headlight conversion, opinions/ideas

[jamie gsi16v]

after having abit of a road kill the other day i need my front bumper respraying and filling, but before it goes in im going to blend the bumper into the wings and grill (properly and strongly) but i was also thinking about changing the headlights, fancy twin headlights but i dont like nova ones?
i was thinking about moulding and blending some corsa ones in as they look quite aggresive, i have got fibreglass wide arches, kc front bumper and standard mk2 gsi grill so moulding and shaping wont be a problem and neither will filling or fibreglassing as this is what the rest of the cars made from. i also have a badboy bonnet so this will cover any rare or unevan gaps at the top?
so what do you think? opinions or ideas would be a great help, cheers j :lol:

[Dod]

Na mate, dont bother. It'll always crack, and what happens if when you've it all blended and you need to replace a wing?

As for the Corsa lights, they're the wrong shape and would just look shit IMO. STick with the good old bolt together front end i say.

[jamie gsi16v]

yeh but it not so easy to bolt a fibreglass bumper to some fibreglass wide arches? shouldnt think a wing will ever need to be replaced cuz it aint gonna rust n if somebody runs into it then its there problem? twin headlights are twin headlights n if there gona be moulded into original nova arches how can they be the wrong shape?

[Dod]

Its their curve, unless you're going to counter sink them you're possibly going to have to reshape the bonnett, wings and grills.

It seems to me that you wanna to mould everything together, so as is often siad, if you like it mate, go for it. Personally i wouldn't but each to their own. Good luck with it though.

[ade]

I kind of agree with dod sham - blending your wings n bumper is always a problem - theres too much flex and it will crack eventually.

It never looks right - think about it - if you have a bump then all you need to fix is your bumper - have a bump with blended front ans sides and youre taking a whole front replacement - the shock will crack and disjoint the fibreglass right back to the doors.

Also - what if you need to get access to your inner wings, radiator or something else at the front behind the bumper - would be a crying shame if you had to reip the bumper off, damaging the wings and then the paintwork?

The alternative is to make the gaps as minimal as possible - leave the lines there but reduce then as much as you can.

As for lights the nova is a boxey car - sticking modern sloped lights on it doesnt really work. If you are going to go for a new light look go for something that will compliment your front end and kit you have.

best thing is to get some images of lights you like and superimpose them onto a pic of your car (photoshop it). Theres been various ones done - from BMW, Punto mk2 (thats what I'll be doing) to VW Polo lights and Seat ones

Its all down to how much work you wanna do - its your car at the end of the day - just think about the preactilities of some mods (ie if a bulb blows or some granny bashed yer lights and cracked one and drove off how easy can you get it out to fix it!)

ade
:|

[jamie gsi16v]

its so hard to get the lines too fit correctly though, if i was to fix the bumper to the front pannel top and bottom very securely then i dont think i would have a problem as this is what i did with the back one and thats fine, i would be using flexable filler, punto lights do sound quiet good have you done a photoshop of a nova with these on? what are they like size wise, have you any dimensions?

[ade]

punto lights need major rework of the upper slam panel - like removing most of it!

need to cut the inner wings back slightly at the top and mod both weings and bonnet as well as rebuild the front bumper (theyre more curvey).

Also need a new grill...See thr ADES GARAGE post above - heres some pics from it though of what my car will look like when done...these are work in progress drawings and may change a little...(page 5)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/danga/draftfrontback.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/danga/draftside.jpg

[jamie gsi16v]

that looks good mate i like it, you got any proper work in progress pics?

[ade]

not yet - lol - see ades garage sticky at top of this forum - still gathering parts - hoping to start rebuild in July...

Just finished me garden which was priority - now can continue making model nova and me project...

Ade

[Matt2107]

I was looking at some Skoda Octavia lights

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/Matt2107/Skoda20Octavia20Kombi20RS201.jpg

But decided its too much like hard work.

[Dod]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/danga/draftside.jpg

This looks like some of the really rare (proyotype?) Irmischer(?) novas i've seen in books. They are really cool. Good work Ade. Keep it up, Also the Octavia lights look well, but maybe a tad loo long?

[Matt2107]

I agree they do look a little long and probably wouldnt suit a Nova.

The guy driving that skoda looks like a right "chuffer"

He actually looks proud to own it.