The winter is around half over this year (or half started depending on your point of view), and 2017 is underway.
You may recall last winter I improved rear lighting to the Mini Mark by adding a third brake light to the bar on the rear deck. I still wanted to improve rear lighting so this year I went about adding LED turn signals.
Some of the benefits of LED's are the small size to give high output as well as length of life. I love the replacement stainless light housings and glass lenses, but they do have some drawbacks. Out of the box they only allow single filament bulbs the lenses don't allow bright light to pass thru. Especially on a bright summer day, the brake light may be hard to see.
I first went looking for the LED turn signals. Motorcycles now days seem to be more inventive that automobiles in lighting. I was able to find an ideal light, but how do I mount it to the existing lights. After a little engineering I fabricated an aluminum bracket to do the job. Some aluminum H stock, tubing cut in half, welding and machining I finally had what I wanted.
I polished the aluminum and assembled everything. I purchased some high output LED single element bulbs and found some glass "STOP" red/ amber lenses with blue dots on the running lights. The red/ amber allow more light to pass, and the obvious "STOP" show what is happening.
This should wrap up read light modifications, it finally gives me enough light that I am comfortable with someone behind me seeing what I am doing.
The design of the turn signals also gives a bit of a side light, not only rear, so it is a win win.
One other modification which I should have done during the rebuild was to add a fuel shut off valve to the bottom of the fuel tank. Especially with an older, not daily driver this is important. The fuel tank is above the engine and carburetor, so there is a chance of gravity feed of gas when the car is parked. It would eventually drain into the oil sump and could lead to serious problems if started, spinning out your bearings. Also if during that winter park your rubber fuel lines decided to crack or break it would drain your tank. It isn't an easy spot to get to, or turn off, but the effort is outweighed by the benefit. Once again, the shut off is a motorcycle application.
