Dutton Kit Cars and their owners
headlights
when i get round to taking my car to bits this year (now the Quantum is on the road) I have been wondering what to do about the front end of the car, especially as the headlights are knackered and need replacing. To be honest i have seen very few cycle guard modifications that look good on Phaetons because of the shape and height of the bonnet and nose cone.
But i am thinking of cutting out the headlight pods completely and making the mud guard look as if they were never there. and buying some HID projector lamps and making some holders, either both sides of the nose cone or inside the grille area, hidden. OR making some eye shaped pods to sit on the mudguards for the smaller lamps, what do you lot think?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dave Adams on
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here are some pictures of the car finished.......ish.
the thing is i am really tempted to not MOT it but dismantle it and do it properly, the front end paint job is looking good and has shown me what i could do. I think i want to sort the interior, a rewire again, and get the body back to a factory finish........well better than the factory. I think i will run the Quantum 2+2 this summer and bring the Phaeton to stoneleigh next year, i will be at stoneleigh this year with the 2+2 i think.
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Do you know i dont think i have ever had such a hard time deciding what to do with my car.....it's ready for the road and is usable but i really want to re-do the interior, moving the hand brake, putting a bigger heater in it and making the seating slightly wider, the seat belts might be moved from the outside of the car to the inside. Then the rear axle will be relocated with i think rose joints, and the front wish bones and uprights will be, probably swapped from the triumph ones it has now for the Cortina ones i have had for these past years. then there is the general tidying of the car, especially under the bonnet....the engine could be repainted and a little tuning wouldn't hurt (cam,and exhaust manifold) nothing too major. then the wiring and new dash, and whilst i am about it the screen could use a little bracing (perhaps as a mirror mount) so that the soft top when in use will be a little less prone to bagging at speed. Lots in fact, way too much and yet the car would be more than presentable on the road today. And it is even still in MOT (just). But i really want a top quality Phaeton to show the Kitcar world what could be done with them....well for my own satisfaction to be honnest.
So do i keep the Quantum 2+2 on the road and use it for our trip to France this July and do the Phaeton the way i want it? or do i put the Phaeton on the road for Stoneleigh and put off the rebuild for another year?
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Permalink Reply by allan wheatley on
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hard one to decide
and a bigger heater in it lol
i have not even got a heater in mineDave Adams said:
Do you know i dont think i have ever had such a hard time deciding what to do with my car.....it's ready for the road and is usable but i really want to re-do the interior, moving the hand brake, putting a bigger heater in it and making the seating slightly wider, the seat belts might be moved from the outside of the car to the inside. Then the rear axle will be relocated with i think rose joints, and the front wish bones and uprights will be, probably swapped from the triumph ones it has now for the Cortina ones i have had for these past years. then there is the general tidying of the car, especially under the bonnet....the engine could be repainted and a little tuning wouldn't hurt (cam,and exhaust manifold) nothing too major. then the wiring and new dash, and whilst i am about it the screen could use a little bracing (perhaps as a mirror mount) so that the soft top when in use will be a little less prone to bagging at speed. Lots in fact, way too much and yet the car would be more than presentable on the road today. And it is even still in MOT (just). But i really want a top quality Phaeton to show the Kitcar world what could be done with them....well for my own satisfaction to be honnest.
So do i keep the Quantum 2+2 on the road and use it for our trip to France this July and do the Phaeton the way i want it? or do i put the Phaeton on the road for Stoneleigh and put off the rebuild for another year?
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Yeah well when i run it through the winter it helps with the defrosting the window (i often start work at 0430 and it can be pretty frosty and hard to see through the windows)......that and the fact that the missus wont travel in a car without one, the heater i have is ok but i think a bigger one will help overcome the draughty roof.....i could put the hard top on it does help in winter...but she has already said that a bigger heater will score me big brownies.
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Y'know your new lights look ace close up, but the shot from over the road long distance like makes the car look like its been sat on and squashed! trick of perspective I guess? Excellent work etc - you should be rightly pleased with it.
