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| Philip Member Since: 09 Mar 2018 Location: England Posts: 510  
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Ignore that it’s Jalopnik, Daniel Stern knows his stuff:
https://jalopnik.com/why-most-led-headligh...1843070472 |
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20th Feb 2021 1:56pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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When I bought my 110 it came fitted with headlight guards (see the picture at the start of this thread) but over a period of several months of faffing around with different front end treatments and headlight bulbs, I took them off as they were a bit of a nuisance. I always knew that I would eventually re-fit them as I like the look and didn't like the holes that they left. I really wanted to improve how they are mounted, though.
As standard, they are fixed with two bolts into rivnuts at the top and two plastic 'P' clips secured with pop rivets at the bottom. The latter allows them to be hinged downwards to access the lights but the arrangement is a bit naff, to be honest. It also didn't work for another modification in planning, which is to add some additional spot lights below. Instead therefore, I've fabricated four little hook-shaped brackets in place of the 'P' clips that will allow the guards to be lifted off completely:  Click image to enlarge They're made of 20mm wide aluminium strip, carefully bent to a shape that will restrain the guards whilst allowing enough clearance for them to be lifted out. They're drilled to accept M4 bolts, which will re-use the existing pop rivet holes and as they're stainless, they're isolated from the aluminium of the wing with nylon washers. They've been etch primed, painted and lacquered to protect them. Click image to enlarge And the finished look, which I think looks great with the black grill and headlight finisher panels. Just the job for the mean streets of Surrey 
Click image to enlarge As the weather is picking up again, I might even get to wash it at the weekend! Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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22nd Feb 2021 10:51pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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Well, I did wash it at the weekend. Just not the weekend that I suggested above
Click image to enlarge The new light guard brackets made it very easy to clean the front, too. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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22nd Mar 2021 10:11am |
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039 
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looking smart
I like the idea with the guards too |
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22nd Mar 2021 10:25am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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Yeah, I know what you mean. The standard fitment seems to use steel rivnuts, which are a nuisance. I've replaced the bolts on mine with stainless ones which, with a little bit of lubrication, seem to be OK. I've had them in and out numerous times over the last three years and no problems so far. Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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22nd Mar 2021 10:18pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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I've had a set of Hella Comet 450 spotlights in the garage for about three years and set about making some brackets for them last weekend. Today I trial fitted them to make sure they work as intended before paint and wiring:
Click image to enlarge I didn't want any sort of A bar and also didn't want to drill holes in my galvanised bumper, so I came up with this idea for brackets fixed to the bumper mounting bolts: Click image to enlarge They're made from 25 x 25mm stainless angle, drilled and shaped to suit. They're now part way through being painted and I think I'll finish them in body colour to be unobtrusive. The lower brackets for the light guards mentioned above were also part of this cunning plan, as the spotlights would interfere with their standard mounting arrangement  Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 26th Apr 2021 8:26pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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27th Mar 2021 11:24pm |
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| Co1 Member Since: 19 Aug 2018 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 3723 
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Neat idea. Looks good.
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28th Mar 2021 9:02am |
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| rockster57 Member Since: 15 Nov 2014 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 945 
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Click image to enlarge Darren, this is a cracking idea! I have the same light guards as you. Those flimsy plastic lower brackets really bug me. A big hearty thank you from me as I’m going to follow your idea. I also have the LR rubber A Bar fitted and fouls the guards when they pivot down on the plastic clips more than a couple of inches. Your brilliant solution is the answer  |
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4th Apr 2021 12:59pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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Thanks for the kind words. Glad to be of service
 Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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4th Apr 2021 2:03pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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As part of fitting the spotlights mentioned above, I've been designing my own upgraded headlight loom, both to solve the inherent problem of the full load of the headlights passing through the switch and provide power to the spots. I've been working on the diagram over the last few days, which looks like this:
Click image to enlarge The majority of the wiring will be appropriately sized multi-core, which keeps it neat and, for this application, removes the need for further protective tubing. It's all deliberately oversized to reduce voltage drop - the longest length to the RH headlight will see a drop of no more than about 0.2v. The spotlight wiring is also sized for possibly fitting 100w bulbs. Originally, it was my intention that the fuse box, relays and distribution block would all be housed in a single waterproof enclosure under the bonnet. However, having bought something of a suitable size, I now realise that there isn't a space big enough that remains accessible  Consequently, those three components will be fitted in individual enclosures just inside the LH wing.
The only thing that the diagram doesn't show at this stage is the dash mounted switch to isolate the spots. That will be a later addition when I next take the dash out for another project and will basically interrupt the earth wire from the coil of the spotlight relay. Weather permitting, I plan to install all of this next week when I have some time off. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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5th Apr 2021 11:31am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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Wow, over 1200 views of my last post and not one comment! Either everybody is so in awe of my design that they're speechless or it's really dull
For the sake of my dignity I'm going to assume the former and press on with the next part, which is the fuse box.
I mentioned above that the limited space under the bonnet was making packaging a challenge and so I've now got a slightly smaller enclosure (140 x 110 x 70mm) that just fits in the space between the front of the heater duct and a bracket for an A/C pipe. It will get fixed, in a way not yet fully worked out, to an existing metal bracket in that space between wing top and wheel arch liner. Click image to enlarge The picture above shows the finished box and the five grommets in what will be the bottom face are for the various cables that will run to and from it. Inside is mounted a six way bus bar fuse box and the component labelled 'Distribution Block' on the diagram: Click image to enlarge The distribution block is basically a strip of thick plastic with three M5 bolts mounted on it. Each bolt will allow the power cables for the dipped beam, main beam and spotlights to be brought together to meet the power feeds from their respective relays. Space in this box is going to be extremely tight and as I'm not quite sure how it will be fixed to the vehicle yet, I wanted to be able to assemble it in stages as each component is wired up. To that end, the fuse box and distribution block are fixed to brackets made of various sized bits of aluminium angle with rivnuts, which will allow me to install them easily from the front: Click image to enlarge Tomorrows' job will be to make the brackets that will be used to mount this box and the new relays in the engine bay. The latter has already been mocked up using CAD (that's cardboard aided design for the Project Binky fans), so should be relatively easy Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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11th Apr 2021 4:39pm |
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| Tiger Member Since: 06 Jul 2012 Location: Wales Posts: 2265 
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Silent watcher type
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11th Apr 2021 5:40pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11327
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Heh, heh, glad to see you're still here, Matt
Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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11th Apr 2021 5:48pm |
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| G4V JW Member Since: 24 Sep 2018 Location: Northants Posts: 190
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I personally am boggled by your wiring diagram knowledge
Strong work as usual Instagram; @gavin_walding |
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11th Apr 2021 5:50pm |
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