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Originally Posted by LongRanger
Thanks for that Rick, I may well be asking the odd question. I have started a thread on a UK forum but I could start one here too. Here is a link to my thread.
http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=31622
Kind Regards
Not exactly a long trip --- 180 mi/290 km round-trip --- but sure beats sitting in the garage!
Went to the PCA Santa Barbara Region's 10th annual Concours at CSU Channel Islands.
Fun show, beautiful weather, hung out with some 'I don't do Car-shows' types, had a real good time . . . and burned-off a tank of high-test. I'll go on the record here and say that 1059's fuel economy is abysmal. Never mind what's coming out of the tail-pipe. (But it sure is fun! . . . )
Finish looks fantastic. Haven't washed it, yet. Right-side head light ring doesn't wanna grab the tab in the bucket, hence the blue tape. I'll prolly swap in a ring from the other set, try to get one that 'bites.'
Driving this thing in traffic? . . . OMG. What a terror. No performance below 3000 --- and I mean zero. Pops, spits, and generally bitches when its cold. Any large or sudden throttle at low revs just pisses it off. Above 3k, the nonsense settles down . . . but only barely. End up spending most of my time in 2nd or 3rd in town, above 3k, occasionally cruising in 4th --- more like coasting. Double-clutching the down-shifts just scatters all the surrounding traffic. Love the sound, but jeez. 1st is a one-Mississippi-two Mississippi deal, so stop-lights get me very focused.
And the freeway? Feels like the effen Millenium Falcon. 'Where's that GD hyper-driiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii . . . . .'
Whoever sold radios for these cars was robbing people. Too much going on, way too much to think about --- and way, way too much noise! . . . .
1059 is an absolute, total, incorrigible, irredeemable PitA.
Love it. Absolutely love it.
:p;):D
My insurance is coming up for renewal shortly, so, since I had the car re-finished, I had it re-appraised.
Short version. Replacement value? . . . .
$105,000.
And that's with the cheesy spray-painted sun visors!
(Holy $h!t.)
All I can say is . . . . check your coverages.
Rick Kreiskott
One of the trick bits that come with vintage European-model cars are their funky European-model head-lights.
Going back to the 60s and 70s and maybe earlier, vehicles built for the US-market had to have lighting as mandated by the US DoT, conforming to some archaic standards famously developed in the 30s. Which meant that any European cars imported and sold here had to have the same stupid sealed-beam headlights that regular domestic cars were stuck with.
For most cars, I don’t think that many people noticed. I grew up driving big low-performance American cars, with 12-volt electrical systems, and so I didn’t know (or care) much about lighting. As long as the lights lit-up, they were good enough. But when I started running old VWs, and then a 356 --- all with 6-volt electrics --- well, those US-spec lights were just plain weak. In fact, it was the truly feeble performance of US-spec 6-volt lighting that prompted me to investigate the original European-type light-gear in the first place.
OEM Euro-type lighting was somewhat available, back when I first started looking, in the mid 80s. I remember seeing vintage NOS units being sold at some of the swap-meets and car shows going on at the time, and for reasonable prices, too. So Euro lighting wasn’t too difficult to find, or expensive to get into, back then. And for my VWs, using their Euro-type non-sealed beam lights made a pretty big difference. I could actually see something at night --- probably because all the various components, especially the reflectors, were brand new, as much as anything.
Plus? Euro lights looked really cool. I bought this one set of NOS Hellas, out at the Pomona Swap, got ‘em home, then just stuck ’em on my Bug. Took, like 10 minutes. Instead of the droopy-looking sealed beams tucked in the back of their dingy sugar-scoops, car now had these big, bright globes that filled-up the whole headlight housing --- snazzy, expensive-looking lenses in front of big, shiny reflectors --- looked like two faceted eye-balls (I call ‘em fly’s eyes) . . . totally transformed the face of the car. Assemblies even came with a small 4w bulb, mounted at the bottom of the front of the housing, that, when lit, used the whole head-lamp reflector to produce this soft glow for the parking light. Very cool.
(As it turned-out, probably too cool. That Bug got snatched from the parking lot of the place where I was working at the time, out in East LA --- in broad day-light. When that poor little car finally turned-up, in an LAPD impound lot, a month-and-a-half later, its eye-sockets were empty --- the lovely Hellas gone.)
After I got my 356, the first thing I did was look for a set of Euro head-lights. Same results. Euro lights really make a 356, IMO.
Picture below was taken the night I said 'good-bye' to 87901, sold to Richie King @Karmann Konnection
Anyway, when I started looking for a 911, I knew that I’d be installing Euro lights, again. As it turned-out, 1059 was originally a European-market car --- and un-converted at that --- and apparently still had all of its original-type European light gear fitted, and intact --- connectors, wiring harness, switches, everything. Very bitchin.’
