Topic

Hey my mgf recently failed what we call a warrant of fitness (wof) in new Zealand due to the headlight not being bright enough. Turns out it was the reflective coating on the inside had just worn away and lost all of its reflective ability. Was wondering if anyone had a headlight that they would be happy to part with for a fair price? As rimmer brothers has one that including shipping would be almost $600(nzd)!!!

Sadly, this is (apparently) a common problem on F headlights. Roger Parker dedicates no less than 4 pages of his book "MGF and TF Restoration Manual" to this subject. He includes 18 photos showing step-by-step how to take the headlights apart. He suggests a company called "Dual Metallising" in Tyseley Birmingham (England, of course), so you would need to find a supplier at your end of the planet to keep costs down. Failing that, sending the reflectors to Birmingham and getting them shipped back would probably still be less than $600 NZ dollars??

The other possibilities are:
1 Saint Roger suggests MGF Trophy 160 lights, but I am not sure if Trophy 160 lights are any less vulnerable to heat degradation of the reflector surfaces.
2. Change the front bumper plastic, headlights etc. to TF components, if you fancy an more modern look. The TF lights do not suffer this reflector ageing/heat stress problem. Potentially expensive, I appreciate, by the time you have matched colours, but at least (as far as I know) you do not have to change the bonnet.

This is, again, an issue with mk1 Fs that the company rectified eventually. The later Fs, like mine(2001), had an improved coating that doesn't degrade. My headlamp reflectors are as good as new.

So the answer is to get a headlamp from a mk2 F.

David Aiketgate wrote:

This is, again, an issue with mk1 Fs that the company rectified eventually. The later Fs, like mine(2001), had an improved coating that doesn't degrade. My headlamp reflectors are as good as new.

So the answer is to get a headlamp from a mk2 F.

I stand corrected and have learned something new.

It would seem that Roger Parker wrote that particular book before the better quality of Mk2 headlights became known.

Fantastic thank you guys very much! I'll have to looking to getting some mk2 ones but mk2 mg's are rear as in new Zealand let alone getting parts! Funnily enough chrome vinyl wrap worked well enough for it to pass and they both looked exactly the same!

Hoverbob wrote:

Fantastic thank you guys very much! I'll have to looking to getting some mk2 ones but mk2 mg's are rear as in new Zealand let alone getting parts! Funnily enough chrome vinyl wrap worked well enough for it to pass and they both looked exactly the same!

Chrome Vinyl Wrap sounds like an excellent workaround! It clearly works on a New-Zealand WOF, and probably would be sufficient for a UK MOT, but it might be worth checking a sample of the vinyl wrap draped over a headlight bulb, to check that if a section of wrap comes unstuck as a result of heat or for any other reason, you do not end up with burning vinyl inside that headlamp?

That's a hack worth remembering unless you have to buy a silly amount. Mind you it can't as expensive as a couple of new or good Mk2's..

Yup we did something similar to that we tested it with some old blue vinyl wrap we had and left it on high beam for quite awhile and nothing happened. However this is definitely not intended to be a long term fix haha