TECH: Salvaging CRAPPY E&J Repop HEADLIGHTS....or...Polishing TURDS

Love 'em or hate 'em, E&Js have become iconic jewels to be collected for the shelf or to light the way. The problem for most of us is that $1200-$4000 is what we spend on a car, not a pair of headlights. Because of the insane asking prices for these aluminum space-footballs anyone looking for a cheap alternative has undoubtedly found the $200 shells sold on eBay and at some swap meets. In photos they look OK. In person the average starry-eyed rodder often overlooks their dramatic shortcomings like terrible casting quality and the complete lack of internals or mounts.

I have talked to many guys who bought them, and when reality set in, just gave up and either sold them or relegated them to the pile in the corner - joining the legions of repop E&J haters.

Matt (seretcustoms.com) was one of those guys who added his to the pile on the shelf. Matt hadn't completely given up on them, but they were considered more work than they were worth until the right project came around.

As we started the Legion Special the shiny shells on the shelf seemed to sparkle a little more every time we considered headlight options, but both of us were a little daunted by the prospect of trying to create good looking headlights from the not-so-great shells and bezels.

We talked about ideas of what to do as they stayed on the shelf through most of the build, but over the holidays I decided I'd spend my days off whipping up a pair of fake E&Js from the shit-cast aluminum chunks.

I started with the bezels because I'd picked up a set of repop lenses from Steve's Auto Restoration (stevesautorestorations.com). Their lenses are TOP QUALITY and made me feel like I had to step up my game to make the lights worthy of them. The bummer is that I chipped one of them. My fault.

The bezels were not flat, meaning the rear surface was not parallel to the front. A few minutes on the belt sander took care of that. There is also a little inconsistency to the bezel diameter too, but some of that will stay as "character" some will be taken care of in the "finishing" stage.

Next I tried to fit the lenses in the "cup" where they should rest, but the casting was so bad that they didn't even come close to dropping in. I blew it and didn't get a "before" shot to illustrate this, but trust me, they were bad.

Here is where the die-grinder and squared drum bit come in handy. I secured each bezel to the table, scribed a circle with the necessary locating tabs for the lens and started grinding. Slow and steady is the key here. Remember this aluminum is soft and you can easily cut more than you want to or have the bit jump around. Also WD40 is your friend- it keeps the bit clear and therefor your cutting more consistent and precise.




The lens finally fits!





Now is when you need four hands to hold the lens in the bezel and the bezel to the two crappy-fitting halves of the shell to start imagining what the finished product will look like.


Next came the part I was most intimidated by - the internals. Like I said, these repops afford nothing in this area. Matt had ideas about what bulbs to use, so I started there. They are an off-the-shelf bulb by GE (I'll add the part number later). We knew we didn't want screw or bolt heads going through the bezels, so we needed to secure them to the shells another way. The obvious solution is to pull them from the back. Crafty-B makes a GREAT looking pair of E&J look-alikes and I was inspired by the way he sets up the inner structures on his versions.

The first two hurdles were, how to secure the lens and mount the bulb behind it. The solution was a short handmade cylinder set over the lens with the bulb on the back. I started by cutting a band of sheet metal and hand forming it into a circle and welding it together. Matt would have probably done this in a few seconds, but I got it done pretty quickly. This could be as deep as you want - mine are 2".








The bulb was 1/2" larger in diameter than the lens, so I had to put a step in it with the bead-roller. This definitely takes some concentration and two people if your bead-roller is manually operated.










OK, now to hold this assembly to the bezel. After going over a few options in my head and looking at Crafty-Bs version again I got started. I cut 3/4"x3/4" angle into 2" lengths for hold-downs. Two for each headlight.




Then rounded one edge on the belt sander to accommodate the arc of the back of the bulb yet still have plenty of horizontal surface area to hold the rear lip of the bulb.




Then I added a short piece of tubing. Each was slightly different length because of the inconsistencies on the bezel casting.




Notches were cut into two of the hold-downs (one per light) to utilize the locater tabs on the back of each bulb. This will keep the bulbs from rotating.




I found two suitable spots on the bezels to square off, drill and tap. Don't drill too far or you'll be welding up holes in the front of the bezel.




Here are the two hold-downs bolted in and securing the assembly to the bezel.




With the assembly bolted together I then added a curved piece of solid rod to connect the two hold-downs together. To the center back of the bent rod I added a threaded coupler, then a threaded rod, then another threaded coupler. The length of the assembly comes just short of the back of the shell when inserted. I also stamped each assembly and corresponding bezel with a number since the two are slightly different. This made it WAY easier over the subsequent 30 assemblies and disassemblies.

