First of the Texas Twins, First Build Options

[Puebloswatcop]

As I removed each item, I bagged and labled all of the hardware by part number and the total quantity of that item throughout the entire car.

[friethmiller]

I started by removing the headlight surround. It only has 3 oval head phillips screws holding it in place. The left one was in great shape, but the right was a different story. It appeared that it had been broken at one point and the PO glued it back together. Whatever glue they used ha yellowed badly.

914rubber sells these. No brainer. Don't waste your time on this broken plastic. [I say this as I repair a broken-down, plastic front valance].

[Puebloswatcop]

Then I removed the 3 screws holding on the chrome headlight trim ring.

[Puebloswatcop]

The ring is certainly original Hella. Not in too bad of shape considering it is 55 years old.

[Puebloswatcop]

Next was to remove the headlight cover. There are 2 screws holding it place although there are 5 screw holes on it. I'll have to do some research on why only 2 screws were used. As you can see the PO must have used a rattle can to paint the awful red color on the car. Not only did they get overspray everywhere, but then they missed entire areas that needed painting.

[Puebloswatcop]

Now comes all of the little parts that have to be removed from the buckets so it can be stripped and taken to the powder coater. Removed and bagged all of the parts from the pivot brackets.

[Puebloswatcop]

Then came the headlight aiming screw parts. There are 2 adjustment scres and one spring that need to be removed. The screws are inserted to 2 brackets on the bucket. In order to pull the screws off, I just used a pair of pliers and using the bucket as a fulcrum point, pulled them out.

[Puebloswatcop]

Last but not least, remove the plastic adjuster nuts from the inner bucket. Here is a picture of all of the hardware that hold the inner bucket inside the outer buck and allows for headlight adjustment.

[Puebloswatcop]

By now the inner bucket should be comletely stripped of all hardware. Although the inner buckets appear to be interchangeable the outer buckets are not. So just in case and because I am anal about the parts, I marked the inner buckets with the respective sides, using a steel letter set.

[Puebloswatcop]

On to the outer (main) bucket assembly. it has a number of part attached to it, including the pivot bolt. EAsily removed with a 10 mm wrench, the washer is a special washer, so i was careful not to set it down and lose it.

[Puebloswatcop]

Then there are the pesky speed nuts. There are a total of 5. two on each side of the buckett, and one at the top.

[Puebloswatcop]

In the end, this is what one bucket looks like after being stripped down to all of its individual components.

[Puebloswatcop]

Today I too a little bit of time to clean some of the headlight components. I know some of you guys out there remember this product. My dad always had some in the garage. To this day I can remember the smell of it. I actually was looking for a different product, but they were sold out, So I grabbed a can of Dad's old go too.

[Puebloswatcop]

I decided to try it on the chrome trim rings first. I was really amazed at how well it worked, there was very little that it didn't take off, but 4-0 steel wool helped that along.

[Puebloswatcop]

You can reall see the difference between the one that was polished and the one that wasnt. Even the reflection on the table top shows a big difference in the reflectivity after cleaning,

[Puebloswatcop]

The pivot hardware for the bucket was a PITA. They were covered with oversoray from the PO. I found that Brake cleaner, Steel Wool and a paper towel does do a pretty good job removing the nasty stuff off of the metal surfsces.