Rear Lights Restored - inventory coming soon

[Mo Brighta]

Andy--Your tests look great. What is an HO lamp used in your comparison tests?
thanks,
Drew

HO (for High Output) - a modern design lamp with Krypton fill gas and modern materials INCLUDING the required nickel plated base shell BMW requires. Improved filament designs make lots more light from a few more watts. More detail - hope it's not too much:

Tail light - For the tests pictured above -- I use a 5008 / R10W (Narva 17311) lamp. They make 150% more lumens than the 5007 / R5W (67% more than later 5008 / R10W) lamps specified for most vintage BMW cars... 10 cp versus stock 4 or 6 cp (CP = candlepower = mean spherical candela). None of these HO lamps make significantly more heat (watts) than the OEM lamps at 5W or 10W.

Brake Light - Bulbs I use (not widely available) are 3497 for brake/turn/reverse, and 3496 for front turn or 2-filament tail+brake light applications. These bulbs were developed for Honda Motor Company cars back in the day, are a slightly higher wattage (a few watts more than 7506 lamps from BMW). They make 33-34% more lumens that the 7506.
If I were to take and post those pictures, you'd see quite a difference, maybe that would be instructive?

What WILL melt lenses and damage lenses or destroy your lights is the use of a BRAKE lamp in a TAIL LIGHT socket - usually done to boost running light output on an old car with corroded lights. The constant high heat (3 - 5 times more than expected) and the height of the lamp (putting it too close to the lens) are major factors. I see this often, especially in 2002 lights, round and square. It's sad, really, to see a big round divot melted into a lens, and worse if it's yours!

Originally the 3496 & 3497 HO bulbs came from Stanley, a company supplying largely for the Asian market, like Toyota, Honda, and Acura, and probably others. Please pardon my ignorance in that arena, I focus on the European (mostly BMW) market. When you visit an Automotive Recycler (junkyard) and see an older Japanese car, look at the lamps or lights, and you will see 'Stanley' everywhere. Honda sells them for $$$ under their own part numbers, of course. Companies other than Stanley are now making them to the same specs... that's the 'Global Economy.'

Bottom Line- with a properly restored reflective coating (silvering), a good lamp, and good electrical contacts, you will get good light output from an old set of lights, SAFELY AND EFFECTIVELY, which is the goal. After all, nobody in a coupe wants to be a speed bump underneath a Hummer or other garden shed-sized living room on wheels, do they?

"Keep those cards and letters coming!"

Andy

 

[Stevehose]

Stanley vs stock:

 

[Mo Brighta]

UPDATE -
I have restored a pair of lights with super-shiny Mylar film, self adhesive. It resembles a mirror, and really projects the light!!!

I used it on the worst of the reflector dishes, and sprayed some 'chrome' paint on the brake reflector. Boy, talk about an improvement in light output! The extended life test results will be determined how they stand up in the real world.

In these particular lights, one of the reflectors was still fairly good, so I cleaned it up to remove the dirt, then polished it, and left it as is. It performed well, so I felt it was best not to monkey with it.

SECOND UPDATE -
I have just ordered some foam edge trim to replace the grey sealing trim on the light - the assembly inside the trunk, not the lens. It is black, as they didn't have a wide range of color choices, and I decided against orange (!) for aesthetic reasons. I did get a sample to check it on the lights, and it seems to be a very close approximation of the original. It's called 'High Temp foam edge trim' and it is flexible enough to follow all the curves and corners on the shell. I will build a second pair with the Mylar and new edge trim.

Stay tuned for pictures.

Happy New Year!

Andy

 

[Engrip]

Hello Andy,

I'd be interested in seeing your work on the lights.

Jerry

 

[Mo Brighta]

OK, Jerry, here are some pictures. My avatar shows a cleaned vs dirty shell exterior.

First, two 'as received' reflector sub-assemblies. Top one is exceptionally nice, and sadly rare. Bottom one is more typical, I have gotten several like that. This part is for turn signal and tail light.

Second picture, silvering applied to turn signal - more than doubles the light reflectance (my opinion).

Third picture, assembled with some silver paint (brake), some film. The wire is for the dual tail light upgrade.

Fourth picture, cleaned shell interior with restored bulb base contacts and restored original seal.

Last picture, neighbor Wayne's coupe with dual tail light upgrade. NO WORK on reflectors, just the upgrade.

Hope this helps - if you need to know more, ask me or anyone with a pair of these lights.

Anyone want to volunteer and share their experience?

Thanks for your interest!

 

[posix]

received my set recently! beautiful work! can't wait to have them on my car but that will probably not be anytime soon haha. car is currently being stripped down

 

[Mo Brighta]

Group Buy on Hella LED Center Brake Light

I was formerly able to get a nice Hella LED center brake light for use in boosting visibility and triggering the 'Startle Reflex' in 'sleepy drivers' behind us. This is the 'model 5238' LED self adhesive center brake light with an adjustable plate to allow aiming the light beam (hot spot) at the opposition! The 12 LEDs are mounted on a plate, behind individual 'lenses' that focus the light into a square beam -- and the plate has a pivot point allowing you to aim it up and down for maximum effectiveness ... straight into the eyeballs of drivers in following traffic.

I am also posting a new topic in Parts to keep this one clean - link here: group-buy-hella-led-center-brake-light

TGIF!