Damn, I thought this was going to be an easy project but i now realize there is no such thing with an old rx7!

Ok so i took out the headlight and retainging ring. Next was the cover, which is suppose to be held on by 4 screws. (reading step by step out of Haynes)

So the book says 4 screws hold the lid on and they are attached to tangs? I see 4 grey screws that screw into nuts that are welded onto either the lid or lower component. I start to unscrew them and they r soft as butter! ! ! with hardly any power they begin to slip (start to strip). So figuring it was just 1, i did another and same thing, i might've stripped this one too much!

Do i just have to cut them off now? Has anyone else ran into this problem?

I dont know how to put text in between picutres but the screw you are looking for is in the top right of everyone.

 

those screws are bitches and always strip. just drill them out.

 

thats what i thought but wanted to make sure. Alrighty then.

 

What do you plan on doing after removing them, flushmount?

 

I'm going to try fabbing a flush-mount kit too... and ran into the same problem, so I put the idea on hold for a while. Now that I know EVERYONE's are as big a PITA, I'll drill 'em and start the project.

 

lol yea flushmount. I figured i'd give it a try and if not ill buy some i dunno. I just thought damn those 4 screws are such a bitch to get out!

 

 

Hey resjsu

Thread Jack!!!
Where in Cali are you?

 

Thread jack? Santa clara/ San jose. bout 40 mintues south of frisco, you?

 

I am about 10 min from Richmond so an hour from San Jose. Is your car running? Are you planning to head to the may meat. It would be good to see more 1st Gens out.

Thread jack= change of topic.

 

May meet? not familiar but sounds like fun. Where can i get more info?

 

I got my drivers side HL off today and cut away the core support. I've begun fabbing a new headlight bucket from cardboard to get the right shape (for now).

When I get that right, I'll re-make it from aluminum and rivet it together, and begin the process of shaping the lexan cover.... for now here's a couple pics of my progress. Sorry, all I have is a shitty camera phone.

Click for bigger pics.

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Looks like it will fit pretty nice, good job man. I havent thought of what material i was going to use. ALll i have to figure out is where or how im going to attach it to the car now like where to put screw holes and stuff.

 

Whoever makes it, make sure we can paint the housing to match the car if we want. Whoever makes it I want one so put me on the list. Well if the price is right. lol

 

I'll definetly make the headlight bucket paintable. You'll have to remove the lexan cover to do it, but whatever. I think I'll do the bucket in Aluminum and the inside houseing in fiberglass so it's nicely shaped (at least on mine).

I wasnt planning on making any extras... this is just a project I wanted to try.... I guess if your all that interested, I can look at the work it'll take to cut a few extra pieces to the right shape and send them to ya'll as a build-it-yourself if your that interested.

 

Yeah i think i can assemble it on my own, even to save you time maybe just take pics of each step, i dunno. Also, please tell me how u get the lexan cover in the right shape, please!


One more thing; i know i have to "drill" the screws out but how exactly do i do this? I drill straight into the screw and then.........it seemed easy to comprehend but when i thought about it, yeah well im stuck.

 

For the lexan use the actual headlight cover. When it is closed it's flush with the nose panel and hood. Now I am not sure how flexible this stuff is. Everytime I hear lexan I think of plexiglass. So I honestly don't know if you can put it on the cover and heat it up to bend to the shape or what. I am kind of lost on that one.

 

Drilling out the screws is the same as drilling out pop rivets. Just drill straight into the head of the screw until you pass through the head and get to the mounting surface. The head nearly fall off by itself then. Really simple there. Afterwards, just use a pair of vice grips to turn out the rest of the screws body from the back side.

Lexan is a little more sturdy than plexi. It may turn out that Plexiglass is better to use because it's a little more moldable. Either way, my plan is to cut it to the right size useing the original HL cover as a template, then heat it in the oven at 300* for 7-8 minutes (NOT TOO LONG! It will melt fast and distort changing the clarity of the plexi) and clamp it to the old HL cover at all four corners until it cools again. Presto - you have a molded, body-shaped clear cover. Seems like it'll work, I've read that others have done this here, so we'll see.

 

Lol sounds easy enough... but i will wait for pics or comments, haha.

 

Building a headlight bucket and lexan cover sound straightforward enough ... But how do you mount the lexan to the headlight bucket? Mount the entire assembly to the car and make it adjustable? Also what headlights do you guys plan on using? sorry for all the questions but I want to do the same as well.

 

Umm i still dont know about attaching lexan cover to assembly.... maybe a strong automtive adhesive?

Mounting the asembly to the car, im just going to drill holes in my assembly where need be and attach it to pre existing holes, if i need more support i will fab up a bracket or something.

With flushmount headlights i dont think you can have adjustable?

I was looking at lights like these..... bmw lights oh yea!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-INC...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-89...QQcmdZViewItem

 

they also have these square ones that would look kinda cool.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-89...62000489QQrdZ1

And some round ones if you just wanted to switch out your old headlights, i think they'd fit right?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H6024...61999085QQrdZ1

 

I should spend less time working and more time taking picutres. I made my headlight buckets out of aluminum. The bottom is one piece that bends up the side, then I made an "eyelid" that bolts to the original headlight mount on the frame that covers just up to the back of the lenses of the new lamps. I used two different driving lamps for mine, large round ones on the inside, and smaller rounds on the outside. Plexiglass covers. Wow, just one picture could have said so much. The kit turns out to be easily installed after its fabbed. It (the kit) is already in its second car. I'll get a freakin camera and shoot a pic.

 

^^ Cool man, lets see a photo of it. I'm thinking of scrapping my progress thus-far and starting with some fresh ideas.

Of course, UPS delivered turbo parts today, so Ive been busy with that project now. Lol, I'm getting strung out all over on this car!

 

Yeah let's see some pics!!!