Early Bay Crossover 1972

Ok recently purchased this bus , and starting to find lots of little issues , the latest one being the headlamps . After doing a hose test on the window looking for a leak ( that’s another bodge it and leg it story for another time ) I thought I would also check the grill and headlamps at the same time, and noticed both headlamps where leaking into the cab .

At closer inspection I could see the rims were not siting right and was probably the cause . Please see pic .

So after removing the rims there are only 2 of the screws fastened to the body , the 3rd is just wiggling free and totally in the wrong position . And the rims do not physically fit correctly around the lip on the body.
Just took it for granted previous owner had ordered the wrong ones and couldn’t be bothered to send back so just left them as they are.

Looking around on the web for replacements all the 3 screw rims for my bus b year are he same as the ones already fitted with the screws in the wrong places , even the expensive hella ones. Link to some hella full lamps
Hella early bay lamps

So basically any ideas what’s happened here ? And how to fix the mounting issue

Bodge job alright, looks like you should have late bay lamps and single screw rims?

67panel said:

Bodge job alright, looks like you should have late bay lamps and single screw rims?

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I was thinking that maybe a possibility as it’s a crossover , what threw me is this is a 72 bus and the single screw late bay lamps were not introduced till 74.

Just looked up the actual lamp , and it looks like they are the early bay lamps for 3 screw rim

If its a replacement front panel then they have a "universal" fitting to take both if I remember correct (its been a while)

Mines is a 71 Lefty Westy crossover and only have 1 screw holding the outer ring.

fatgaz said:

Mines is a 71 Lefty Westy crossover and only have 1 screw holding the outer ring.

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You are a star , this made perfect sense . Never having removed one before and there being 3 fixing plates on lamp bowl kinda threw me.. The PO had obvious problems fitting the rims also , and it used one of the adjustment screws to bolt the rim to the bowl, which also threw me . Removed all the adjustment screws and fitted them into the relevant grommets instead of leaving them loose and reinstalled ..

The rims are still a pittta though I managed to do one , but for the life of me couldn’t do the second one, spent 2 hours of cursing before giving up for another try tomorrow.. hence why the PO probably bodged it and ran..

Any tips on replacing the rims . I have been slipping it on the catch furthest away from the screw and tried to push it of the catch nearest the fishing screw but they don’t go on easy , can’t get the whole rim over the bowl lip . Hence the gap on the original pic

Now I have had them out both the reflectors are gone , so may have to replace the whole units for an H4 so going to have to do the rims again at some stage

Kramsharp said:

You are a star , this made perfect sense . Never having removed one before and there being 3 fixing plates on lamp bowl kinda threw me.. The PO had obvious problems fitting the rims also , and it used one of the adjustment screws to bolt the rim to the bowl, which also threw me . Removed all the adjustment screws and fitted them into the relevant grommets instead of leaving them loose and reinstalled ..

The rims are still a pittta though I managed to do one , but for the life of me couldn’t do the second one, spent 2 hours of cursing before giving up for another try tomorrow.. hence why the PO probably bodged it and ran..

Any tips on replacing the rims . I have been slipping it on the catch furthest away from the screw and tried to push it of the catch nearest the fishing screw but they don’t go on easy , can’t get the whole rim over the bowl lip . Hence the gap on the original pic

Now I have had them out both the reflectors are gone , so may have to replace the whole units for an H4 so going to have to do the rims again at some stage

Click to expand...

I fitted H4s during the renovation. As for putting the rims on, a bit of messing around to get them on.