OK - Here goes!

I did this last, but figured I'd post the pics. I made a leather boot for the shifter and had not dyed the leather yet. Since I've decided on my Mr. Mike's leather color I decided to dye the boot. You'll need to go back a few pages in my post to see what the original leather color was. This is the finished product.







That was an easy upgrade!

The leather is darker than I wanted - but have of lot of extra so will make up a few more and try different colors until I get one that matches the new interior...

Next post will be the headlight.

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[This message has been edited by DrCPU (edited 03-23-2007).]

Now for the headlights. Everyone knows about Fiero1Fan's buckets - I bought a set and ordered my 90mm Hellas from Susquahanna MotorSports. It took a little more than three weeks for the buckets to get to me and about a month for the headlights to come from the US. I had to spend an extra $115 CDN to rescue the packages from the mail paying duties, handling fees and taxes.

I decided to paint the buckets a chameleon color - gold/purple. First had to but down the background black base - primer.



Next applied the color coat and then the clear coat.



The paint is very soft and I ended up baking the paint in my regular oven for about an hour and a half at 250F. The paint will still take some time to fully cure - but it's ready for the assemble stage. Here is a pic of the rear of the Hi beam lens.



And the Low beam. The low beam is a lot deeper and heavier.



The next little head scratcher was how to get the adjusters on the lenses. Susquehanna does not send you a tool to do this. I tried a lot of things, but ended up using a set of vise grips set just tight enough to grab the plastic bit. I used the under lip of the vise grip to rest on the small tab and with direct pressure turned the adjuster screw slowly and evenly and the tabs slipped right in. The Low beams need to be done from the front. Take it slow and they go in without much difficulty.



I took the bulb assembly out to get pics to Timo as I did not know if the bulbs were unidirectional - power on one side and ground on the other. As it turns out it does not matter. I still had to make a harness and wanted to do a good job.



I decided to make the #1 on the H9 connector as ground for each bulb. This way each set of wires is consistent.



So next is to make up the harness. I had pre-measured the length I needed but did not take picks of this.



WARNING - Make sure you put the black boot on the wire BEFORE you put the wires into the H9 connectors. Don't ask me why I know this! The other option is to solder and wire up each H9 Connector then put on the boots BEFORE you solder the H4 connections. Also, if you want to have a plastic housing protector for the wires do this BEFORE you make up the H4 end.

This is a pick of the finished harness. I still have to get some shrink wrap for the H4 ends - but have decided to simply wrap the wires in electrical tape to keep them as flexible as possible.



The longer side goes to the High beam. I used 16 gauge wire. I had 14 gauge - but the wires were too thick.

Next I needed to remove the stock headlamps. I had upgraded to a set of Bosch H4 sealed beams. Taking out the headlamps - especially from the driver side took a little bit of care. The nuts that GM uses are simple soft steel and the top nut had a lot of corrosion on it. I had to buy new nuts for this and decided to go with nylon lock washers M6 1.0mm is the size to pick. You need to keep the holding bolts and the plastic expanders - but they had some surface rust - so bought a thread clearner tool (as my tap and die set is at my cottage - Doh).



The threads cleaned up nice and with some 320 and 800 wet grit sandpaper - I cleaned up the bolts so they fit smoothly in the new buckets.



Next I needed to install the lenses in Timo's buckets. This is a shot of what the headlights look like before a complete assembly.



I made a real dumb mistake on this next step. I broke an adjuster and one plastic bucket by misunderstanding the instructions. I inserted the plastic bucket from the front of the mouting housing. DO NOT DO THIS! I then tried to push the ball end of the adjuster through the tight end of the plastic bucket part - with the help of my "hammer friend". One tap and plastic spread all over the place. I don't know why I thought this was OK to do as I should know that the engineers for these products are geniuses. I re-read the instructions for the 10th time and had a moment of clarity!

When assembling the lenses into the buckets you assemble everything from the back of Timos headlight buckets. First you put the rounded end of the plastic bucket(s) into the hole from the back and then compress the part until it pops in. I noticed that the little barbs did not engage properly and found that the front steel plate - with paint measured 85 thou. The gap on the plastic bucket between the barbs and the flutted end is 50 thou. Timo chamfers the front and I needed to drill them out more to bring the thickness of the edge of the hole down to 50 thou. If you do this headlight mode, just make sure the barbs engage once you push the plastic buckets into the mountiing face (from the rear).

The next pic is one of the old and new assemblies - I still have to transfer the lip over. I bought new self tapping stainless screws to do this.



This is a pic of the lip - transfered - and the door edging I bought to protect the top of the new assembly when it opens the headlight cover.



I also used a tiny tool set to get the old headlights out. The bolt end is a torx end. The rusted nuts at the other side make this more difficult than it needed to be. The removal of the old headlamp from the passenger side was a smooter operation. I've only had to use this small tool set a few times, but it's saved my bacon each time. The ratchet will click in less than 5 degree increments and is no wider than a small screwdriver end bit!



Here is pick of both assemblies - minus the one low beam lamp. I'm waiting for a new adjuster screw package and buckets to come from Susquehanna before I can finish up the second side.



I can still finish up one side, so I installed the passenger side assembly. This work is easy - and takes just 5 minutes to accomplish.

Place the new assembly in and put the lower centre bolt and screw assembly together. Don't over-tighten!



Next is the left and right bolts and nuts...



Install the wiring harness...



Check to make sure everything operates properly. I did this by MANUALY turning the actuator motors a few times (up and down) to make sure nothing pinched or pulled.



Next step was to fire up Taz and aim the headlight and make sure both Hi and Low beams worked. Here's proof.



So now I just have to wait for the adjuster and plastic bucket to come to finish the job. I still have to wrap the harnesses and zip tie down the wiring at the H4 end - but the job is basically finished. I was hoping that both Hi and Low beam would come on with the high beams - but with just one lamp don't know if this is something that will work when both are installed. As it is the lamps seem bright.

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