dharris

My 87 Carrera 3.2 has what appears to be a light switch between the foglight switch & the cigarette lighter. Both it & the foglight switch have what appear to be similar but not quite identical "foglight symbols" on them which illuminate when switched on. The mystery is that this "extra" switch doesn't seem to do anything (other than illuminate its own symbol)!

The puzzle is really starting to annoy me. I read somewhere that the 3.2 Carreras had internally adjustable levelling for the headlights at some stage - could it be something to do with this?

My car is right hand drive (I live in Australia) & is an ex Hong Kong car, with a slight possibility it was orginally delivered new in the UK.

The car itself is a first class example which I had professionally inspected before purchase & for which I have the documented history for the last 7 years. (Unfortunately the trail in Honkers goes vague before then).

One thing that was noticed during inspection was that the car had spent time in a salty environment, as evidenced by discolouration (incipient or surface corrosion?) on non-galvanized fittings, eg bolt & screw heads, hose clamps etc on the underbody. Hence the suspicion of a UK delivery, although Hong Kong has a pretty salty atmosphere they say. Fortunately the body is sound.

Anyway... I'd like to "touch up" these fittings to remove the dirty/ rusty look & prevent any further corrosion. I assume this is a well known issue in colder climes where salt is used on the roads in Winter; any advice from the Northern Hemisphere would be greatly appreciated.

Denzeman

Dan Cobb

Does the car have a rear fog light mounted below the valance? If so, I would seriously expect that switch controls it. If there is no rear fog lamp, look for a wire or other evidence that one may have been removed in the past.
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dharris

Thanks Dan-that makes sense.

Hope someone responds to my "rusty fittings" query. I had thought of dabbing them with one of those rust stabilizer products (usually phosphoric acid based, I think) & then painting them with something...I don't suppose it's an issue in LA though.

fixnprsh

LA is costal and I lived by the beach for years where my rotors would get surface rust overnight and squeak every morning just from the damp salty marine layer.

As far as your rusted of corroded bolts, brackets, hose ends, if its light surface corrosion, a 3M/scotch brite pad will clean it off, then you can buy CAD plated look paint, paint your brackets, bolts and hose ends. coat it with a touch of WD40 to prevent this from happening again. If they are really rusty, you might have to replace them or clean with a wire wheel.

Dan Cobb

I forgot to mention that you may want to consider a product called "POR-15" (or similar).
It is a thin (runny) paint that bonds to rust and creates one heck of a surface when dry.
They have a website and their products are available through most of the high-end mail order parts houses.
I used it on the frame of my 66 Chevelle and was very impressed with the results.
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Peter Zimmermann

Re: Foglight (?) - My brain is really "foggy" on this one, but you might have a rear foglight/foglights inside your rear reflector that connects the taillights (I believe that the under-bumper light was discontinued by your year car). I seem to remember seeing those on an ROW car many years ago. Remember, they will probably only work with the ignition on and the low beam headlights on. Good luck with it!
Pete