Wedge Headlights - an alternative

[jvaughan]

guys, I have been in discussions with Peninsula regarding a few modifications to the wedges (400's in particular) to make it more useable, and to iron out small niggles and to sold some obvious problems. Firstly, im resisting the urge to form a small company and sell one off bits, it is easier to work with a major player and share the prototyping costs.

To get to the point, would anyone be interested in replacing the current lamps in the pods with brighter, lighter alternatives ? cost is likely to be about £200

feedback gents ....

>>> Edited by jvaughan on Tuesday 7th January 20:27

[danny hoffman]

Any chance of making a mod to get the heater working.......

[jmorgan]

Mine seem ok. Do you mean the lamps and reflector?

[Brm Brm]

Yes definitely....but I'd need some convincing before I bought anything from Peninsular. Also dont forget that the earlier round light pods are slightly different to the SE "Metro" Light pods although the motors etc are the same.

[gaz666]

Are they the clear vision type unit,as in reflector and beam benders inside and a clear glass? If so i am interested. I also have a 1967 manta-ray bug and i fitted this type of unit, excellent improvement. Oh bye the way its for sale if anyone is interested,a real head turner!

[DICKYMINT]

Just fitted 2 new ones at £45 each and 2 100watt blue lamps at about a tenner each. Very bright indeed.

But i'll take the heater mod after you've done Dannys

[rev-erend]

I have the same 'cibie' head lights as you 400se
(JVaughn) - and I think in good condition they
are still some of the best lights that I have
ever seen.

Much, much better than the pitiful lights that I
had to endure on my Griff 500.

[jvaughan]

Right well thanks for the jumble of comments on the general feeling about a few peoples lights.

what I am looking to do (and as cheaply as possible)
is remove the steel plate that currently holds the lights to the pod.
Replace this with a nice piece of equally strong Carbon fibre. Next in an offset pattern replace the single square light unit with a pair of round smaller lamps as fitted to the ner cerbies (and zertec conversions) one dipped(80watt) and one main beam100watt) lamp. There should be enough room to fit both lamps to the carbon fibre plate.
as far as weight is concerned, there should be little differnce in the final weight of this solution to the existing assembly.

so .. they should look something like this when raised...

--------
|....( )|
|( )....|
--------

Ok, so its not good enough for "The Gallery!"


Also for the larger 390 and 350 pods, it would be possible to modify the pods to do a sililar thing, maybe lower the level of the pod significantly (this may put increased weight and strain on the motor, but im sure the use of carbon fibre instead of steel would solve this.

Costings, well, I estimate the following

2x Dipped Lamps £ 2x60
2x Main Beam £ 2x60
2x Carbon Fibre Plates Plus labour £ 60 ..
Misc fixins etc £ 20
Total aprox £ 320

ok so I was a little out on my first estimate, you could replace the lamps with HID units, but these babies cost a hell of a lot more.

This solution gives you 4 useable lights that should equate to modern vehicle standards

>> Edited by jvaughan on Wednesday 8th January 13:50

[jvaughan]

rev-erend said: I have the same 'cibie' head lights as you 400se
(JVaughn) - and I think in good condition they
are still some of the best lights that I have
ever seen.

Much, much better than the pitiful lights that I
had to endure on my Griff 500.

I replaced the lamps and uprated the bulbs in my headlights 12 months ago, and can honestly say, my girlfriends new suzuki jeep has better lights than my TVR

[jvaughan]

danny hoffman said: Any chance of making a mod to get the heater working.......

Actually yes . also looking at my heater.

initial findings are that im loosing about 60% of the heater volume behind the dash itself.

Lots of leaking joints and pipes that just push together. Not a quick win here, but it is possible to either seal up the existing pipework, or it might be better to replace the ducting using new smaller ducts, and working on the principle of smaller duct, more end pressure.

I am also looking for anyone who has any ideas maybe about replacing the heater vents themselves maybe with alloy ones.. this would mean the whose system from the fan and airbox could be replaced with new.

Incidently I have noticed that the heater ducts on the screen are not very efficient in the middle. The 390's have 2 wide slots anstead of the 400's which seem to suffer wth 7 small ones. this results in the midle 3 not being very useful. I have blanked mine off and improved the screen demisting.

[RichardR]

jvaughan said:I am also looking for anyone who has any ideas maybe about replacing the heater vents themselves maybe with alloy ones..

LeeBee seems to knock up quite a few alloy parts for the S series. Maybe he could help with this.

jvaughan said:Incidently I have noticed that the heater ducts on the screen are not very efficient in the middle. The 390's have 2 wide slots anstead of the 400's which seem to suffer wth 7 small ones. this results in the midle 3 not being very useful. I have blanked mine off and improved the screen demisting.

I just applied some Rain-X Anti-Fog to my windscreen and side windows and was very pleasantly surprised at just how well it kept the glass clear of misting. The added benefit is that you can then use all that precious hot air to keep your feet warm!

(Sorry, not really connected with the original topic, but thought I'd chip in anyway.)

[jmorgan]

On the heater side gaffer tape should sort leaky joints.
Distribution side of things does seem to have flow problems. On mine, if I open both centre vents then I get no flow on the right hand one. I know why, its the feed to them and ends in the left one.
However, as Richard says, I swear by Rainx :standingbycanofrainxeffinbolloxingarsefeckingdrinkgirls:

[mrcrappy]

i fitted some lights off a porsche 924 (probably the same as a golf ) from a scrappy for £5 each, needed to make a plate to attach them to but they seem to work ok, especially with hi power bulbs, they are slightly heavier than the originals but i have had them in for three years with no probs.

[Andrew_W]

Was bored in work one day and with the boss away i had a quick play at designing twin headlamp conversion for the 400...
OH the wonders of 3D cad
I used standard 90mm dim & main lights from Hella.
Its a real squeeze fitting them in.
Would this be something like your conversion???

www.fotango.com/p/eba00287265f00000001.jpg

PS hope the link works, not done that before!!!


>> Edited by Andrew_W on Wednesday 8th January 20:15

[ANDYM]

Thats exactly the idea I have been mulling over, to replace the metal with carbon fibre and fit a twin headlight set up.Presumably you would be going for the 90mm set up which would just squeeze in.
I think you would be able to find the lights about £10 cheaper so that brings it down a bit.
I would be intrested though but have a few more pressing things to buy at the moment, but keep me posted.

Andy.

[jmorgan]

Jason, I would be interested if my lights were naff. BUT sooner or later the existing ones are going to fail and be hard to replace which is when I will look at the alternatives such as yours. So for the moment its subject I will follow with interest. Keep us posted.
Who knows, it may be tomorrow

[andymadmak]

I could be interested too, but a couple of questions first:
1, can the existing wiring cope with the increased load of the multiple higher rated lamps?
2, my main beam appears to include my driving lamps (91 400se) so does that make the conversion more difficult?
3, would using stainless steel for the back plate instead of carbon fiber make it an easier/cheaper conversion?
Cheers
Andy 400se

[jvaughan]

jmorgan said: Jason, I would be interested if my lights were naff. BUT sooner or later the existing ones are going to fail and be hard to replace which is when I will look at the alternatives such as yours. So for the moment its subject I will follow with interest. Keep us posted.
Who knows, it may be tomorrow

I see your point, but I plan on trying to use the same ones as fitted to the new TVR's.

[jvaughan]

ANDYM said: Thats exactly the idea I have been mulling over, to replace the metal with carbon fibre and fit a twin headlight set up.Presumably you would be going for the 90mm set up which would just squeeze in.
I think you would be able to find the lights about £10 cheaper so that brings it down a bit.
I would be intrested though but have a few more pressing things to buy at the moment, but keep me posted.

Andy.

Will do. yes the prices were just guesses. Carbon is the preferred choice as it doesntneed any preparation and will not corrode, Steel is a viable alternative, but with additional light units in each pod, i was hoping to keep the weight down.
Obviously will build a prototype in both materials to see what works best.

[jvaughan]

Andrew_W said: Was bored in work one day and with the boss away i had a quick play at designing twin headlamp conversion for the 400...
OH the wonders of 3D cad
I used standard 90mm dim & main lights from Hella.
Its a real squeeze fitting them in.
Would this be something like your conversion???

www.fotango.com/p/eba00287265f00000001.jpg

PS hope the link works, not done that before!!!


>> Edited by Andrew_W on Wednesday 8th January 20:15

Yes, excellent, want to be on my design team when i start my multi million pound organisation selling these to the millions ??

Seriously, yes, exactly. My attempt using MSPaint didnt work out too well !.