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Due to a situation best left to another thread (or not ever mentioned!) (!), I recently had to replace the driver's side headlight.
My first choice was obviously the parts car, but much to my dismay the reflectors in that unit were past their prime and starting to break down.
This left the light with a sort of overall "greyish" look and if I'd fitted it, the car would be left with a "squint" ... ....I don't think so!
I managed to find a headlight with good reflectors at a local wrecking yard but the apes in the yard had removed it rather crudely, destroying the bucket, trim and one of the bucket mounts in the process. On the bright side though, it was only $40.00.
Using the parts car bucket and trim I figured I could make a good one out of the two.
Here's what I bought:
bottom centre bucket mount sheared off
luckily one or two threads left so I could get the correct angle for repair
My plan was to re-create the mount using epoxy putty, I chose the water-based Milliput as I'd had good success with it on other projects. First job was to remove the screw/bolt and grease the threads so it could be unscrewed after the putty had set up.
After greasing, I set it in position and pressed some putty around the bolt and tooled it to shape it with a wet q-tip.
This stuff sets rock hard and is usually used for porcelain repair
Water based putty can be molded with wet tools
Always leave a bit of putty on the side to test for set-up hardness - in this case after about 3 hours it was hard but not too hard to trim with a sharp razor-knife.
As the screw had some thread left, there was no issue with the repair coming "unstuck" as it is basically acting as a spacer.
I got the correct dimension (height) of the mount from referring to the cloudy light off the parts car.
Errant shopping buggys are the right height to do damage!
I have to take the Missus to work this morning,and she is not happy about it!
Her Jag is getting a new thermostat, and maybe some big squaries to see by in the waning light these days,taken from Redd.
The quads just don,t cut it!
With both of us working,I do not get any Jag time for maintainance these days, so today is the day!
Are we gonna see a "OOPS" thread Larry?
Hafta go,Cheers,Jim and Cin.
Looks like an OK day for some tinkerin' Jim, not too cold yet ...and yes, shopping carts are indeed the right height but the shopping cart in this story is a Ford F150 driven by a schmuck ...
Waiting for the "after" pics to do the OOPS thread, already sick looking at the "befores" ..nuff said!!
On our '93 with quads, I replaced the original sealed beams with Cibie lamps that take the European H4 (low/high beam) and H7 (high beam) bulbs. I wired in an additional fused relay so that on the high beam setting both the H4 high filaments and H7 bulbs are illuminated. I run the Sylvania Silverstar bulbs, which burn brighter and whiter at the expense of shorter life.
Among our six family cars, only the HID lamps in the '04 XJR can rival the '93 VDP for superb road illumination in the dead of night.
I have new quad light setup for my -91 that had the european fishtanks originally, I was wondering that is it possible to split the high beam straight from the outer H4 wiring, so that on low beam only the outer ones are on and then on high beam all four are working? (I don't have yet the bulb failure module for quad lights) Or should there be a relay between them? For now only the outer lights are in use on both low and high beam
Kay (who is determined to get the Kitten road legal again)
Originally Posted by Don B
Jim,
It doesn't have to be so!
On our '93 with quads, I replaced the original sealed beams with Cibie lamps that take the European H4 (low/high beam) and H7 (high beam) bulbs. I wired in an additional fused relay so that on the high beam setting both the H4 high filaments and H7 bulbs are illuminated. I run the Sylvania Silverstar bulbs, which burn brighter and whiter at the expense of shorter life.
Among our six family cars, only the HID lamps in the '04 XJR can rival the '93 VDP for superb road illumination in the dead of night.
I have new quad light setup for my -91 that had the european fishtanks originally, I was wondering that is it possible to split the high beam straight from the outer H4 wiring, so that on low beam only the outer ones are on and then on high beam all four are working? (I don't have yet the bulb failure module for quad lights) Or should there be a relay between them? For now only the outer lights are in use on both low and high beam
Kay (who is determined to get the Kitten road legal again)
Hi Kay,
I used a relay because I wasn't sure the BFM could handle the extra current draw of the setup I wanted, which I think is the same as what you describe. I was afraid the extra current drawn by the H4 and H7 lamps being illuminated simultaneously might be too much for the BFM internal components to handle, so I added the relay, which I controlled with the BFM but powered with a straight run to the battery jump post in the engine compartment. I added an inline fuse (10A or 15A) to the power line to the bulbs.
11-20-2016, 12:09 AM
Headlight re and re
(!), I recently had to replace the driver's side headlight. 
....I don't think so!