Here is where I chipped one of the lenses when I tightened the assembly together. For final assembly I will make some sort of rubber or cork gasket to insulate the lens from the surrounding metal.

There are photos missing here, but you get the idea.




The two halves of the shell had been polished by the seller. The problem was that they were polished as halves not as a complete unit, so edges were rounded that shouldn't be etc. Because of this they fit together pretty poorly, so Matt and I decided it would be better to weld the halves together and fill and paint them as a one-piece shell. Stock E&Js were painted not polished anyway. We just won't have a seam. For now, they were just tacked together so the fabrication of the guts could continue.

A hole was drilled and countersunk in the center rear of the shell. I just eyeballed this placement using the seam for reference. The brass screw mates up to the threaded coupler on the back of the inner assembly and tightens the whole thing together snuggler-y.





To complete the look I picked up a pair of E&J-style mounts from Crafty-B. They come raw and I made them fit my needs. For the part attaching to the headlight I first drilled a hole through the center. then I simply found where it fit and I liked it best on the first light. I drew around it to mark its location, transferred/scribed the hole through to the shell, then drilled the shell. Next I bolted the mount to the shell and relocated it to match the circle I'd drawn.

 

Once in place, I bolted the mount to the light and decided where I wanted the holes for the bolts that would secure the mount to the light. I marked and drilled four holes while it was still bolted together. I decided to go with stainless carriage bolts for a clean look, so I hand-filed the holes square to match the shoulders of the bolts and put it together. I then transferred the measurements for placement to the other light and repeated the procedure.




The lights so far...





The shells will be completely welded, sanded, filled and painted for, what should be, a nice finished piece.

I'll add more about how we mounted them to the car soon.

 

that looks really good dude..

 

Thanks for a great tech piece. It might get a few sets of castaway crap repops off the shelves and on to cars, although I do think they're a bit overdone and usually don't look right on many rods. Your modified is one of the places where they look GREAT and correct for the style of the nose. Nice job. vic

 

Ha... I'm one of the guys that bought a pair and resold them!!! I was gonna use HD lights or snowmobile lights in them.

Nice job Kirk!

 

Good work Kirk. They look like they fit your rig well....stylistically.

 

A picture is worth 1000 words. Matt was explaining to me how you guys mounted the internals, but short of dis-assembly, I walked away a bit fuzzy on it all. Great job.
Like Ive said before, in my opinion, there are only a handful of cars that these lights look good on, and yours has climbed to the top of my list!

 

Nice!

 

Excellent thread, thanks for the step by step and the great pics, i would have never thought of welding them together, they look great on the car.

 

They look really good on there. And now they'll actually work. Nice.

 

Wow... having to "save" new parts from the junk pile? Nice tech, and the front end is looking most excellent...

 

Hell of an idea, looks great!

 

I'm not normally a fan of those style headlights but,they really work on that car!Very nice,great tech too!
Thanks,
Mark

 

Congrats on a great tech article and for having a car that those look good on.

 

KIRK! ... Great TECH article! ... very well written and illustrated ... ever think about going to work for an automotive magazine?

 

No, they're all sellouts and only write about things they are bribed to write about. You know, pawns of "the man".

 

Best use of uncircumcised headlights I've seen yet!

 

Great job on the lites! Killer car, love the look, would like to see the W/S a little wider.

 

im not a fan of E&J's at all but on that car they just work has it got a build thread its beautiful!!

 

Nice tech post! Thanks!

 

I think that is the second car i have ever seen that looks good with e+j's

 

sweet tech!!

 

Nice job on the lights. Is that a 57 Ford Ranchero in the background? When are you going to show us pictures of it?

 

It's an older kustom that Matt is doing a TON of new stuff to. I'm sure he'll do a thread on it.

 

Great tech, those lights look great on that car. Beautiful car! Is that the whole windshield? I'm thinking it would look a little better with triangle shaped side glass that angles back and tapers down to the rear cowl area. Hope you don't mind the suggestion.

 

Seems to me that either Meg-Lite (the guy that sells the crappy Made in Mexico repop stuff) or his most bestest friend are members of the HAMB. Wouldn't it be nice if he took the info from this thread and actually made improvements to the original patterns to make the pieces better?

Now can someone shed some light on how to make his repop Thickstun style aircleaners actually work? I've got two of those.

 

Very clever - well done...

love the car!

 

Nice work there Kirk, thanks

 

These originals are getting scarce in any condition.
Here is an alternative made by Crafty-B
Check them out!

http://www.crafty-b.com/products/lights.php

 

Man I bought a pair of those a couple of years ago and quickly resold them too...the guy who sells them should thank you for this...nice work