Covered Headlight Conversion S1.25

[eddiecross]

Few shots of the completed work.
Lessons learned:
Chucks flanges make the job pretty straight forward as the curves and flanges are spot on

Get the chrome bezel correctly aligned 1st and mark for holes and go from there. The flange location is not critical and the rubber seals and plexi lenses are pretty forgiving

I didn't try with the glass lenses. I had a pair but it was another degree of difficulty and precision as they have zero give.

I used self tapping screws through the panels for fixing the chrome bezels. That's going to have a limited life. Especially for the 2 screws at the top where there is only one layer of metal. All suggestions welcome. Some kind of Rivnut?

Mig tacks on the flange edges worked fine. Chuck suggests just using existing rivet holes but not enough of them for my liking.

I joined the flanges top and bottom. maybe it will help keep the water out. Or maybe it will just pour through the sides of the bezels instead!

Happy to help with advice etc.
Signing off now.
Cheers
Eddie

[keithmac]

Looks great Ed, nice work. Thanks for the additional tips. I note that series one headlight dishes do not seem to available at this time so series two 's will have to be modified. My headlight bulkheads are in ( great panels but fettling required due to bonnet variations ) sugar scoops pre fitted and headlight assemblies built up. Small bonnet chrome strip slot hack sawed open. Self tapping phillips SS screws finally found on Amazon ( had to order an assorted kit to get the size I need )
Still waiting on chrome bezels and rubber seal parts ( three months now , covid delayed )

[eddiecross]

Looking great Keith.
I'm amazed you can't get the correct headlight dishes.
Did you manage to source the correct headlights with the shallow backs? I used the standard ones but its a bit of a bodge with bending the bulb pins at the back and losing the plug.

Be great to add any progress images here or a separate post and compare notes and approach etc.

Cheers
Eddie

[eddiecross]

Looking great Keith.
I'm amazed you can't get the correct headlight dishes.
Did you manage to source the correct headlights with the shallow backs? I used the standard ones but its a bit of a bodge with bending the bulb pins at the back and losing the plug.

Be great to add any progress images here or a separate post and compare notes and approach etc.

Cheers
Eddie

[keithmac]

One down , one to go. This has not been a breeze. The parts from Monocoque metal works are fine. However the chrome surround, PTE lens , rubber lens seal and bonnet require MUCH fettling to agree with each other . Including grinding the PTE lens to fit the chrome surround.All before the heart stopping step of drilling holes in the bonnet with little margin for error. As you can see though the results of triple the expected time and effort are very good. Here's hoping the left side goes faster ( I am sure it will ) Just about the time I get good at this , I will never have to do it again !
Cheers all and thanks to Ed for his great photos and help.

[Simonpfhc]

Hi Eddie,

Firstly, thanks for posting so much info of this conversion, it really helped!

Secondly, I’ve just finished this conversion myself and went went very smoothly. With regards to attaching the chrome rims, I used Rivnuts which work perfectly.

I must say, the conversion flanges Chuck @MMW supplied (like all his panels) were beautifully made and fit like a glove!

[eddiecross]

Hi Simon,
Looks great. Glad I could help. Rivnuts look like a great permanent solution.
I ditched the front sissy bar and the car looks good enough to run for a couple of years.

Its back in storage so I couldn't resist a quick detour in recommissioning a 69 Commando.
You can get a real shift on compared to a Jag.

[Dr.No007]

Hello and a big thank you to Eddie and Keith for the great posts. I'm currently working on the conversion, and the descriptions and especially the photos are a huge help. One question I have: You painted the MM flanges black. Why not the same color as the car? Cheers, Klaus

[keithmac]

Hello Klaus, I used black paint because some of the new flange is visible through the perspex and black just blends right in with the rubber seal. It blends so well i had to run to the garage and check with a flash light to see if my recollections were correct. You will enjoy the conversion when its done. Cheers