Green Machine - On the Road...

[Dirk]

Hi Lauren,

you are so right with the headlights, with the Avante it is even worse the recess is even tighter and the flap still covers a small section of the light when open. I have only driven the car once in the dark and ill not be doing it again in a hurry. I agree with you on the pop ups but for me I would rather have the ability to drive in the dark with more confidence so that will be the way I go when I do my next Nova. Perhaps another thought might be the way Kdnova went with his projection lights although we never heard how they performed.

Dirk

[islandman]

Of course pop-up headlamps are an obvious answer to most of the above, but aesthetically they do not appeal to me.
Lauren

Having driven numerous times with my pop-up lamps, and previously with tunneled lights the difference is literally night and day. Your comment about being scary to drive at night brings back some scary memories from driving mine in the 90's. I'm not really happy with the look of my pop-ups when up, but I do like the look when they are down. I have some moon ace GT pods (like Jim's) that I was thinking of using on my scooby Nova, but reading your posts has given me pause for thought to rethink about another version of pop-ups...........

Keep the updates coming, nice to hear the good and the bad

[Spacenut]

I think tunnelled lights would work better without the headlight covers, as the refractive index must be very high at such a shallow angle. There are certainly plenty of modern cars around with clusters of projector beams (I'm thinking of the Alfa 4C) which probably work quite well, but to me they look too "modern", so not for me.

I used the car for work today, 22 miles each way and the drivers side headlamp brightness was noticeably brighter and better defined than the passenger side. In fact, I initially thought that one of my new premium bulbs had blown!

The real reason was that the laptop fans had successfully cleared the majority of the condensation build-up under the cover, whereas the passenger side was still misted up. Even after a few minutes running the dip beams only burn a small hole in the condensation, so the overall beam intensity remains poor.

I need to (1) find a better weather seal for the headlamp covers and (2) consider widening the ventilation slot to cover the full width of the aperture. I will have to cut out and replace some of the ducting under the headlamp bucket though, easier said than done when it is bonded in place with polyurethane!

Lauren

[BlueNova]

Hi Lauren,

I was looking at the photos in your 'dashboard blues' thread just prior to getting the Green Machine road legal again, and see that your headlamp covers don't have fixing screws at the 4 corners .... can you see whether or not water is getting past the seal at the corners?

Also, have you considered simply running her without the headlamp covers over the Winter, or at least until you can devise an acceptable solution? I reckon the Nova looks better with the covers in place, but with safety in mind perhaps it's worth considering in the short term?

All the best, Alistair

[Phill]

We have talked about cornering lights before - a pair of small mini fog lamps faired into the front undertray and connected to the indicator circuit (via a speed sensor) or steering angle sensor is one possibility. But the big gaping black hole immediately in front of the car would be better filled with a pair of fog lamps in the nose, far enough forward to illuminate the kerb. Much simpler to implement than the cornering lights, they could be permanently wired into the headlamp circuit, or be switched separately.

I like your idea to fit driving lights into the front undertray. Something like this:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WOWLED-Floo...s%2C162&sr=8-4

should fit in quite easily and could be carefully aimed to provide suitable illumination without dazzling oncoming drivers. Of course they could be wired up as fog lamps (to keep the MOT man happy) but used at all times when night driving to supplement the headlights?

[Spacenut]

Hi Phill - I was thinking about something along these lines...

https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/miniat...ir-fogmin-60mm

...But the WowLEDs could work just as well (although I suspect that they are probably sold "for off road use only"). The mini fogs were what I was considering for the cornering lights, let into shallow scallops each side of the undertray with clear covers over them. Because the centre part of the grille feeds the water radiator, and the collectors for the cabin ventilation ducting are at each end of the grille, there is only a relatively narrow space for fitting lights. And of course I would still like to retain a "vintage" look

Lauren

[Spacenut]

Hi Lauren,

I was looking at the photos in your 'dashboard blues' thread just prior to getting the Green Machine road legal again, and see that your headlamp covers don't have fixing screws at the 4 corners .... can you see whether or not water is getting past the seal at the corners?

