64 Impala headlight pots

rusted off spring

spring rivet removed

The removable parts on these headlight pots are the adjusting screws, andthe plastic inserts, the stainless headlight ring, the headlight casing, and the tension spring. The tension springs are rarely in good condition. They’re subject to direct exposure to rain, snow, and road grime. Any finish on them has been rusted off decades ago leaving the tension springs in rough shape. I managed to save only a few.

Drilling out the rivet is no big deal. A 11/64″ bit will eat the mushroomed shoulder off and you won’t risk damaging the rivet hole since the rivet hole is exactly 11/64″. The rivet is a 5/32 blind aluminum rivet. This same rivet can be found in quite a few place on the 64 Impala grill section. It’s also used to hold the vertical supports to the backside of the headlight pots, the grill to the tie bar, and the small vertical grill supports to the grill and tie bar. I haven’t managed to find the correct replacements yet, but I will.

headlight spring installed

headlight springs

Since my only objective at this point is to put the best parts back together in one assembly I don’t need to be anal about fasteners yet. Here I used a #8 bevel head machine screw to hold the spring in place. The important part of this exercise is that I’ll have all these parts fastened together so I won’t lose them. We all know how parts disappear when we finally need them a couple of years later.

headlights installed

64 impala grill complete

Now the grill section for my 64 Impala is in one piece using the best used parts I can find. Since I have 3 other assemblies, none of which are in great shape, I can use them for practice when I want to develop my metal and trim working skills. I don’t want to learn on my best parts. I can afford to ruin the others.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Finding parts. The entry is tagged under 64 impala grill, 64 Impala headlight pots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.