Lights, Camera and Shiny Bits

Lights

Front Lights

Rear Lights

First job in the latest round was to start fitting the lights. I bought a complete set from S&J Motors and opted for white indicators that, I think, will look better on the darker final colour. Positions of the headlights and front indicators are obvious and can't be altered so these were straight forward. The oval areas at the back of the body work for the brake/rear and the indicators are not a regular shape and it wasn't simple to work out the centre line. I took the lenses off and played around with the position using some bluetak before I was happy. I've yet to decide on the position of the repeaters, different builders have gone for different options, I think I favour having them above and forward of the side vents but will stick some lenses on to see how I feel. The reverse and fog light positions are marked on the rear valence. I'd like to recess these into the body as others have done but the position means that they'll intrude into the boot. Also, to get these lined up properly I want to fit the rear nudge bar (more of that later). I chose Superseal connectors for all the fittings, my local auto electrical supplier reckons these are best to avoid water ingress, important for the front lights where they are connected in the front wheel arches.

Superseal Connectors

Shiny Stuff

I ordered the majority of the bright-work from Brasscraft having heard good reports about them and had a useful exchange of e-mails with Chris, the proprietor. I ordered the screen (tinted), front and rear nudge bars with over-riders and the Aston filler cap. The parts were ready sooner than I had expected and I decided to go down to collect them. Chris is a very helpful guy with a wealth of knowledge and some good tips. I've put most of the bits in the loft for now while I finish off the electrics, tempting though it is to get it fitted and and one more step towards it being a real car. As mentioned above, I wanted to fit the rear nudge bar to check the position of the reverse & fog lights. There are positions marked in the body for the bars but I needed to double check, I rigged the nudge bar up on a jack so I could adjust the position and make sure it both looked and measured right, I also checked there were no other snags like it catching on the boot etc. The holes marked on the body were very close to accurate and it all lined up with the support brackets built into the body. The usual process of a pilot hole and slowly opening it out to accept the bars and bolt it up with the half nuts that Brasscraft supplied.

Rear Nudge Bar