240 question - Swapping square headlights for 7" round

aerobar900

1986 240 with a flat hood, square headlights & eggcrate grill.
If I want to swap this for a round headlight setup found in early 240 models is this easy to do without changing the fenders / cowl etc.
I am hopeful it is just a swap of the grill & headlights.

Is anyone able to confirm?

Thanks.

Ex850R

Welcome!
Iirc it is the heading incl the buckets and grille.
I like the square ones! I will have em if you swap over!

carnut1100

"Square" lights with an egg rate grille won't be real square ones, but stock '81+ lights.

If you really have a flat hood then swap is easy. You'll need to swap the front mudguards as well though, as the early lights have different indicators which mount to the guards and the later style has a larger indicator that mounts to the headlight.

IIRC '86 was about when the flat hood switched over. Check to see if the vent at the base of the windscreen sits proud of the main cowl line or is recessed below it. If recessed then the flat hood bolts on. If it sits proud then you have the later style and swapping to flat hood takes cutting and welding...
If you don't mind a long read go on turbobricks and look in the projects section for John H and his 245 turbo project. Lots of pics showing how he converted a late 245 shell into an early one.

Angus242164

I did a swap like this on an '85 not too long ago.

You need the front guards, lower valance panel, headlight support panels, lights, grille, light surrounds, and the rubber trim from above the bumper. You can change to the earlier aluminium bumper, or you can keep the plastic bumper, but it needs to be moved up about 20mm, which requires modifying the brackets.

If you have AC in working condition and don't want to open the system, that presents another challenge. This was the case with the conversion I did, so I cut sections of the headlight support panels out to allow the hoses to pass through them without being disconnected, it took a bit of work but the end result was really neat.

The way the AC condensor mounts is a bit different, but the solution was fairly simple, I was able to bend the brackets on the condensor, and bolt it to the headlight support panels with bolts and spacers tubes, again the end result was quite solid and neat.

With an '86, the shape of the plenum panel below the windscreen is different, so the shape of the panels doesn't match up. You would need to cut up an early and a late bonnet to make one that matched properly. I think the early bonnet fits the later plenum shape without hitting anything, it just looks a bit odd.

An "in progress" pic here: http://zyrex.org/gallery/Cars/acw/Misc/IMG_9703.JPG.html