The was one problem . . . the original units that came with the car didn’t really work. Oh, they came on, alright . . . but that was about it. Couldn’t see more than 20 feet in front of the car at night. So, after I brought the car out to California, I searched for and found a fresh set of H1s, which were installed after the car was re-finished.
About a week after getting the car home, I’d noticed that the right head-light assembly was loose, up at the top. The chrome ring was sitting a bit wide, and when I pushed on it, it moved --- not a lot, but it wasn’t staying put. Didn’t look too serious, so I figured I’d just take a Phillips to the attachment screw, at the bottom, loosen it, re-land the head-light on the little tab at the top of the bucket, then just re-tighten it. Everything seemed to fit OK --- the chrome ring fit the fender properly, all the way around, no obvious dings or distortions --- but after I re-mounted the light, I could see that it still wasn’t seating properly at the top.
So I took off the whole assembly, then took a close look at the chrome ring. The over-all shape was fine --- it matched the fender perfectly --- but as I looked closer, the small lip on the back-side of the ring, at the top, where it would attach to the tab in the headlight bucket, was pulled-out just a bit. The whole assembly only needed the tiniest amount of lip to hook on the tab, so I got some pliers and gently rolled the edge of the ring. Then I tried a few times to get the assembly to grab --- but not enough improvement.
I had the original H1s that came with the car --- and I knew those fit securely --- so I figured I’d just swap out the headlight rings. The originals weren’t as nice as the replacements, so I did some looking for replacements. Stoddard has new chrome rings . . . for $126 each. (As it turns out, these are probably for H4s and so won’t work on H1s, anyway --- see below). Uh --- no, thank you.
There are some problems with H1s, First off, H1s are just plain weird. As you can see from the photos below, there really is nothing like them. Not only is the basic configuration of reflectors, adjusters, ground-straps and bulbs specific to the H1, but so are a lot of the parts. Like the chrome ring. Instead of having two adjustment screws, like on the H4s, H1s have 4. And H1 adjustment screws are weird, just by themselves, including this one monster that has a cable-bit swedged onto the end so that it can bend around 180 degrees. Plus, each adjuster is attached/fixed to the ring by a tiny threaded stop tensioning a spring against some kind of little rubber cup. Good grief.
Another problem is that H1s have been NLA since, like, forever. And, as I found out by taking these things apart, a lot of parts on these things are unique. It isn’t like I can scrounge parts from H4s or some other type of light --- at least, none that I know of.
I’d considered switching over to the later/current H4 lights --- briefly . . . but I really want to keep 1059 as stock/original/weird/ungainly as I can, so . . . if H1s were what the car came with, then H1s are it. I’m gonna try to make ‘em work.
I've just now had a chance to read through the initial pages of this thread, and I look forward to reading he rest. Great story Rick. Funny thing is that I had crossed paths with this car twice - once before you bought it and once afterwards (although I didn't know it at the time). My wife is from North Carolina and even though we live here in CA, we have a place outside of Asheville. I had been searching for a LWB coupe around the same time as you, saw the ad in Hemmings for the car and spoke to the seller when he had it listed and we were in NC, but didn't actually see the car as I wasn't ready to spend the $$ for an S. Some months later, we were in NC again, and I went to see a Sepia 72T coupe that was at John Forbes Shop in Lincolnton. I looked at the 72, and saw 1059 in the shop and inquired about it as well. John said he was working on it for an out of town customer. Small world.
Thank you, George.Quote:
Originally Posted by geshaghi
Sure is. And hopefully now, with you, me, and 1059 --- all on this board . . . it'll stay that way! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by geshaghi
Rick Kreiskott
This thread is great... lots of fun. And the car is very cool. Nice 'R' steering wheel.
The H1s that were fitted to 1059 were purchased only a few months ago. And they are beautiful. Work, too! --- always a plus. The only problem was just a millimeter-or-so-too-much clearance on the chrome trim ring kept the right one from staying put. Hhhh.
I goofed-around with the ring as much as I dared, couldn’t get it to work. And there was no way I was gonna mess with anything to do with that tab inside the head-light bucket of that fender – period.
I still had the original H1s that came with the car, but those rings were only so-so cosmetically – the metal is surprisingly thin, and there were a couple of tiny bends that had tweeked the chrome. But I knew that these would fit tight. So . . . time to swap.
I was already familiar with the Euro-type non-sealed headlights for the 6-volt cars, from my VW/356 days. And at first glance, H1s look very similar.
But there were some key differences.
When I turned over the old units, to look ‘em over and start taking ‘em apart, well . . . there’s a lot of stuff back there. Each assembly consists of 4 basic parts: the glass lens, a metal can, the reflector (actually a double-reflector!), and the ring. The lens, can, and ring are held together by a bunch of metal springs, kinda L-shaped. Real easy to just jump in, un-do all the springs and have a lot head-light pieces scattered everywhere in no time. But that doesn’t do anything to detach the reflector --- either from the can or the ring. (Don't ask me how I know.)
