Headlight Extension Repair

[NasaGT]

Hello all,

I've got a 69' Mach1 I'm working on, the headlight extension has a tab on the front bottom that is damaged. The Tab is cracked where it connects to the main part of the headlight extension. Is this repairable? Here's a couple of pics:

Driver's Side Headlight Extension

The front tab with cracks

The Passenger side doesn't have this tab at all. This car has been wrecked so I'm assuming that is when these were damaged.

I'm guessing that this tab is used to bolt to the front valence. This car was in pieces when purchased. If its not repairable are these unusable? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[CanyonCarver515]

I don't know how structural this area is. I suspect that like on my '67, this is made from pot metal...

If it is more cosmetic, you should be able to built it back up using All-Metal epoxy filler and sculpt it back to its original shape with a file and sand paper. All-Metal is a pretty good material to work with. You could also make a patch panel with a piece of scrap sheetmetal and bond it with All-Metal.

 

[RogerC62]

Yes, the front valance bolts up there. I've not found a way yet. I ripped a hole open in the grill area on my left one taking it off. I talked with a welder at work and our welding supplier rep. The rep gave me some tig rod and some instructions on how to repair it using a torch. I put a small tip on my torch and followed the instructions. I had the torch burning as low as it could go and still melted the pot metal. The ounly thing I haven't tried yet is soldering. I'm seriously considering making fiberglass molds and making myself a set of fiberglass headlight buckets. Maier Racing makes them but they're $400 a pair. There's no pictures on their site so I don't know how they look.

 

[mustangmike6996]

national parts depot sells them for like 200 and some change i think... repop... but wayyy better than fiberglass or where i got some use parts for my stang in michigan.. (248)338-0574 bob or lloyd if you can get a hold of them ... they had like 100 old stangs in a junk lot with every part imaginable

 

[chromedog]

i would suggest jb weld and about 6 layers of drywall mesh... cut the mesh roughly the shape you need,and (after the back of the bucket is prepped, by roughing it up with 36 grit sand paper)apply a decent coat of jb. start applying the mesh, pressing the jb into the fibers. you will know when to slather on more jb.when you have used up all the mesh, set the bucket so the jb weld doesnt run everywhere. (it helps to build a "dam" with 2" masking tape.)let it cure for a good 24 hours. if the ear is too big, you can grind it to shape with an angle grinder, and the same 36 grit you used to prep the back of the bucket.now, fabbing the missing ear might be a bit trickier, but it can be done... use a piece of styrofoam to make a female mold. after you are satisfied with the shape, lay a piece of wax paper between the styro, and the bucket. proceed as if you were repairing the missing ear. the beauty of this method is, if you screw up shapewise, you can apply more jb and mesh until you are happy with the contour. ive repaired crotchrocket plastics and fiberglass with this trick, and im sure some of you are shaking your heads in disbelief, but it works...

 

[NasaGT]

Thanks for all of the replies!

I've heard of using JBWeld to repair pot metal stuff like this before, so I may have to try this method. The good news is that these tabs aren't visible when everythign is bolted up (I think).

The only other option that I've come up with is to make a bracket to replace the tab and bolt it to other bolt hole locations on the extension.

NPD's repros are $240 each, so $500 is kindof steep to replace these. If I get something that works all be sure to post it here for others.

 

[bnickel]

my local mustang parts guru has suggested making a bracket that bolts or rivets to the extensions and then mold it with the JB weld so it looks more like stock if you want. i've seen some he's done this way and it's hard to tell that they have been repaired from the front, from the back it's obviously a patch job but i little more JB weld work back there and it would be hard to tell at all.

both tabs on my car were completely gone and my solution was just to replace them. i found one brand new one on ebay for $100 and traded some parts for a good used one for the other side. if at all possible try to find some nice used ones, my body guy said the repro sucked and he had to grind and file and do a ton of reshaping to make it fit.