Thru the Grill Light Restoration

[Neunelfer]

I was beginning to feel bad about hijacking Michaels thread and I thought this should probably be on it's own.

A while back I took on the task of restoring my fog lights. This is one of those projects that kept getting back-burner status and that's probably a good thing. Sometimes I have the patience of a gnat and it works out for the better if I'm forced to take my time.

Here's a look at what I did.

To start, I disassembled the lights. You may have seen some of these pictures posted here previously. Once the lights were all apart I had to take the mount off to chrome the housing. The mount includes the ground brush and tongue which a held in place with the mount rivets. I used a Dremel with a carbide cut-off wheel and used it like a tiny grinder on the backside of the rivets:







Once the mount was out I took the various pieces off to be chromed and plated. I decided to have the reflectors chromed as well and the results were great. There are some firms out there that can remirror but the chrome looks about 98% so I'm happy. So, the housing, ring and reflector were chromed and the remaining pieces (with the exception of the mounts) were clear zinc plated with the exception of the long mounting bolt which was yellow zinc:



The mounts were glass bead blasted and they came out great:





Kevin (a fellow car nut on another forum) saw my plight. I was wondering how to get the mounts rivetted back on to the housing. Seeing as how he builds airplanes for a living he had all the answers (and all the tools) needed to finish this job. I can't thank Kevin enough for sending a couple bags of rivets, a buck and the rivet head for my air hammer:





The buck slips into the vise and is used on the backside of the rivet to flare or mushroom the end:



Next it was time to load the rivets and go for it. I used my previous pictures to realign the brush and tab. The rivets were just a hair larger so I had to take a small round file and dress the holes on the housing, it may have been the chrome as well. Here's everything lined up and ready to go. I even found an old sticker and, using some spray adhesive, I reapplied (don't ask me why...):

[Neunelfer]

On the buck:



Finished:



Another friend of mine Karl saves the day with aftermarket glass seals and Glenn Sager saves the day with a set of new lenses. The seals are a perfect fit and the lenses simply popped into the ring using the newly plated spring clips:





One of the final steps is to snap them together and lock them in place with the lock tabs:



And the last step is to install the mount on the mount base. Again, everything was replated using clear zinc:



Finished product. Big thanks again to Michael for the grill templates. Sorry the car's a bit dirty... :

[Rich Lambert]

Wow, Eric, nice work!

[boxster03]

and informative. excellent thread. what this board is all about

[Neunelfer]

Thanks guys.

I agree, that is what this board is about. Here I found the templates for the grills and I got the proper switch and knobs from members that were more than generous...

Thanks everyone! Made for a nice clean install. The dash switch looks like it's been there since 1971. Funny thing, I drove a friends recent purchase (1991 964) back from LA last week and the switch is in the same spot. Car sucked (3.6 with a tip) but, you could tell it was still a 911.

E.

[70SATMan]

Super job Eric! I love that you saved and re-applied the part label inside. Nice touch that.

[Soterik]

Eric,

That's just a fantastic detailed explanation of your work..and a great job of a restoration as well. I'm humbled!....

regards,
Eric

[Bert]

Great job on the lights. Thanks for the step by step instructions with photos.

Very helpful.

[Zithlord]

Thanks for the great description. As you may remember I contacted you awhile ago with some questions about the rivets. I dismantled 3 sets of 914 fog and driving lights and had them recromed. I have put them back together but did not find the rivets you used in Norway, so I had to use rivets with a small hole in the middle. I tried to fill the holes with lead but that did not work out. I guess I will have to drill out the rivets again and get the proper ones. Neunelfer; do you know where I get order the rivets you used?

BTW I drilled out the original rivets without any problem.

I also modified a pair of trim rings from TN4 inner opening to Euro inner opening so that I could use a set of euro fog lenses and reflectors.

John

[Neunelfer]

Neunelfer; do you know where I get order the rivets you used?

Sure... PM me your address.

The heads are larger but the fit around the mounts etc.