Re[2]: Headlight Covers

[Ed Lutz <edlutz@domain.elided>]

Nice write up Scott, you cleared a coupole things up about my
headlight covers, that were installed by someone back in the cars
past.
One question. Once the lights are mounted properly behind the fender
opening, how does one adjust the beam aim? Can you still access the
adjustment screws from the front?

Thanks,

Ed

Tuesday, February 12, 2002, 9:01:00 AM, you wrote:

SF> --- Forza <headroom@domain.elided> wrote:
>> Hello, I'm in the middle of spring fix-up on my 86
>> Spider.  One thing I've 
>> always admired is the Plex-glass head light covers
>> of the early Spiders.

SF> I just replaced the covers on mine, and learned a bit
SF> in the process.

>> Questions are:
>> Who makes the Genuine Covers?

SF> Carello, same people who make the rear lenses and
SF> headlight assemblies.

>> Where can I purchase them?

SF> I bought mine from Rainer Hurtienne in Germany, had
SF> them shipped to Oregon.  Prices at any of the US
SF> sellers is about $200-$220 for the whole installation
SF> kit; I paid $133 with shipping from Germany.

SF> Here's the detail page inside their site with the
SF> headlamp listing:

SF> https://diamant.safe-order.de/alfahurtienne/htdocs/english/seite44.htm

SF> Here's the top-level URL for them (well, top-level in
SF> English):

SF> http://www.alfahurtienne.de/htdocs/english/index.htm

SF> You can also download their "catalog" (which is their
SF> Web site) and browse it on your local computer, then
SF> go on the Web to place your order.

SF> Shipping took -- well, it's hard to say, as my family
SF> put these up for me when the arrived and I didn't open
SF> them till Christmas. :-)  About a month, more or less.

SF> Note that in the page that I call out, you will need
SF> to buy two each of 7, 9, and 10 (though there are
SF> options for 10), and four each of 8.  I'll explain as
SF> I go.

>> Are they difficult to install "properly?"

SF> Fiddly, but not necessarily difficult.  You WILL want
SF> to see a picture of a European Spider to understand
SF> what "properly" is.  I'll describe what I can, but
SF> some of this may not click into place till you see a
SF> car with them as the factory installed them.

SF> The covers are held in place at three points on the
SF> car.  Two of them are the tabs at the trailing edge of
SF> the cover; these fit into slots in the fender.  The
SF> third place is a clip that holds down the apex of the
SF> cover and is screwed into the fender.

>> I've seen some that have a chrome ring they fit
>> into.. Most do not?  Which is original?

SF> Okay -- so your Spider has chrome trim rings around
SF> the headlights, yes?  You will be removing those rings
SF> to fit the Carellos "properly."  You will then note
SF> that your US-spec Spider's headlights stick out
SF> slightly in front of the leading edge of the fender. 
SF> To fit the Carellos as the factory intended, you need
SF> to change that by removing not only the headlight, but
SF> the headlight BUCKET, and mount the whole thing behind
SF> the fender instead of in front of it.  The previous
SF> owner did that on my car, so I can't speak to the ease
SF> or difficulty of the task.

SF> Once the headlamps are "sunk" into the fenders, there
SF> may be a very slim trim ring designed to go around
SF> them -- it doesn't show on Hurtienne, but it does on
SF> the U.S. sellers' catalogs.

SF> There also appear to be slots cut or punched in the
SF> portion of the fender surrounding the headlight. 
SF> These may be in all Spiders from Pininfarina; I'm
SF> guessing they are because the mounting tabs on the
SF> Carellos are all in the same place and they're
SF> original spec for the European Spiders.  

SF> The part called out as 8 in the picture on Rainer
SF> Hurtienne's Web site is a little nylon sleeve/tab,
SF> designed to go into these slots in your fender.  They,
SF> in turn, hold the tabs that are built into the
SF> headlamp cover.  Note that I ran my Spider without
SF> these nylon sleeves for two years, and the right-hand
SF> cover rattled badly for most of that time -- I didn't
SF> know any better, only discovering the tabs last
SF> November or whenever I ordered the covers.  They're
SF> important.

SF> The chrome clip (part 9) then holds the nose of the
SF> cover down by one of a couple of mechanisms.  The part
SF> listed as 10 in Hurtienne is a machine screw that
SF> takes a 10mm ATF (across-the-flats) metric nut. 
SF> Whoever installed my Spider's headlamp covers, on the
SF> other hand, went much simpler and drilled a hole large
SF> enough for a #10 sheet-metal screw.  When my 10mm
SF> machine screws arrived and were clearly too large for
SF> the holes in my car, I thought about the solutions. 
SF> Reaching up inside the nose of the car and holding a
SF> 10mm nut with one hand while tightening the screw with
SF> the other seemed unnecessarily masochistic, even for
SF> an ex-Britcar owner like me.  Joe Cantrell suggested
SF> what he did: use nutserts, a sort of self-tightening
SF> nut insert (like a molly screw for drywall, I guess?).
SF>  I went, eventually, with the easy solution and bought
SF> some nice chrome-plated #10 x 1" machine screws, which
SF> are on the car now, and have not required drilling
SF> additional holes.  For my $1.99, I bought five of
SF> them, so I have three spares.

>> Are they tough to keep clean? (it seems as if the
>> wind (dirt) must get behind them)

SF> They wash easily, but dirt DOES get behind them,
SF> especially when you drive in the rain.  This is why I
SF> didn't want to go with the 10mm nut solution, as I had
SF> the covers on and off the car a couple times a year
SF> for serious washing/detailing.  And then it wasn't so
SF> much to wash the covers as to wash the headlamp
SF> nacelles beneath them -- the water pools up where it
SF> normally does on a Spider, but you can't wipe it out
SF> with a towel.

>> Do they defuse the light?

SF> That's hard to say.  The DOT headlamps on my Spider
SF> are weak and getting weaker -- another reason to make
SF> the covers easily removable, as I'll be improving the
SF> headlights later this year.  The biggest problem I had
SF> with them was that my old covers were faded, fogged,
SF> and cracked, and this absorbed a lot of the dim glow
SF> that oozed out of the DOT sealed beams.  (Yeah, yeah,
SF> I know, I sound like a Eurolight geek from the Audi
SF> digest... :-)

>> Do they shake, rattle, or otherwise make noise?
>> Do they tend to disappear?  Lost or stolen?

SF> Considering the difficulty of installing them on a
SF> Civic or an Acura, I doubt there's much call for them.
 

>> Thanks again... you people are the best!

SF> Hey, we understand about these "silly waste of money"
SF> cars.  Well, SOME of us do, anyway. :-)

SF> Best,

SF> --Scott Fisher
SF>   Tualatin, Oregon
SF> Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings!
SF> http://greetings.yahoo.com

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