restoration of front-lights

[Günter]

so now, after all those years I think it needs a little more work to pass this years MOT

my usual way of 'refreshing' helped a lot on the base-plate

..but the problems started with the test fit of the additional *high-beam* lights. as the bracket on the replacement lights is way to big to fit under the Lotus original plastic cover. So it meant to cut off all what's in the way to hide the lights mounting under the covers. The other thing was that you need to 'cut' (or peel off) the lots of adhesive sealant/glue that holds the front glass of the *low-beam* lights in place. Othervise the lights do not really fit together with the plastic clamping-ring that has to be riveted on the original bracket.

problems sorted: 4 beams 'refreshed'

[waynef]

Interesting that you decided to re'use the original metal plates. I binned mine and replaced them with the plastic surround version which has four long plastic adjusters. The base plate I re manufactured from aluminium and the drilled the surrounds to fit. I binned the originals due to the fact they're made of mild steel and corrode really badly.

At least you got them to fit in the end though

And they look good. I want to fit an HID and washer system to mine next.

[Günter]

automatic/cabin adjustable beams with high-pressure washers & Xenon -yeah, that would be cool !

For now all sorts of *xenon*-beam conversions are not certificated for use in an Esprit over here in Germany (as far as I know it..) -so for the next years I will still go with the traditional not automatically adjustable H1/H4 system. And mentioning adjusters : the adjuster-studs for the low- & high-beam lights are placed in black plastic 'nuts' in the 'base-plate' & white receptors on top from original fabrication -so from that point ..why should I fear a problem there -the adjusting with a screwdriver still works without a problem on mine ! Finally I managed to fit all lights in, and get them working -only the surrounding cover for both lights is 'flexing' & 'bending' a lot on both light pots.. as for the still not perfect size match of those light brackets

#mentioning the 'base-plate:

The original 'base-plate' with the step on it is made of ordinary steel -right .... but the *yellow chromatizing stuff* or lets call it *zinc plating stuff* or what ever would be good enough for a long time -but as usual the engineers have not thought deeper into the materia on that ....there is an number of aluminium-alloy rivets holding the plate in the GRP lamp body. That's were I would say the oxidising is mostly starting , or comming from if you look closer on the 'before'-picture.

and finally on the thing with the lights for itself:

woud say SJ-sportscars should just talk with the 'supplier'/'manufacturer' on that -the additional 'cage' to fit the H1 lights there would work best with smaller rivets [and therefore smaller brackets..] and an overall smaller size [reduced diameter] on the cage for itself. As not only the additional metal ring is oversized -even the mounting face with the adjuster 'receptor-holes' is also not the same diameter as the Lotus OEM... .

Edited June 12, 2010 by Günter