I concentrated on getting the radiator, fan and associated plumbing into the 'Rat today. When locating the expansion tank I was concerned it would foul the bonnet so I fitted it for the first time in two years to check clearances. I'd forgotten what it looked like. So while it was on I offered up the front bumper to get an impression of the finished look. It really looked like I'd made a lot of progress and has given me a confidence boost.

Some ideas from the forum would be appreciated here. What I'm thinking of to finish the front off is a chequer plate aluminium grille with four large holes in it, with black mesh behind and for the headlights two lights on either side as on old BMWs, along with a pair of spots mounted on the bumper. What do you lot think, and any ideas for a source of some suitable headlights?

MAN i want that garage!

oh, erm... i think it you could get a grill that was similar to the Mark1 slotted affair that'd look pretty good...

How about MK2 Punto lights?

MAN i want that garage!

Click to expand...

The one next to it is even bigger! You can get two big cars in comfortably and still have room to walk round them. Unfortunately it only has a dirt floor and the roof leaks. Still very useful though. I've lost count of the number of cars I've worked on in that garage but it must be easily in the 30s or 40s.

Or Tipo's as they are slighly thinner.

Tipo lights: don't like them I'm afraid.

Punto lights: very nice but too wide and the wrong shape.

I need something that will fit the gaps reasonably well and quite simply. Can you get sealed beam units like the Minis but smaller? It's something I just thought of.

Hmm, didn't the Capri have something like I envisage?

Time to get googling...

Here we are. I'm imagining something like these twin headlight units in the 'Rat. Think Capri ones might be a bit big though.

They'd be nice. You can get aftermarket twin headlamp sets for Saxos, Novas and other barrytastic motors, so have a sniff through some bling catalogues.

You could also look for the quad headlight setup as fitted to high spec Opel Mantas (similar to the Capri setup, might be made by Irmsher?). Ebay sometimes throws up a few, and they're not that sought after as most of the Mantas have rusted to bits so they're none left to fit them to

Another day of steady progress on the 'Rat. I remembered a mate of mine has a bike here he's renovating so I looked through his pile of parts and found a twin headlight unit. Jammed it into one of the headlight spaces, took a picture then Photoshopped it to see what it would look like. Here's the result:



I was hoping the bonnet would overhang slightly to give it that Capri lights look, which I quite like. Opinions?

Also, I thought bike lights would be ideal as they're quite small and there are loads on eBay quite reasonably priced. However, I'm not a bike person so I know bugger all about them. Do they dip? Would they be suitable to be used like this?

Bike lights dip... low/high beam & side lights etc... same, but the bulbs can be expensive if you get the wrong ones (honda).

as for the headlights... i'm afraid i don't like the round ones... they are at odds with the rest of the car... which is pretty straight.

I think the scirocco Mk2 onesmight be ok... not too tall

You could be right Tony but round headlights were fitted to a lot of 'square' cars such as the MK2 escort and erm, well I'm sure there are others.

I have a pair of Metro lights kicking around somewhere. Might try them for size...

I might have some 7 series lights you could have I'll check on my limited supplies tomorrow. I def have spare front & side orange indicators

Cheers Alan, they'd be quite cool. I'll measure up the space they have to fit into and let you know tomorrow. I'd be happy to make the trip over to Cumbria if you do have them and they're suitable.

Going back a couple of posts to Tony's pics. I understand why you included the Scirroco pic but the other one? WTF?

OK, I've roughly measured the space the lights need to fit into, just height and width, not depth.

Width 22cm (can go to 27 if I cut the bodywork outboard)
Height 12cm (that's with the bumper as shown in the pics above but could lower it a bit if I had to).

default_user said:

Going back a couple of posts to Tony's pics. I understand why you included the Scirroco pic but the other one? WTF?

Click to expand...

it was found under a picture search for headlights... amoungst other things deemed even less social.

These are the spare 7's lights, I put a panda light in to show the scale

Looks like you have a complete pair there. They also look quite easy to mount and adjust. Is each light separately adjustable or does the mounting bracket adjust both of them together?

They adjust seperately but i would invest in some new adjusting screws which are pennies from the bmw dealer as the ones on are a bit rusty.