Sorting the Electrics: Alternators, Alarms and Headlights

With the mechanicals and interior starting to take shape, it was time to tackle some of the electrical gremlins. The first major issue I noticed was that the battery simply was not charging properly while the engine was running. I pulled the alternator out, tested all the individual components, and narrowed the culprit down to a faulty voltage regulator. In a stroke of luck, I managed to track down a new old stock part online. This was a massive relief, as this specific alternator is no longer in production. Upgrading to a modern unit would have meant fabricating completely new mounting brackets. After refitting the repaired unit, it is now outputting a healthy 14.5 volts. Problem solved.

Next up on the hit list was an old Clifford immobiliser. After running the part numbers through Google, it looks like it was manufactured around 2000 and was likely installed when the car was first built. In my experience, these vintage alarm systems tend to cause far more problems than they solve. Since the car will always be garaged and never left unattended, it really does not need an immobiliser. I stripped the entire system out, along with a nest of other unneeded wiring. Hilariously, it turns out the original installer had only wired it to bypass the starter button. This means that anyone trying to steal the car could have bypassed the immobiliser entirely just by bump-starting it!

While I was elbow-deep in the wiring, I decided to take a look at the front headlights. I found some slightly dodgy chocolate block wire connections hiding in there. I cut all of that out, freshly resoldered the joints, and properly tidied up the wiring loom. While I had the headlights apart, it made perfect sense to freshen everything up visually as well. I fitted brand new bulbs, fresh inner bowls and chrome retaining bezels, and finished them off with a new set of outer chrome headlight rings to get the front end looking sharp again.