Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Box]

Nylon, so more or less. There are a few brass, bronze, and aluminum options out there but the ones I've found have bad reviews except for one kit that's $85 for aluminum or $94 for brass. Or there's one U.S. made nylon set that's been updated and exceeds the o.e. design for $31.

[Bitter]

Dang, beats doing it again and again though.

[Box]

I figure if the original nylon ones lasted 20 years and over 100K miles a new and improved set should too, I just don't see the benefits of spending almost three times as much for aluminum or brass and especially when the majority of my night time driving is limited to the Winter months.

OR I can try and modify some NSX headlights into the car... They actually look fairly close in shape, or at the very least they're the closest I've come across:


Never mind the fact NSX headlights are expensive.

[Box]

So get this ****, guess who already put in metal headlamp motor gears?(I love owning a car that was well maintained) Was looking at the motor and noticed the cover plate was in this little enclosed space underneath, looked inside the motor casing and the gear isn't white so I tap it with my finger and sure enough it's definitely metal(ended up being dark grey aluminum?). Took the motor off and will clean it and re-grease it as water had gotten in then reseal the cover into place and put it back on the car. Hopefully that'll be it.

Finished the motor and now it's a half second to a second faster going up than the passenger side, my OCD can't let this stand so will have to do the passenger side someday soon.

This post has been edited by Box: Nov 29, 2016 - 5:15 PM

[Bitter]

Good luck for once.

[Box]

I know, I can't believe it myself. Well I can given the previous owner, I guess it explains why the headlights were never noisy like people say they are. Now I can make them go up and down with reckless abandon now that I know it has metal gears.

[Bitter]

And I kinda feel your pain about unmatched speed, the one side on the Capri I fixed DOES go up and down just a tiny bit faster than the other side but I am not about to fix a working motor. When it starts getting screwy I'll fix it, not before.

[Box]

It's very noticeably off, especially inside the car. Normally I'm of the not broke don't fix it ideology but for one it bothers the **** out of me, and two the motor is easy to get in and out and is a very simple design that'd you'd really have to try to get it wrong so I might as well. I think the difference in speed is the previous owner packed it with wheel bearing grease which was thick and sticky and I used lithium grease which is smooth and slippery, should help extend the motor life and especially when it's colder out.

[Box]

UMI has started making springs for the fourth gen: http://umiperformance.com/catalog/index.ph...roducts_id=1032

It's the perfect amount of low.

[Bitter]

Silicone grease is low temp stable and slippery.

[Box]

I have silicone grease but it's of the liquid aerosol dispensed variety, figured lithium grease would be better.

I've gotten good at this motor removal and reinstallation, maybe took an hour if that this time. First off was a good thing decided to go ahead and do the passenger side anyway as the cover fell off as soon as I took it off and what little grease was left was dried up, looked like white lithium. Which brings up the surprise, it's a brass gear with rubber insert whereas the driver side was solid aluminum. If I had to take a guess the first owner did the passenger side then the previous owner did the driver side, both probably replaced the one thinking would do the other when it failed but the first owner sold it and the previous owner the passenger side never failed. Bad news is the passenger side smoothed out like the driver side but it's still slower going up, maybe a little closer together but it'd only have shaved milliseconds. Going down they're fairly equal though, oh well...

This post has been edited by Box: Nov 30, 2016 - 7:07 PM

[Bitter]

It just winks a little.

[Box]

It's not the end of the world, just slightly annoying. Gives it character or something like that I guess.

Checked tracking and the LEDs arrived and departed Birmingham this afternoon so they should be delivered tomorrow, which is good since I'm ready to put the interior back together. I've really grown to like the orange of the cluster and the interior lighting.

[ClevelandGaint]

Flippy lights are the greatest!!!!! That is all

[Box]

They go like this: *motions hands* __ __ / \

That was my crude attempt at illustrating the headlamps' movement. You know now that I think about it outside of a couple night shots I don't have any pictures of the Firebird with the lights up. It really doesn't have much of a face to it like the Miata does, instead of looking cuter it looks like it's in a state of contemplation. Of course with the metal gears and knowing they're well greased now I can get into headlight flip offs with that 1% of cars with popup lights still on the road.

[Box]

LEDs arrived and was able to finish up the interior lighting and just have to install the gauge bezel and dash knee bolster tomorrow, then can get some finished pictures. The single 12V diffused LEDs worked out really well and I'm pleased with how everything turned out, so much better than red.

[Bitter]

Fantastic, can't wait to see it all done!

My RMM front strut bar came the other day, I really should open it up.

[Box]

I like it, it's actually kind of relaxing and it's a lot easier for me to look at over the red. Plus from what I can tell I'm probably one of few if not the only one that's done it, so that's kind of cool I guess. Then again I'm probably the only one to put on sawblades and a single exit exhaust, blazing trails telling you what.

Yup, check it out and think about what you want to do with it as far as refurbishing goes. PAINT IT PURPLE.

[Bitter]

The bar itself is fine, the battery hold down needs cleaning and paint but I don't need to use that, the bar ends need some love, not sure what I'll do there but I know I'll mask the bar and paint ONLY the ends. Maybe black to blend in, maybe gold to match the BC coil tops, maybe sunrise red cause I've got some left over.

[Box]

When in doubt black it out.