rear lights Evolution v1

So whilst I continue to design and decide what to do with the interior I've been working on the rear lights. I wanted to replace them with a more modern look but still plug and play type of drop in to the current fitting.

The lights are currently a round cylinder and when you take the front cover off it has a normal bulb. So first was to go for a more modern look with two rings either side of the car and keep it within the same housing. The design involved making a metal holder for LED COB rings (80mm and 90mm) and a 5 watt LED in the centre for the indicator on the two outside ones and fog and reverse on the two inside ones.

So first of all the metal holder was made and test fitted with the LED rings and 5w LED and that it sat flush in the holder.

After this the ring itself was Anodised black, the side walls of ring area would then be polished back to reflect light.

Following that the 1st set of frosted light covers were made. These light covers were to ensure they gave the light look I wanted.

so it was time to test them, at this point they are just frosted covers with horrible screws and no profile. So how was the look...

Overall I was really happy with the brightness and the look with them on. They are bit brighter than normal lights but once they are smoked that will dull slightly. If you want to see a video of them I have one on my instagram account @iwanabeaferret.

Now the current stage is making the lens covers to a high standard and similar in profile to the original set so first a test lens has been machined and you can see the profile change and finish better. The next stage is to do this in a 15mmm perspex block and then spray them smoked. I will then decide either to leave them matt or go gloss depending on the look when they are finished.

i'll cover the electrics next time as some regulators and other parts had to be used.

work has started (interior)

So first of all I got one last local meet in before the end of September and the weather changed. the cool evening air gave a nice crispness and punch to the engine as well.

So within a few days I was on to the job at hand...the interior. I'm in no rush to do this and will do it right rather then fast. So previously I had ordered my new seats. The criteria was I wanted small ones in terms of height and width and also reclining. Reclining was simply because there was a small amount of space behind the seats but with a fixed seat you simply cant get in there. With a reclining a hand luggage suitcase would fit or other bags you may want to put in out the way.

Luckily these were also one of the cheapest seats as well, which is rare to happen. The comfort of them compared with my current ones is like night and day so I'm very happy. They raise the seating position a little but I can counteract this by removing the carpet and sound deadening from underneath the mounting points so there will be little difference but more comfort, the seats also feel like they hold well for their shape.

so I test fitted one of the chairs, you can see even though they are the smallest reclining seat I could find there is little difference in size but they are slightly smaller, in theory they will probably be easier to get into as well.

So on to the interior and it came out easily enough, as I took it all out the dust from the bodywork was everywhere so ive done a fair bit of cleaning already and then moved on to tidying the new wires I had added once on the road. (tv screen, electric door opening).

Since then I've been measuring areas of the interior to start designing the new centre console between the chairs.