Headlight dis-assembly

[Konrod]

Hi All

I have decided that in the height of summer, and close to the longest day, I have to sort out the candles at the front of the car. I have one rusting reflector, the other is just dirty - this seen by peering through the opaque window I call a headlight.

My questions are how the headlight assembly goes together so I know what to expect and what parts I need before I go in there so that I don't have to stop for lack of parts - I already have a reflector, adjusters and one seal. I know the glass is seperate from the reflector and how to remove the cowling, but:

1) Where does the rubber seal come into play? How/where does it fit?
2) Will I have to destroy the seal if all I want to do is to clean the dirty reflector?
3) what stops the glass falling out?

When I do this I think I'll take some piccies as I go along so that they are available for anyone else.

By the way, putting in superbright 55/65W headlight bulbs, I'l try and do a before and after as well.

[m4rk]

Konrod said:

Hi All


1) Where does the rubber seal come into play? How/where does it fit?
2) Will I have to destroy the seal if all I want to do is to clean the dirty reflector?
3) what stops the glass falling out?

1. Loose fit around the lens where it meets the body work. Binned mine and siliconed it in for a better seal.
2. My seals where well past it and gently cleaning the reflector with a dust cloth made the chrome fall off!!Rechromed mine. Look better than new.
3. Silicone but black mastic originally.

Also needed for my light refurb:

1. Silicone to hold the top of the cowling down flush(ish) to the body work
2. Epoxy glue to refix one of the two cowling bolts that had come loose.
3. Glass polish for the lens.

The fun part was removing a bent adjuster and making a neat finish of the silicone. Mastic maybe easier in this respect.

I'd also advise you to markup the reflector position on the fibre glass by running a felt tipped pen around the edge of it. This helps get it back in the correct place and angle. Also, puts some tick marks on the lenses and fibre glass so these can go back extactly as before. Mark them LH, RH. Had to rotate mine a little for MOT guys. Left them in loose so this could be done and glue them in after test. (LH roads to RH conversion in case you think this was OTT)

Final tip; park up car in front of wall or garage door and mark tyre positions on floor and beam pattern on wall. Chalk is useful for this. You can then do a before and after final check to see everything is good and will still pass MOT pattern, alignment check.

Edited by m4rk on Monday 30th June 13:47

[Konrod]

Thanks Mark. Now to take mine to bits and see how it varies....

[Konrod]

Half way through - have to say it would be a b****r of a job for a fully qualified gynaecologist, and I'm only an amateur. My sincere thanks to the twit who bend the adjuster threads behind the butterly nuts so they couldn't be got off -ended up hacksawing the reflector to get it off, and then found the easy way Just to add insult to injury, taped the lens on to check alignmnet, got it finished and went to sip my coffee when the tape slipped and the lens fell to the floor and shattered.

Ho hum. Only bright side (pun intended) is that with lens in place the light produced was much better.

So, finish this side and then start the other..................

[m4rk]

Bummer about the lens.... Mine seemed to want to head to the floor all the time and there were a few scary moments.

I thought I would be the only one with a bent adjuster!! I spent an age fighting with the wing nut wondering why it was a bugger to get off, and getting sore fingers in the process. I didn't find out it was bent until after it was removed... doh!
This was as usual the last to undo just when I was feeling pleased with progress.

TVR engineering, we just love it

[Konrod]

Hmmm - maybe the twit I was referring to was at the factory then if there are several like it. I can understand why as you need to stop the wing nut turning on the thread for the adjuster to work from the front, however two nuts locked together seems like a more elegant solution to be honest.....

[mak]

I've just removed my headlights in readyness for my new units, all i can say is wot a bodge of a job for a factory fit incidently my cowlings only had the 1 bolt stem fitted on both sides and no they haven't fell off because there's no markings on the cowling to indicate they where ever on, bit of a blessing really for removal :-)

[mak]

Forgot to ask, if my light's dont get hear for the weekend is it an offence to drive in the daytime without lights fitted its just i might fancy a quick blast.