Rear Lights - Day One

And the prize for most over thought and thorough job goes to?  Perhaps a little overkill, nevertheless hopefully these extra steps will mean the end product is that little more special.

My new toy is an auto leveling laser rule from Toolstation.  I tried yesterday to get the level right for the rear lights and I could tell after a few minutes that "a stick of wood roughly at the right height" wasnt going to cut it!  After reading a few other blogs, the forum I found some really good information re light positions.  The IVA states that they must be a minimum height of 350mm, maximum 1500mm and a minimum distance of 100mm between fog light and light cluster (http://nw.rhocar.org/SVA%20lights.htm).  Pretty specific!   The first thing I did was to check that the car is actually sitting straight on the garage floor, turns out it is.  It did take a while for the suspension to settle:

I had already measured the required heigh so I knew roughly where I wanted each light to go, next I created a template for the rear of the lamps and transferred to cardboard punching the holes out:

Next I made a top mark on each wing to mark the top of the template:

The laser is wide enough to span accross the total lengh of the rear, this ensures the height is 100% correct.  Even though you can lock the laser and spin it on the X axis, this was is more accurate.

I then measured 120mm on a piece of paper and lined it up with the edge of the fog light and marked the appropriate line on the wing (30mm from edge):

Finally I used both X and Y beams (I can hear Dr Evil every time I write that!) and used the template to mark the holes:

And ready for drilling - not before I double check all the measurements after talking the process through with someone else to sanity check my logic....

Wheels and on the floor!

I wheely enjoyed this part (OK that's the one and only joke I'll put in this entry...but I couldn't resist).

I've been waiting over a month for my Team Dynamics wheels - I really liked the look of black with a red lip but unfortunately the manufacturer had to make them specially, which took what seemed like an age.  After all that waiting they look really good and I am glad I went for them - thank god my measurements were correct for PCD (108) and offset (ET15), my template worked as well and everything fits fine with 195/50/15 tyres (Goodyear Efficient Grip - seemed to have good reviews).

After checking the fit I went ahead and painted the inside of the rear arches and panel with some under seal - I may give them another coat of stone chip when I fit the lights, left overnight to dry.

Next it was time to finally tackle the stalks I have also been waiting for - they seem like hens teeth and they took around two months to come from GBS on back order, they arrived and come with the most important part, the wiring.  First job was to re-terminate the ignition wiring to match the loom:

Next fitting the cowling and the rest of the wiring - its all plug and play in reality so nothing technical from my side, the wiring diagram from GBS is also very easy to follow - glad I went with the plug and play loom.

You may spot that the rear is attached via cable tie - I think that's acceptable. The problem I have is the top and bottom cowling doesn't have the little tabs (remember - mine is custom made); the bottom is attached via grub screw to the column.  For the top I used two strips of aluminium and self tappers either side.  The result looks good - almost factory:

I have also opted for a remote horn switch, at least for the IVA pass.   I need to check the rules but I am 90% sure that the centre horn on the sierra wheel is passable, as long as the horn icon is covered for test with tape.   The reason I went down this route is the steering wheel doesn't come with the fly lead for the horn - the wheel didn't come with a horn, so I purchased one separately.  The problem is between 87 and 88 they changed the design and I have a new design horn, with no fly lead.   I either need to purchase another or use a remote horn switch.   As I plan to swap the sierra wheel post IVA it makes little sense to do anything else.

After some (very dodgy) work with a mate, two trolley jacks and lots of wood - finally it was on the floor.  A note on health and safety - don't do what we did, if I did this again I would rent an engine hoist.   Best made plans and all that, it seemed like a good idea to use trolly jacks but half way through the lowering process we were all too aware that what we were doing was dangerous and stupid.   Past the point of no return we continued without issue, but it could have gone horribly wrong.  Anyway, it didn't and here are the results:

I can now continue with all the lighting now we are on the ground I can measure the required height from the ground.    One final picture - Anna couldn't resist sitting in the car: