Tillie Gets Her Eyes / Headlights !

Before I start on the headlights, I want to bring closure to the previous blog concerning the fit of the TR6 hood (bonnet). Some of you may remember that I wasn't totally happy with the fit of the hood, especially the driver's side rear corner. I could not get that corner to be flush with the fender... it was about 2/16" high, no matter what I tried. A call to John my body guy was in order, since I knew he had the hood correct before taking it off for paint. We talked about the various adjustments I had tried, then he said, "Well, it needs to be twisted just a bit ,and here is how you do it".  I had visions of a pretzel-shaped hood and damaged paint, but I sucked it up and followed his instructions. I was amazed what a small piece of pine 2 X 4 wrapped in a rag, placed between the hood and the firewall, and some hand pressure could do! Gradually applying pressure to the high side "twisted" the hood enough so that the hood and fender are now flush without disturbing the rest of the fit !  The hood had been stored off the car for well over a year, and that must have caused the problem.

Thanks John !!

Ok, on to the headlamps. I couldn't install the headlights until the hood was done because the hood hinge bolts are in the area where the headlight buckets are installed.So,once the hood was complete, I was anxious to install and test the headlights. Tillie just didn't seem to have much personality without her "eyes".

The headlight wiring harness had been hanging loose for months, so part of the headlight "bucket" installation included threading the wires into the light housing and installing the 3 prong wire plug.

Once the bucket was in place, the light's adjusting housing was installed with two adjustment screws and attachment of the tension spring.

Now, Tillie is a special girl, so I want her to have "glamorous" eyes and provide me with with lots of light for night sorties. I went to head lamp guru Daniel Sterns' web site, Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy , to see what he had to offer. Daniel doesn't have a "shopping cart", so he likes to have either a voice conversation or an email exchange to ensure you're buying the correct parts and to confirm your wire harness is up to the task. After a somewhat detailed email exchange,we decided on these 7" Cibie head lamps.

The H4 lamps are purchased separately and you can chose between 65/55 W -DOT legal bulbs or the" not quite legal" 70/65 W(or more) off- road- only bulbs!  

Bulb installation is very straight forward...open the clamp,remove the temporary plastic filler, install the bulb, and clamp it back in place.

Install the rubber boot and plug it in

A ring and 3 screws secure the lamp to the adjustment housing.

Ah, that looks better!

I won't put on the outer covering rings until spring when I can properly adjust the lights. Daniel Sterns has a very detailed "how to aim" section on his web site.

This is not my first experience with Cibie head lamps. Back in the last century, 1971 to be exact, I had a new '71 Pontiac Firebird on which I had installed the same type of lamps. The only problem I encountered was getting stopped by the police...not for doing anything illegal but to ask me questions about those awesome headlights!