As ever, everyone has their ideas and here's mine - ignore me as you see fit I wont mind! If it were mine I'd....
add some height in it - a central hotrod scoop or power bulge sort of look to offset that squashed look.
grille badge agreed- something needed in the hole.
Also lose the tango on the front!!! I hate orange lenses - especially as youve gone to all the effort of modernising the lighting. Like £3 off ebay!
Exhaust looks limp now - a big shiny heat shield and some sort of Oddball pipe (Kelly's Heroes??? no??? OK make the pipe look bigger and meaner with some sort of width expander without having the expense of changing the exhaust. Scare the Germans into thinking the Sherman tank gun is a 90mm not a 70mm. Google it!)
Also lose the shiny stone guards and frame - go black to match the rest of the black bits. (and maybe some kawasaki stickers??!)
Then... I cant help think the money you're thinking of throwing at it - just buy a new Westie or Caterham thing which has many of those issues already sorted and in the long run may be cheaper? And doing that, may as well get a MEV instead so you're not a sheep???? I love the dutton, but to me its a cheap way of accessing the 7-alike (with some better bodywork!!), but the key is cheap. I think you'd be wasting you're money. Having said that, these toy cars are money pits and you do it for fun/love/whatever so I wouldnt blame you for going ahead with your ultimate dutton! These things often defy any logic. My last car was the same for me so I'm not judging!! ha ha!!
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It's not going to cost much...I have most of the parts already, rewiring holds no fear for me. The Orange lense's I don't mind.....the stone guards balance the headlights. (black ones were a 4-6 week wait.) But I like your comments I have thought about all of them myself......the exhaust is up for replacement anyway. Grille badges are being made as we speak.
Another friend by the name of Andy has already tried to convince me of building a westy etc. I like my S1. To be allowed to use the phaeton this year I will have to move the handbrake as my wife finds it uncomfortable, that done she will allow my to use it for our France trip.
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Southgate on
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But would be illegal as one dip would be inboard, the other would be outboard.
Dave Adams said:They would be very easy to fit in the nose cone or on top of the wing, should be easy to convert to HID lamps as well (lower wattage but brighter)
Mick Joyce said:@ Adrian.
Figure 8 lights.
http://www.bustersclassic.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=HLGOG
Intended for bikes so would need to investigate the lenses properly.
Mick
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Those figure 8 have been fitted to one of the cars posted on the French kit car site....they look wrong, and the French owner (also called David) has since changed them.
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well my headlights are changing too....
I have those individual 3" projector beam headlights, and a massive pair of rally giants for main beam. I am mounting the tiny lamp in the existing huge circle... not sure how it'll look really, but here goes. the rally giants will be mounted on the front somewhere some how... can't be too hard now...???
Dave I still love your car - my comments are just my thoughts - not criticisms! ;)
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No offence, i like a bit of banter, makes life more interesting.
Some things you need to know about fitting your new headlights....
Dip beams are regulated, mains are mostly not. On cars registered before 1/4/91 you can have multiple dip beams, after that date only two! On cars there must be at least two dip beams, they must be a matched pair. They must be a minimum of 500mm from the centre of the light to the road, and a maximum of 400mm from the edge nearest the cars side to the side of the car excluding mirrors.
Main beams cannot be out board of the dip beams. What you plan will be very difficult to do legally. There is no positioning requirement for main beams (apart from that stated above ) except they cannot be above 1200mm from the road.
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rally giants in the current holes then, and mini dip beams in a new housing on the top of the wheel arch somehow. I am modding the arch anyway so a new cover/cowl/housing wont be a problem... probably/maybe...!
actually, are mains a requirement? dips obviously are, but mains?
can i get away with dip and rally giant fogs? I know lenses are different for a different beam pattern, but would a fog light that works off the main beam stalk switch be classed as fog or main beam? Whats the legal technical difference? is it the switch operation, the beam pattern or the positioning or something else?
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Looking at the C+U regs it appears that mainbeam lights could be considered optional so your fog lights may well be fine, providing the light give an approved "hot spot" look at this link and see what you think.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksl/1989/1796/schedule/4/made
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