Continental modifications

[e635815]

Hello all,

I am planning buying a Chim in the UK and importing it to france.
Then I will need to perform a few mods on the lights to make it road legal.
This involves modifying the front and rear lights.
I have seen somewhere that the back light clusters are inverted mk3 Fiestas. Can someone confirm that? If I buy Ford units will they fit on the Chim? Also, it looks like there is a smoked plastic cover on top of the light cluster on the Chim, am I right?

What about the front lights? Is it possible to adjust the beam direction or do I need to change the whole light? For the later, is it sufficient to invert both lights or do I need to buy new units? If yes, would someone be kind enough as to tell me if those are TVR specific parts or not?

Thanks a lot for your answers.
Best regards
Philippe

[raceboy]

e635815 said:

I have seen somewhere that the back light clusters are inverted mk3 Fiestas. Can someone confirm that? If I buy Ford units will they fit on the Chim? Also, it looks like there is a smoked plastic cover on top of the light cluster on the Chim, am I right?

Yes and no, there are Fiesta light units but they are the right way up, and yes they are covered by a plastic cover, but I think you can remove the Fiesta unit from the inside and as they are just bonded in, changing to French spec Fiesta lights should be no problem at all.

[900T-R]

Unless it's a very late example, a Chim will likely be needing new reflectors anyway, so I'd replace both glass and reflector on both sides. I got everything I needed (they are standard Bosch/AL 180(?) mm units) at my local friendly TVR dealer (importer) for 225 euro.

As for the rears I was lucky because mine is a '93 and in The Netherlands, cars from before 1-1-'94 aren't required to have a rear fog light by law - although you must not only remove the bulb from the fog light, but also from the indicator light on the dashboard...

[Germs]

I'm not sure but will you be able to get a "certificate of conformity" which I believe you will need to get it registered in France (you are limited to how long you can import a UK car and keep it's UK plates to someting like 6 months)? Good luck!

[e635815]

Thanks all for your answers.

The Chim 4.0l only has been registered in France between 94 and 97. Therefore, importing one and having it road legal isn't an issue. The big deal is to get the certificate of conformity since the factory no longer exists and the French TVR dealer has disappeared also.
But it is doable.
Philippe

[jvr]

e635815 said:

Thanks all for your answers.

The Chim 4.0l only has been registered in France between 94 and 97. Therefore, importing one and having it road legal isn't an issue. The big deal is to get the certificate of conformity since the factory no longer exists and the French TVR dealer has disappeared also.
But it is doable.
Philippe

I don't think it is,i've heard of a couple of other people try this and its not possible,however your car was once registered in France so you could work on this aspect
Paul

[Germs]

Philippe, if you do manage it please let us (me) know as I will be trying to do the same thing end of next year.

Thanks

[anonymous-user]

Make sure you get one with air con if the car is going to be in the south. These cars get hot in the cabin and pretty uncomfortable in 30 plus degrees....