vauxhallviva.com

hi have just got my hc a couple of months ago. i want to put new head lights in, do i have to change the front panel ?

Assume you wanna go from single pair of rectangular to twin rounds?

Two ways of doing it. New front panel, and risk buggering the wings as well. Or headlight mounting panels to replace the rectangular mounts.(Hard to find new, and a a bummer to get off an old panel intact) In any event, hope you don't mind cutting and can weld.

Then you'll need the headlights themselves... Then either rig or get the electrical patches. (Good luck with that)

Alternatively, you could opt for a set of rectangular driving lamps, which would keep the car original with a reversable mod. Note, the car would be worth more in years to come unmolested, than if it had been hacked about.

Dan

It's been on my mind since I got my Viva but I've never taken the thought any further (and I no longer want to get rid of my rectangles) but could you not modify a twin headlight mounting panel so that it could be bolted to the front panel or rectangular mounting panel, and thus make it a bolt-on modification with minimal permanent changes to the car.

Or is the twin mount wider than the retangular?

The twin headlight mounts are wider than rectangular. I have even seen where each light is mounted individually ie, two mounts each side. So they won't fit one on another. You could replace them, but you'd need to cut and drill the old rectangular mounts off the front panel... Could be done, but care would need to be taken with the cutter/grinder so not to muller the front panel and the leading folds of the wings while your doing it... Basically, a lot of faffing. And then there's positioning the new mounts so that the lights are correctly positioned on the car so that the likes of the grill will fit,

Tell you what I did think about when I had my old SL.. The SL grill has plastic sections either side of the chrome V in the centre. How about adapting these so that a pair of slimline driving lamps are inset into the grill?

They used to do grills like this for the Astra Mk1, and they worked well and looked pretty good. Would look a bit different on a Viva, can't say I've seen it done. Large rectangular outside, small rectangular inside to look symetrical, and with new plastic grill inserts, it's completely reversible. Just a thought.

Dan

That's something I've also thought about as I test mounted my foglights from the top of the front panel when I didn't have the grille on. It looked great in the dark with the lights on.


I then decided to do something a little more different with a tatty spare grille I have, but that project has been halted at the moment.

That doesn't look half bad