better. Not sure whether its a. compared to modern LED headlights, b. drop-off in performance of old lamps and wiring, c. my aging eyes, or d. all of the foregoing.
It's likely that the problem is degraded earth connections at the lights or increased resistance across the contacts in the column stalk switch set, or a combination of both. In other words voltage drop, which can be considerable.
I fitted (fused) relays to a number of 70s cars (most recently my Midget) since the factories neglected to, and it's a simple and cheap solution. The stalk switch is fine for switching the relays and the relays power the lights with virtually no voltage drop.
It can make a huge difference to the lights without resorting to LEDs, which are a bit on the spendy side for compatible lamps.
Dunno if that helps...
MDMA . said:
Harry Flashman said:
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
Yertis said:
I need to put LEDs in my Triumph too. The originals are pathetic, can hardly see beyond the bonnet. Thinking about putting them in the Quattro too - they re not much better. Not sure whether its a. compared to modern LED headlights, b. drop-off in performance of old lamps and wiring, c. my aging eyes, or d. all of the foregoing.
It's likely that the problem is degraded earth connections at the lights or increased resistance across the contacts in the column stalk switch set, or a combination of both. In other words voltage drop, which can be considerable.
I fitted (fused) relays to a number of 70s cars (most recently my Midget) since the factories neglected to, and it's a simple and cheap solution. The stalk switch is fine for switching the relays and the relays power the lights with virtually no voltage drop.
It can make a huge difference to the lights without resorting to LEDs, which are a bit on the spendy side for compatible lamps.
Dunno if that helps...
RSTurboPaul said:
MDMA . said:
Harry Flashman said:
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
Yertis said:
I need to put LEDs in my Triumph too. The originals are pathetic, can hardly see beyond the bonnet. Thinking about putting them in the Quattro too - they re not much better. Not sure whether its a. compared to modern LED headlights, b. drop-off in performance of old lamps and wiring, c. my aging eyes, or d. all of the foregoing.
It's likely that the problem is degraded earth connections at the lights or increased resistance across the contacts in the column stalk switch set, or a combination of both. In other words voltage drop, which can be considerable.
I fitted (fused) relays to a number of 70s cars (most recently my Midget) since the factories neglected to, and it's a simple and cheap solution. The stalk switch is fine for switching the relays and the relays power the lights with virtually no voltage drop.
It can make a huge difference to the lights without resorting to LEDs, which are a bit on the spendy side for compatible lamps.
Dunno if that helps...
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
Yertis said:
I need to put LEDs in my Triumph too. The originals are pathetic, can hardly see beyond the bonnet. Thinking about putting them in the Quattro too - they re not much better. Not sure whether its a. compared to modern LED headlights, b. drop-off in performance of old lamps and wiring, c. my aging eyes, or d. all of the foregoing.
It's likely that the problem is degraded earth connections at the lights or increased resistance across the contacts in the column stalk switch set, or a combination of both. In other words voltage drop, which can be considerable.
I fitted (fused) relays to a number of 70s cars (most recently my Midget) since the factories neglected to, and it's a simple and cheap solution. The stalk switch is fine for switching the relays and the relays power the lights with virtually no voltage drop.
It can make a huge difference to the lights without resorting to LEDs, which are a bit on the spendy side for compatible lamps.
Dunno if that helps...
Yertis said:
but I'm reluctant to start hacking into the original wiring, so I'll clean up the earths.
When I put relays into my Firenza, I made a point of making sure that it plugged into the original wiring. It takes a feed from the original two headlamp connectors on the driver's side, uses those to switch the relays (one for dip, one for main) which in turn power the lights via entirely separate wiring. The original wires to the nearside lights are just wrapped up and clipped out of the way. I hate cutting up original stuff as well, and it also means that if my relay modification fails when I need lights, I can unplug it and revert to the original cabling. It relies on being able to get appropriate connectors to fit into the headlamp wiring - fortunately the Vauxhall loom has two-pin connectors for each lamp. It's years since I've looked at that part of my Audi coupe so I don't know if it would be possible on that.RSTurboPaul said:
So, for clarity, the mod is to run wiring direct from the battery to the lights, add a relay somewhere along the wiring, then have the stalk operate the relay rather than having the power route from the battery to the light via the column stalk?
More or less. Power supply to the relay secondary came from the on/off headlights switch on the dash. The original wiring from the stalk to the high and low beams was interrupted by the relays so that the half from the stalk energised the relay coil and the other half was connected from the relay output to the lights as normal. The only other thing required was a short extra earth from the relay coil to enable it.
It's much easier on a Midget/Cortina/GT6 &c because of the very simple (frankly Victorian) wiring system.
It's normal to find some improvement too, just from cleaning any film of muck and corrosion from the connectors at the lights themselves. Not forgetting the body of the bulb and the socket it fits in, where they are the traditional type that earths through the metal body.
Probably waffled on about this long enough now. Sorry for the thread drift...
Watcher of the skies said:
MDMA . said:
It seems a strange thing to do - take one of the prettiest roadsters known to mankind then cloathe it in an ugly Heath Robinson inspired body. No wonder they're rare.Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff