Mk 3 headlights

[sheel]

Anyone do one or know of an idiots guide to fitting these
Thanks
Richard

[estutjaweh]

I done mine myself - total thumbsuck and I ended up needing to weld washers onto the lamp flanges so I could get bolts into the pods!

Easy enough to do in principle though. Remove headlamp cowl, then lamp. Cut the hole open trial fitting the lens as you go. Cut another hole in the inner wheel arch for adjustment and rear weight support (you'll need to fabricate some metal sheet or something for this simple support).
Cut 3 holes in the rear of your pod to accommodate the lamp adjustment screws and drill holes to bolt the lamp in (check 1,000,000 times as the lamp needs to be positioned as good as perfectly level in order to adjust beam later - incorrect beam = no MOT!
Paint pod, glue lens to pod then thread the unit through the front hole and glue up into wing. Hold in place while glue dries with various levers, props etc. Next day sikaflex around the glass from outside and adjust beam through the inner wheel arch hole.

Finally attach a bracket from rear of pod to inner wheel arch to support the lamp weight a little.

Easy!

[sheel]

Thanks for the info, did you change the housings as well ie the main lamp housing moulding


Thanks
Richard

[estutjaweh]

I'm not too sure I quite follow what you mean.
You'll need the complete kit which consists of two new lamps, two fiberglass pods and two perspex lens. In addition you need paint, a tube of sikaflex stuff to glue it all together, a sheet of metal and bolts to fabricate a support and bolt it all together ... and in my case access to a welder and a few extra large washers.

[sheel]

That's what I have, the complete kit, do you reverse the headlight adjusters as mine are presently on the front face of the metal lamp frame and will not be accessable once the Perspex cowls are on

Cheers
Richard

[estutjaweh]

Ah, forgot about that bit.

You can't just reverse the screws as the heads have a special slot in them which grips the lamp flange. I simply got a female threaded bolt, cut the head off and screwed half onto the end of the adjustment screws and then screwed an Allen head bolt into that using some weld strength glue. I could then rotate and adjust the lamps from the inner-wing using an 4mm Allen key.

I hope that sort of makes sense. heres a photo:

[sheel]

Ah yes got you cheers for that ,makes more sense!!

[chrispitman]

There are a few pics of the process here - http://www.centraltvr.com/product/chimaera-mk3-hea... there was another post on here from someone else who photoed the process but atm can't find it was a few years back. I got as far as paint my pod kit still in a box ready to fit.

[sheel]

Thanks Chris, that's quite a help, I thought I had seen something before but like you I cant find it, looks like I might have to do the write up for them!!
Richard

[chrispitman]

Sound good take plenty of photos need to do mine this year.

I assume where it say thread thro the front hole, when the pod is made up ie lense glued to pod it will fit through the cut opening. And you don't mean thro the gill area as mines later type with the middle cross bar.

[estutjaweh]

No, it fits through the cut opening - you don't need to thread it through the grill. Just push through the hole, rotate and push back against the wing from within.

I documented my build. I'll try and upload all the random photos to Dropbox later this weekend.

[chrispitman]

Thanks Stewart

[Pink_Floyd]

estutjaweh said:

I documented my build. I'll try and upload all the random photos to Dropbox later this weekend.

Did you upload any photos, be interested in seeing them.

[estutjaweh]

Sorry...unfortunately I forgot that those original pictures were lost when my iphone automatically reset itself before I could save them. Oops. I have a few pictures however from the repair after some stupid b**ch reversed into me. Maybe they are of some use.

Cutting out the old light mount. The old light mount is cut flush except in the lower inner corners where a little extra material is left.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_0...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_0...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_1...
Best to tape up the MK3 lens (to protect it, and keep trial fitting it until that lower edge is correct and lens fits snug (or get a friend to do this while you take pictures :-))
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_0...
Don't forget to cut holes in the inner wheel arches. It is through these holes that you will later have to adjust everything so cut them as large as you feel you need to.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_0...
Thats the car prep'd

Pods are tricky. Try and mark the pod top and bottom vertically whilst holding it into the wing were it will later be glued. Use this as a reference for cutting the sections out which will accommodate the adjuster screws.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_1...
Then mark off where the lamp will need to be secured and drill those holes. I had problems where my lamp flanges wouldn't allow me to screw into the flange due to being sold parts that obviously aren't designed to go together. I had to therefore weld washers onto my lamp flange to effectively widen the flange and allow it all to bolt together.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_1...
The pod can now be painted.
Whilst drying I took two long female threaded bolts, cut the heads off and glues these half to the adjuster screws and half to a short M5 (?) bolt. This way I could use these adjusters from behind (through the inner wing hole). See pic in last link.

After the pod paint was dry I rough sanded the edge where the lens was to be glued. Rough sanded the lens edge too and Sikaflexed the two together holding them overnight with gaffa tape.
Next I cleaned the lens thoroughly and rough sanded the outer lens edge.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_1...
The lamps were now bolts (3xM4 bolts) to the pods and taken out to the car. The roughened lens edge gets a healthy dose of Sikaflex and is threaded through the front hole, rotated slightly and pushed back into the wing from within. This is then held FIRMLY (!!!) in positin with rags, jacks, levers anything over night to dry.
The next day I used a bit of scrap steel to form a bracket to support the weight of that heavy lamp. I basically bolted one end of this to the lamp flange and the other to a screw hole in the inner wheel arch which I would also use to secure the cap I had fashioned. (sorry - lost photos of these).
Finally use Sikaflex again to seal the lens to the wing from outside.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_1...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42674297/IMG_1...
The very last thing to do is now drive to a garage and set the lamps up. This ISN't fun. Measure the floor to chassis - jack up car and remove front wheels - let car down onto wood etc until chassis height is correct - remove inner wing cap and adjust until correct - fit cap - jack car again - fit wheels - remove wood - drive home - take photos to stick to the fridge.

I hope thats of some help at least.

[chrispitman]

Thanks for posting pics