Headlight adjusting nuts

[ScottAndrews]

I see there have been some threads on rebuilding the headlamp assemblies. Most of them are fairly old sat this point, but still useful.

Did anyone ever find a suitable source for the little plastic nut inserts that the adjusters screw into?

I see McMaster Carr sells something like this, but not quite an exact replacement.

 

[Jim Stone]

Yes, not an exact replacement but an acceptable subscription as I used nylon insert nuts to rebuild my headlight assemblies.
Work fine.

 

[Jim Stone]

…an acceptable substitution….

 

[D Calkins]

…an acceptable substitution….

So which one did you use?

 

[Jim Stone]

The screws are M5-0.8 while the nylon nuts dims are around 9x9mm.

Don’t have the invoice readily available

 

[ScottAndrews]

The screws are M5-0.8 while the nylon nuts dims are around 9x9mm.

Don’t have the invoice readily available

Confirm that. I measured mine today. The lager flange is 12 x 12 and the body is 9 x 9. The hole is M5. The height is 14 mm, and the height from the top of the flange to the bottom of the barbs is 5mm.

 

[ScottAndrews]

The screws are M5-0.8 while the nylon nuts dims are around 9x9mm.

Don’t have the invoice readily available

Where did you source them?

 

[e9Leveque]

Came across this short video on restoring headlights and thought “this is Scott, isn’t it?”
Nice attention to detail and end result is pretty nice

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[ScottAndrews]

Came across this short video on restoring headlights and thought “this is Scott, isn’t it?”
Nice attention to detail and end result is pretty nice

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HAH!! Not me, but nice ellipsoid lamps!

I have recently re-discovered the virtues of the wire wheel.

Blasting is great on surfaces you plan to paint or powder coat, but it does not make for a good metal finish.

I recently disassembled my steering column, and wanted to clean up the lower steering shaft, which has lived a hard life in the engine bay. I was able to separate the rubber "guibo-like" coupler to remove the lower shaft. 5 minutes on the wire wheel and it looked brand new. Shiny and clean....

I blasted the metal lamp buckets after removing the zinc plated lamp holders, and plan to powder coat them today in my new Eastwood oven. I'll probably wire-wheel the zinc holders and then re-plate them

 

[e9Leveque]

Looking good. The guy who made this video has a YouTube channel in which he details restoration on various parts of his E30. Lots of overlap with the E9, I may delve into these a bit - pedal box, calipers, brake booster, differential, etc. I don’t need to do all of that (some already done) but good to see how it is restored.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwTGvQP_q5uBf-FI5LvlvrF7MVbslSBu3&si=ZcDudlGK0lDnO8u7

And post pictures of your resto - if I get the car painted this winter the headlights will be out, so might be the time to do this work. Hope you enjoy your powder coating oven, I think we are going to see lots of nicely done parts from you soon in addition to those we already have!

 

[D Calkins]

Scott, how did you remove these adjusters?

 

[ScottAndrews]

Scott, how did you remove these adjusters?

There appear to be two ways. The proper way is to carefully slide the bolts out of the retaining slot they are captured in. The wrong way is what I did. I use s needle nose plier to hold the retaining washer and backed out the screw until it came for from the nylon captive nut. We shall see if I can successfully put them back as they were...

 

[e9Leveque]

I think on that video above the guy did your version, or at least it looks like he is unscrewing that bolt. Video is worth watching, David!

 

[ScottAndrews]

I'll definitely post photos of my headlamp restoration. I am going to powder coat the buckets, re-chrome the lens rings, and re-zinc the lens holders, so they should look pretty much new. I have a set of H1/H4 Euro lenses, so I'll be putting those in. It was a great satisfaction to toss the old sealed beams in the trash with prejudice!