Rusty Grills

[Corranga]

aesthetics,

I would also like to ditch the fog and reverse lights but for obvious legal reasons I cannot.

I believe that's not strictly true...

I think by law you require a fog light but not a reversing light (fog light must be on the corect side of the vehicle, or in the centre). I may be wrong, but when I looked into it, I was told that if a reversing light is fitted it must work, and if it was part of a light cluster, then it cannot be removed...

I run my old Mini for about 3 years with Innocenti rear lights. Rather than being regular Mini orange, red, white from top to bottom, they were orange then red. I used the bottom of the left light as a fog light, and had no reversing lights at all.

Got through 2 or 3 MOTs...

All that said, you still need a fog light, and it's maybe worth confiming all this

Chris

[kpb]

I have just taken the standard rusty grill out for a bead blast and a coat of paint at work what size are the rawl nut ,they look like M4 by about 11mm or are they M5 so I can order new ones.
I have seen them on toolfast direct but they come in packs of fifty
Cheers
Kinnon

[campbell]

aesthetics,

I would also like to ditch the fog and reverse lights but for obvious legal reasons I cannot.

You could certainly run without the grills.

Or some vintages have matt black painted inserts (mine does) so in a way the fog a reverse light are less noticeable. If yours doesn't have that, then maybe that's something to consider?

Finally, you could probably get "smoked" lenses or a smoke treatment for them, with mildly uprated bulbs to compensate - think a lot of chavs do this on their main light clusters. Generally looks tacky in that regard but to disguise your fog and reverse, esp. behind the grilles, could be a goer?

Or get a reverse light white cover for the fog and fit a red-stained bulb - if such a thing exists?!

[mainsy]

mine were getting bad too so this post gave me inspiration.

however, no matter what i tried i couldn't prise the screw out. in the end had to cut tem out with a dremel

so got them painted up nice but getting them back on is now a problem. the plastic grommet plug thingy's that the screw goes into are either knackered or they went up inside the clam

this leaves a biggish hole. any ideas, do i need to get more rubber grommet things or a bigger fixing.

once again thanks in advance

[campbell]

more "rubber grommet things" would be my route...but put stainless screws into them

[fd]

The correct fittings are (IIRC) 10mm rawl nuts with a brass inner (not the same rawl as you use in a wall !), and if you use a stainless fastener and some decent anti seize they will be removable indefinately . . . problem is that Lotus fit them with crappy non plated mild steel bolts with no anti-seize so after a couple of years they will never be removable . . . by far the best anti-seize I've used is a nickel/aluminium/copper mix I got from RS . . . it's bad for you and the environment so that's probably why it's so good . . .

Fd

[mainsy]

The correct fittings are (IIRC) 10mm rawl nuts with a brass inner (not the same rawl as you use in a wall !), and if you use a stainless fastener and some decent anti seize they will be removable indefinately . . . problem is that Lotus fit them with crappy non plated mild steel bolts with no anti-seize so after a couple of years they will never be removable . . . by far the best anti-seize I've used is a nickel/aluminium/copper mix I got from RS . . . it's bad for you and the environment so that's probably why it's so good . . .

Fd

sounds good. where would i aquire such things?

[Scottd]

Has anyone here heard of Xylan before? I'm fed up painting my grilles every four months and this Xylan stuff is what the oil companies paint everything with before they stick it in the north sea. Must be pretty good?

[BiggestNizzy]

Has anyone here heard of Xylan before? I'm fed up painting my grilles every four months and this Xylan stuff is what the oil companies paint everything with before they stick it in the north sea. Must be pretty good?

Yea the stuff we make for the oil companies get's painted in it before they stick it in the north sea.

we use Surface technologies for that kind of thing ( they also armourfend 3000'd my wishbones )

not sure what colours it can come in I have only seen red, yellow and green (maybe blue).

[alicrozier]

Lots of different Xylan variants - depends on the application.

I've seen Black as a colour option, most offer corrosion resistance, tbh I think it's a bit of overkill for grilles (unless they inadvertantly get mixed up with a batch of other stuff).

Aside: I used to work for a company that had a paint plant, wet and powder coating. I was showing one of the senior corporate execs from NY round the factory one evening and as we passed the paint conveyors...

panel...

panel...

panel...

baike frame...