1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

i must admit some of my best work is done by others.....little Joe, he is actually too big to fit in the coupe.

so now all the parts I took off the car are back on. i still have to do the furlflex door trim and the chrome around the windows, and finish the driving lights

fitting the inner splash guard panels

 

[bobs77vet]

i have decided to paint the bracket gloss black so lets finish this up

sand everyting again and stamp sides markings





just cause its a bracket doesn't mean it should not be brught up to high paint standards




first sanding





and spray primer, first coat

 

[bobs77vet]

i am using the dupli color universal black its nice and shiney and gives a clean uniform coat and can be clear coated

wet sand, prime and then sealer and first top coat



then prime again after its nice and smooth



then seal


then top coat to see what we have

 

[bobs77vet]

and heres the clear coat being applied

 

[bobs77vet]

what the hell, i haven't tempted the gods lately, well except for buying some new wheels for the corvette in the direct line of sight of the boss.....yikes i was daring.... although it turned out better then i thought just a lot of eye rolling and disbelief. but i digress....

lets warm these up some to help the drying process so i can install them on saturday, looks like i need to clean the oven too.

 

[bobs77vet]

so the idea is that this light circuit will be completely separate from my new wiring harness. i have a new front bumper for the car and when I go to sell the car the bumper will go with the car. so if the next guy doesn't like the lights all he has to do is remove my light wiring and the lights and hes good to go. i will mount the swicth on the dash panel lower support bracket and the relay will be mounted to the same switch panel. should work nicely.











of course a bracket needs to be made











lets clean up the wires so they are nice and neat


and done for the day relocated the relay with a tie strap to get the wires up and out of sight, you dont hit this with your knee not even close

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

wait, those look like non-smoking wires. You sure that's gonna work?

 

[bobs77vet]

wait, those look like non-smoking wires. You sure that's gonna work?

I think these Hellas use more amps then my generator can supply, the supply wires are going right to the main positive battery connection. so when the smoke escapes its not frying my new wiring harness

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

wait, those look like non-smoking wires. You sure that's gonna work?

I think these Hellas use more amps then my generator can supply, the supply wires are going right to the main positive battery connection. so when the smoke escapes its not frying my new wiring harness

:bestwishes:

There was a light bar that was called a laser - it came completely with 15 halogen 'aircraft landing lights'. A friend of mine bought it and put it on his 4 cyl. toyota 4x4. He was so proud when turned the lights on. It worked for maybe 10 seconds before the battery died. We charged the battery, fired up the truck and he proudly proclaimed this would work.... turned on the light and the motor stopped like it had water in. Of course, the battery hadn't recovered from the last assault, so it had to charge again. He got it started again, then figured RPM would be his hero.... nope, pulled the thing down like it was on a dyno..... though that time it took the alternator with it. We, being the friends we were, didn't have any comment because we were laughing so hard we could barely breath let alone talk.

 

[bobs77vet]

thats funny...... i dont think you need any other head lights with these lights, they are super bright if i ever need to go racing through the swiss alps

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

thats funny...... i dont think you need any other head lights with these lights, they are super bright if i ever need to go racing through the swiss alps

it could happen :thumbs:

 

[bobs77vet]

man have i been lazy when it comes to the MGA....i did spend oodles of time polishing corvette wheels though



.....saw this at the auto store and thought i would try it and turns out i like it.



it polished very nicely and has a microfiber top buffing layer





i think i have figured out the routing of the lights i don't want to tuck it directly behind the bracket because i don't want it to rub on the front of the car and abrade the paint. and the wire loom isnt long enough so i went out and bought some dorman black ones



new routing path





hopefully this weekend i can wrap this project up

 

[bobs77vet]

i have to tell you these wheel dollies are wonderful it makes it so easy to position the car for access to where ever, i wish i had gotten them 20yrs ago



loom wiring it doesnt touch any painted surface





one advantage to doing this for a long time is you accumulate stuff like when i made the wire harness for the 37...



so lets grab some #12 gauge wire and lets make a new power supply...it took longer to think about how i wanted to do it then to actually do it...

fused power supply


stuck in to wire loom





spliced into some red wire


wire tied to battery supply


and popping up through into the engine compartment

 

[bobs77vet]

remember the goal here is no new holes and it has to be completely independent of the new wiring harness

so this goes through the grommet for the capillary pipe and is wrapped in tape and through a plastic tubing inside of the grommet



the routing through the engine compartment, using an existing hole for the bracket





wire tie to keep it nice and tight



and it pops out the front near the other looms




and where the hook up will happen




and i think the MGA is marking its territory

 

[bobs77vet]

to make up for lost posts

spent 90 minutes tying everything together and we have lights....i still need another feet of wire loom and to zip tie every thing nice and neat


where you have a union and connections you can use a larger section of loom to put everything in and then it gets tucked up nice and tight to the inside of the fender



and i have light its pretty awesome these puppies are pretty bright



and the switch even liiuminates when it is turned on



later today after i get the extra loom wire i will finish the job!

now to design and make a custom made tow ring for one of the front brackets

 

[bobs77vet]

and done with tying up the wire loom

 

[bobs77vet]

mid 40s and sunny outside , time to take the car out of hibernation.....around here a 25 minute drive is only about 5 miles. this area really sucks for classic cars

those wheel dollies really work well



heres the final finished photos of the front lights

 

[SRountree]

Wow, looks great!

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

now to find a race, it looks ready to go and excellent

 

[BBShark]

well how was your drive? Car turned out really nice.