Headlight covers revisited. Maybe a solution to a problem.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

There they are, MSA headlight covers. About a hundred bucks and you have some fairly good fitting headlight covers. But then there is the big issue. Not many of us really want to drill holes in our headlight scoops to mount that. Well, I sure do not. So many things have been tried. Velcro, double sided 3M tape. But all were either too weak to hold the cover on, or too strong to let it go so you could clean behind it. So how do we fix this.

I have not seen this suggestion before, so I will throw it out there. I present to you these!!

round Neodymium rare earth magnets. They are crazy strong. I mean crazy. They come in all sizes and shapes, including small thin disk sized shapes smaller than a dime. Now what if you were to put a soft felt on one side so that it would be soft against your headlight scoop on the car, and then epoxy the other side to the headlight cover L bracket. This would hold onto the headlight bucket with ease and yet would be removeable without any sticky residue or scratching your headlight bucket.

I have purchased the magnets already and will be trying to mock this up for my Z. Of course I will paint my covers silver so I can protect the headlights when I track or autocross the car. But the concept I think is sound.

Any thoughts, or has somebody tried this already?

Edited October 3, 2011 by Zedyone_kenobi

[Arne]

Won't work on the early (pre-73, or thereabouts) 240Z with FRP headlight buckets, which I would have guessed your car has. Are you certain your buckets are metal?

[tlorber]

Those things are so damn strong that my guess is that if you glued them to the underside of the (fiberglass) headlight scoop and to the corresponding spot on the cover, they would probably hold.

However, I'd test it out first before committing.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Well they stuck to it...go figure. I will check both to see what I find. Maybe my car has a more sordid history than I thought!

[cygnusx1]

I stick about a 2"x2" pad of clear 3M Stoneguard film on the buckets, where each cover bracket is supposed to be drilled. Then I epoxy the brackets onto the stoneguard. If I ever need to remove the brackets, I can just peel off the stoneguard film with the bracket and epoxy, leaving no trace. When I do a track day, I run a 5" length of clear tape along the hoodline edge of the cover for added security at 130mph.

The magnets are a great idea too. They are strong. I use them to keep the canopies on my RC Planes.

Edited October 3, 2011 by cygnusx1

[Bonzi Lon]

I have done it on my 73, not wanting to cut holes. The covers I used were in storage for years, one was crazed, the other had a small crack, so I painted them satin black to cover the defects & the super strong magnets I glued to the interior. The magnets came from a former employer are 20X9X4 mm & very powerful. They hold each other through my open palm. I have no idea what the composition is.

On the 20mm of the magnet, I glued (E-6000) the same size inner tube rubber to prevent scratching the paint, let cure. Positioned 3 magnets around the edge per cover, glued the 9mm edge to the cover & clamped in position.

They were intended 'for show only' not to be driven at speed for fear of losing them. Returning from a car show, 20 miles at highway speed, I realized I forgot to take the covers off! To my surprise, they held on.

Bonzi Lon

[Threehz]

I have no experience with these covers but would like to get some in the future. Just to make sure, is there a lip around the edge of them? At first I was imagining you mounting the magnets on the outside so that there would be air-space between the cover and the car but now I see that there is probably a lip that you are mounting the magnets inside on?

Also, I used this same idea for my louvers. One of those little damned plastic locks was broken and I said forget these, glued those little magnets on each side of the louver in the bottom corners and then on the corresponding spot on the window, holds like hell, yet still removable.

Incredible little things those magnets are!

[robftw]

If they don't stick to the earlier car buckets, you can always epoxy another magnet to the inside of the bucket nobody would ever notice

[Zedyone_kenobi]

That is a great idea rob.

Thanks for the pics Bonzi.... I have wanted to see better pics of your car for a LONG time.

I think this will work quite well guys. I am going to order some headlight covers soon and try this out. If Only there were some nice factory replicas with the stainless trim to be found for under 500 dollars.

[Hunter260Z]

Love my JDM headlight covers. Paid $ 120.00 for these on 8/19/76. Installed for $ 6.00 at the dealer.

[ZCurves]

Zedy,

Where did you pick up the magnets?

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Amazon.com bud!