Also, have you considered simply running her without the headlamp covers over the Winter, or at least until you can devise an acceptable solution? I reckon the Nova looks better with the covers in place, but with safety in mind perhaps it's worth considering in the short term?

All the best, Alistair

Hi Alistair - the water is wicking in past the seals all around, mainly collecting at the bottom. I tried waterproofing scrim foam as I had a load left over from trimming the interior. Scrim foam is open-cell so it was obvious it would let water through I suppose. I need to find some 1-2mm thick neoprene rubber or similar. I have even considered gasket paper!!!

The projector dip beams are reasonably waterproof, but the matrix LED indicators and the main beam lens/reflector units are not, so I couldn't run them without the covers in place, unfortunately.

Of course I could just plug in a pair of headlamps on top of the access covers - I saw a (road legal) Lola sports racer use this trick. Yes, it looks naff, but who is going to notice in the dark???!!

Actually, if they were LED light bars they might look pretty cool...

Lauren

[Spacenut]

OK, here's a quick introduction to the headlamp demisters that I have been working on recently. After doing a bit of research into modern "sealed" headlamps I discovered that most, if not all are passively vented in order to avoid condensation forming.

That led me on to a Pistonheads thread in the Aston Martin lounge where it turns out the DB9 suffers quite badly in this regard - so much so that there is an aftermarket solution using small 12V fans to force ventilate the headlamp units.

One thing led to another and an Ultima thread using laptop fans and coffee filters, plus the biggest celebrity endorsement yet - Koenigsegg no less... Anyway, but this time I was ready to have a go myself

First things first, some fans...



Straight off of ebay, some Chinese 40mm 12V fans. Each one draws only 80mA. I made up some PC boards with Molex connectors and bonded them to the back of the headlight buckets. When plugged in the fans are connected in parallel to the sidelight circuit.

Next, some ducting...



OK, the actual ducting is bonded to the underside of the headlight bucket, so this is the former I made. 3 slices of foam, shaped and wrapped in resin-proof tape, then stuck down on the cardboard (also covered in resin-proof tape). I think you can see where this is going...

Two layers of tissue mat and resin and the duct (complete with mounting flange) was finished. The two fans were bolted together to form an 80mm x 40mm assembly with a mounting tab extending towards the rear. The fans slide into the duct from underneath the headlamp bucket (accessed through the radiator grille once the cabin ventilation air ducts are removed), and fire forwards to the front edge of the headlamp bucket.



I cut a slot in the base of the headlamp bucket the same width as the duct and then bonded the duct in place. Because the headlamp covers are still leaking water I drilled a drain hole in the corner to allow any accumulation to drain out. In order to stop the water going into the demister duct I made a little trim ring to go around it...



A smear of polyurethane adhesive keeps it in place and a quick dusting of satin black finished it off.

As noted above, it is working, but for the passenger side I will make the end of the duct wider so I can make a second slot in front of the dipped beam and the indicator lens. At the same time I will try and retrofit a wider moulding onto the drivers side. It seems that massive volume or even airspeed is not the answer, but the airflow does need to span the entire width of the headlamp cover to be effective.

More news as it happens...

Lauren

[Buffy]

Lauren
I absolutely love your threads because some I have no understanding what you mean, and the rest makes common sense 😂
Just make sure you are at stones next year for you love to just meet you 👍

[Peter]

I have to say that LED lights certainly chuck out a lot of lums, very pleased with the results on mine but I now have the E mark question, is there one, do they comply?
LED combo.jpg

Regards sealing, I used to sell Repairite neoprene sealant in a tube, one of the very few products that actually did what it said on the box. Even Walls Ice cream used it on their machines. put a bead along the joint and cover with cling film, when set remove film, trim and fit cover or don't use film and use as a glue.