Tagged: Fiberglass

Project Track – Headlight Intake

Remember the headlight ducts I was making? Well here’s some progress for you. I was meant to post it up yesterday after getting all the work done on Monday evening but my Dremel’s battery died so I had to wait till yesterday evening to finish. Excuses I know but here’s how things went.

After I’d made the fibreglass molds I was left with a really rough shell to work with. The first job was to trim the shells so that they would fit up to the OEM backing. Luckily I’d got an imprint left in the mold to show where I needed to cut so I just followed that line, checking the fitment bit by bit and carefully got the shape I needed. It’s pretty easy to do with a Dremel so if anyone is going to give this a go make sure you’ve got one handy!

When I was happy with the shape and fitment it was time to bond the two halves together. I chose to use Tiger Seal. I’ve bonded a sunroof bung in with this before and it’s amazingly tough. It’s weatherproof and sticks like nothing else. If you get it on your clothes, it won’t be coming off. I ran a bead around the backing and around the fibreglass shell and pressed them together. It held instantly so I went round the edge and added a little more to get a complete seal.

The next thing on the list to do was make the hole and channel for the air intake. The exit hole in the OEM backing is 60mm wide and I figured I wanted to make the intake in the fibreglass 80mm but I had a can of baked beans to hand which was 70mm so used that as a template. Drawing round the can and then very carefully and slowly cutting round the marks I was left with my intake. – Skipping a bit now. Now I’ve finished the fibreglass work I’m thinking of redesigning this part increasing the size for a second version –

With the two holes in the unit done I needed a way of joining them to make a channel. I had a think and chose to use some aluminium mesh to make the shape. It’s usually used in bodywork repair to bridge gaps. The mesh is lightweight, easy to cut and easy to manipulate but it would also give a great base for some more fibreglass to stick to. It took a bit of fiddling to get it in place but it worked and I secured it in place with some fast setting Araldite. There was only one thing to do now and that was to apply some more fibreglass to the channel. Due to the channel being quite small and deep it was pretty awkward but I found if I soaked each strip in the resin first and then used an ice lolly stick to apply the strip then I could avoid pulling all the strips above that off. I’ve left it all to set now so for now the headlight duct is done.

I’ll finish it off by tidying up any rough edges and spraying the fibreglass but I won’t be smoothing it off with any filler to keep it as light as possible. I’ve already got any idea for a second version floating around in my head so I’ll give that a go once I’m completely happy with this. Hopefully the 60/70mm intake will work nicely. A standard B16A2 Throttle Body is 60mm and a standard B18C Throttle Body is 62mm so I think the headlight duct size should be ok for now.

Project Track – Headlight Modifications

Here’s something else I’ve been working on for “Project Track”; a pair of custom headlights. I aim to incorporate an air intake and shed a bit of weight.  They will be replacing the standard headlights which weigh in at 1.9 kilograms a piece.  Of course there are some of these headlight modifications already on the market but I’m someone who likes to build things myself if I think it’s achievable.  I have two pairs of headlights lying around so here’s what I’m going to do.

The standard headlights are held together with half a dozen metal clips and some strong glue/sealant to hold the lens in place.  To split the lens from the housing I had to remove the metal clips carefully with a screwdriver and then heat up the headlights to soften the glue.  The easiest way to do this I found was to bake the headlights in my oven on the lowest setting possible.  It doesn’t take long and to save the plastic housing deforming I only put them in the oven for a minute at a time until I felt the glue was soft enough.  It can be quite awkward to separate the two halves.  The headlight will be hot, the plastic backing will be a bit softer and the glue/sealant is very strong.  I had to take my time and carefully work from one corner prising the lens out with a screwdriver a bit at a time until enough of the lens was free that allowed me to get my fingers underneath and pull the lens off completely.

When they were separated I was left with the two halves.  The glass lens was going to be used to make a lightweight fibreglass mold to mount to the housing.  Before I did that I decided to strip some weight out of the housing.  Inside the plastic housing there is a large reflector and the device that holds the bulbs in place.  It’s only held in place with 3 bolts but I did find it quite awkward.  It turned out I had to keep the pressure on the reflector, levering it off, as I undid the bolts.  Eventually it came off and left me with a nice lightweight housing.  The hole left in the housing, originally for switching the headlight bulbs, is the perfect size for an air intake which will make things a little easier.

The next job was to make the fibreglass mold to replace the glass lens.  I decided to use the les itself to make the mold so I didn’t have to make everything from scratch.  First I covered the lens in some petroleum jelly and then a layer of cling film which made sure the fibreglass resin wasn’t going to stick to the glass.  I then started to layer on the fibreglass mat and cover it with the resin, only a thin layer though.  I want to keep it as light as possible so this first stage used only enough matting and resign to cover the lens and form the right shape.  Once it was dry it was easy to separate the mold from the lens and it start the next stage…

That is where I’m up to at the moment.  I need to trim the fibreglass down to size and then decide where I want to put the air duct in the drivers side unit.  I’ll be looking to get them finished at the weekend and if all goes to plan I’ll make another set for someone else.  Stay tuned.