Anyway, the whole job s to get the ring and its adjusters detached from the reflector. I mentioned four adjuster screws. One of them was just a long screw that threaded into an adjuster-clip on the side of the reflector. Two others had these itty-bitty tabs that fit into these rubber bungs, stuck into the side of the reflector.
But that fourth one --- was something else. Sucker started-out as a 3 inch machine screw, but was then swedged into a cable-thingy, about 6 inches long, that then turned through 180 degrees and was in turn swedged onto another machine screw, which then terminated on a tab on the side of the lower reflector, and held in place by a washer, retainer, and a spring. Kinda Rube Goldberg, but diabolical. Who comes up with this stuff?
Oh – and the 4 adjusters? --- they’re anchored to the ring with these rubber cups, that fixed in place by these tiny threaded retainers, which are also held in place by springs, thank you very much. (Uh --- I'll be leaving those alone for now.)
So, to remove the ring . . . I decided to detach those four adjusters from the reflector. Which is where things got . . . interesting.
Now, normally, the adjuster screws can be detached from the reflector by pulling these small tabs out of some rubber bungs that are scattered around the reflector’s edge --- two of them came off that way. Another one was threaded into this threaded clip, also on the side of the reflector, so I just unscrewed that one. Three down, one to go.
But that fourth one, the one with that cable-bit? That adjuster went in through the back of the reflector and was anchored to a tab on the back-side of the second reflector, inside the can. When I first saw it, and how it was attached, with that spring-tensioned washer, all I could think about was how to un-hook that beastie --- which had probably been in place since, like --- the Nixon Administration? --- without trashing the don’t-even-think-about-finding-a-replacement reflector it was attached to. I finally decided to try to un-do the adjuster from inside the can --- ie, from the reflector side --- I ended-up using a small slotted screw-driver to twink the head of the adjuster screw out of its slot on this small tab on the side of the reflector. With that fourth adjuster now free, the reflector and ring could finally be separated.
Sheesh, what a hula dance!
All things considered, the old H1 was in pretty decent shape. There was some corrosion and crustiness, but all the little bits looked to still be useable. I took the old ring, wiped it down, hit it with a little polish . . . good to go.
One H1 down. One more to go. Then build up a good one from the bits.
The newer unit came apart a bit easier --- same steps, only faster, now that I’d had some practice.
When I put the two rings side-by-side, the difference between the two was more obvious. The newer ring’s edge was ‘un-rolled’ a lot, compared to the older one’s. I built the light back up, using the old ring, then re-installed it.
Uh . . . . . . . well, no. Not quite.
Seems all the repeated ons and offs had worn-out the threads of the tab that anchored the attachment screw at the bottom of the bucket. Great.
At first, I tried epoxying an appropriate nut on the back of the tab – thank you, Home Depot --- and that worked . . . until the next time I took the light off. So I ditched the nut, cleaned-off the tab, and kluged-up some latex tape around the attachment screw, to hold the light in while I looked for something more permanent. I was thinking about using a Tinnerman or ‘speed’ nut, maybe a nut-plate . . . .
Anyway, I dropped by John’s the next week-end, told him what was going on. He described using a small nut-plate that could be modified to fit the tab. By then, we’d wandered over to TLG, next door, and when Tony heard what we were talking about, he came up with The Fix --- a kind of nut-plate, I guess, consisting of a small ‘S’-shaped clip with a nylock nut in one of the loops, with the arm of the other loop slightly cut-down to be able to properly fit on the tab at the bottom of the bucket.
That worked.
John said, the next time the car came by, he could add a little weld to the tab, then re-tap it.
In the mean time . . . tape’s off ---- light's secured.
And I’ll be keeping my eyes open for any 4-adjuster head-light rings . . . with good edges at the top!
Here's the cast of characters:
1) and 2) The Old H1 --- two bulbs, three wires, a coupla ground-straps . . . and you can see the big swedged-on cable-thingy, on the side of the reflector --- that's the adjuster for the inner reflector
3) Adjuster screw and its threaded tab stuck in a rubber bung on the side of the reflector
4) Adjuster with a threaded tab
5) Rubber bung
1) The H1 head-light ring with its four adjusters
2) The Fiendish Fourth Adjuster
3) The F4A's business end . . .
4) The F4A's bung . . . in front of the slot in the outer reflector that the F4A passes through . . .
5) . . . on its way to the tab on the inner reflector
Don't even ask me how to adjust all this stuff.
Apparently, the reason there are 4 adjusters is that two are used to aim the outer reflector, and two aim the inner. I did wipe everything down with alcohol before re-assembling, but uh . . . I may have moved a couple of tabs goofing-around with all this crap --- over three separate week-ends.
Haven't had the guts to light 'em off, yet.
(But then again, I haven't washed the car since I picked it up from John's, either, so . . . )