26R Body Specification

[elansprint71]

Bill,
Sounds like cardiac-arrest time with that bungling FLT operative! When you say 26/R S1 headlamp openings, what do you mean, I'd like to see a photo. 26/Rs were produced with three types of headlamp, initially the standard flip-up style.

[bill308]

Hi Pete.

I got the s1 openings, the same as the flip up, but with a flat vertical wall for the headlamps, instead of the pivot gear and brackets. I think the s2's used the Chinese eye. Jay Leno also went with the s1 openings on his 26R project.

Bill

[bill308]

Hi Frank.

The contents, except for the roll bar hoop, is still in the crate, with no top and one of the cover members.

the jpgs I took are rather large at about 1.5 MB. I don't have an easy way of shrinking them for max detail when posting. Maybe I should try one or two.

I went for aluminum lattices, for corrosion resistance and better CTE, aluminum expands and contracts closer to fiberglass than steel. Stainless, was not available. I really wanted a ss chassis, but sadly, no one was interested.

Do you think it is appropriate to post actual costs associated with my purchase?

It would be just one data point. Still, others wishing to entertain a similar import, could benefit from the information.

Bill

[gjz30075]

Bill, put your photos on a hosting site, such as photobucket, and give us a link to it.

[Certified Lotus]

Congrat on receiving all your parts in one piece Bill! Now the fun begins, the careful assembly decisions on what mods to make along the way. With your engine completed and waiting to be mated to the car, I'll bet you will be like a kid at Christmas every day until it's done

[elansprint71]

Hi Pete.

I got the s1 openings, the same as the flip up, but with a flat vertical wall for the headlamps, instead of the pivot gear and brackets. I think the s2's used the Chinese eye. Jay Leno also went with the s1 openings on his 26R project.

Bill

Bill,
As I understand it... and I could be wrong (again!) early 26/R had regular flip up lamps, followed by your type (best option, imho), the so-called chinese eyes were quite rare and were fitted to both some s1 and s2, most had your option. Perhaps our 26/R guru could chime in? I'm working from period photos to reach my conclusion but that is not always 100% accurate.

Interestingly neither of the perspex cover options were road legal in the UK (and you can't see where you are going in the dark!

I think it might be helpful if you don't mind posting your costs; that way other folks who want to do a similar thing have something to compare with. Thanks.

[bill308]

Hi Glenn and Pete.

I didn't know that about the Perspex covers. Maybe hold them on with Velcro and take them off for night work?

Any LED headlamp units out there? Heat might be an issue with others.

Bill

[elansprint71]

Bill,
The issue regarding your type of perspex cover: on the standard flip-up light, when it is raised, the lamp and reflector are completely above the front lip of the aperture allowing the reflector to function correctly (the lamp actually raises by at least 2.5 inches). So, with the 26/R the lamp is effectively 2.5 inches lower and the lower portion of the reflector is shielded by the front lip of the aperture- this seriously effects the main beam.

I did consider fitting your type of covers but, instead of the standard 7 inch lamps, replacing them with the 5 inch main/dip lamp units used (only) on the original Esprit (later cars had separate main/dip lamp units). If mounted as high as possible this would allow the bottom of the lamp unit to be almost at the height of the flip-up unit (does this make sense?). However, in the end I decided not to bother and went to the pub!

I would imagine that there are 5 inch LED dipping light units available, hopefully they would not look too out of place.

The reason that the flip-up light was required in the first place, was to comply with UK Construction and Use regulations, which stipulated a minimum height above the road surface for the headlights (Ron Hickman told me this!) I believe that rule was scrapped in the UK quite some years ago. It also makes sense to have your lights as high as practicable so that you can see further along the road with dipped beam.

[bill308]

Thanks Pete.

I knew headlamp height could be an issue but I didn't realize that the light beam would be affected by the lip of the opening.

Your suggestion of fitting a 5-inch head lamp is a good workaround. Too bad, I already purchased 7-inch lamp units. This may be why they went to the Chinese eye openings on the later cars?

Bill

[elj221c]

These are the ones I used. I assume something similar is available.

Set like this seeing at night is no problem unless you are now used to HID lamps!

Not pretty but they did work. I never had an an issue with the MOT but the last was in '88!

I never had covers but I would have had to make mods to the rims to enable that.

BTW, a certain Jem Marsh had problems originally with the faired in Marcos lights. They used to steam up in damp weather. Lovely bloke and innovative cars. http://www.marcosjem.co.uk/

02/03/15. R.I.P.

[elansprint71]

Bill,
ELJ221C's photo illustrates the difficulty of fitting the light- as you can see he fitted the lamp unit as high as possible and could not fit perspex cover. The issue really is cut-off caused by the front rim of the aperture. Depends how much night driving you are going to do (and at what speed!). Some very small projector spot lights could be hidden in the grille aperture I suppose.

As a schoolboy I wrote to Jem Marsh asking for a brochure for the Marcos GT; he sent me all the stuff they had- quite a package and a full-page handwritten letter from him by reply, even though he knew I was not likely to be making a purchase!

[elj221c]

Bill,
ELJ221C's photo illustrates the difficulty of fitting the light- as you can see he fitted the lamp unit as high as possible and could not fit perspex cover. The issue really is cut-off caused by the front rim of the aperture. Depends how much night driving you are going to do (and at what speed!).

Pete, they were fine round the Surrey country lanes but I had younger eyes then! No worse than my Imp with the same Cibies. Always at a slight disadvantage sitting low down, though. I do remember it being a problem in fog.

I would say that it would be possible to fit covers with a tad of 'fitting'.

BTW, I didn't do it. It's how I bought the car. The believe the engine was prepared by David Wood and I have always assumed that his business carried out the body mods too. Sadly, I have no historical evidence.....

[65ginetta]

I fitted 5" Halogen dipping lights in our S3 Coupe. Pete is correct there is a slight mismatch with the bottom of the beam and the bodywork lamp aperture but I can hardly tell any reduction in spread of the beam and I really like the look. It would probably look even better with 26R wheel arches but we wanted to keep the more dainty shape of the S3 Coupe body. Yes Pete, I still have the standard emergency brake option!!

[bill308]

Thanks guys.

The photo of the s3 Coupe is great. One can see the 5-light thru the cover. I can see the lower edge lamp is trimmed by the lamp opening. Do you suppose the lamp assembly can be raised another half inch or so on the mounting panel? I can't see what exactly constrains the vertical limit.

What about a modern lamp assembly or low profile HID or LED based option?

It is under a cover, so perhaps lamp assembly cosmetics can be overlooked and functionality improved?

Bill

[65ginetta]

If you are using the plexiglass lens covers and want a weather seal you will need to create a register location to ensure the lenses are flush with the body curvature when fitted. When you have created these support features and you locate the 5" lamp mounting housings, they require a little more diameter than the actual lamp. You will also need to allow for the lamp standoff from its mounting housing without having a plexiglass curvature foul condition.
I set my body up on a surface plate, leveled and laser measured the optimum lamp holder location,
I looked at cutting the top off the mounting housing but it could impair the lamp adjustment features.
This is the best picture I could find that hopefully explains the limitations, I think my lamps optimize the body contour constraints but as Pete would say "I could be wrong".