tr7triumph.com

The past couple weeks, I've noticed that other drivers seem to be a bit too close to my rear end and that made me nervous. I figure some of them just want to get a closer look at such a cool car that they may have never seen before (I do the same thing). Others however, may not be paying attention while they sip their mocha mocha latte, talk on the cell phone, change CD's, put on make-up, watch a movie, read a book, and all the other things some people do while trying to drive.
The idea of a 3 ton SUV rolling up my rear bumper is not a good thought. I noticed that the rear lights on my TR7 aren't nearly as bright as modern cars, so I thought I'd accomplish two things at once - add a rear spoiler and a third brake light.
Thanks to Mickey, I had a rear wing/spoiler that I wanted to mount and thanks to eBay, I bought a third brake light (LED) that fit the contours of the wing. I glued the light to the wing and with a dremel, cut a channel from it to a mounting post. I drilled a hole through the mounting post and met up with the channel.



A little JB weld held the wires down into the channel and the wires went smoothly into the post hole...





I bondo'd over the channel, sanded everything down, and painted the wing satin black...




(That's masking tape over the brake light)

I mounted the wing on the car - that was the scary part - drilling into the sheet metal (measure 8 times, drill once!)[:)]

Ran the wires through the trunk lid bracing and tied them together with the license plate light wires and out through the bottom. Tagged and soldered them into the brake light circuit and re-installed all removed covers, etc.
I removed the tail light assemblies and cleaned the bulbs, connections, and polished the tail light lenses with plastic polish to remove all the faint scratches and hazing. I painted the worn reflector areas with gloss white paint. I was going to use silver, but research online showed that white gives better results. Re-assembled, and here's what I accomplished...



Pictures don't really capture the brightness of these lights, but they are MUCH brighter than before and the wing brake light is closer to eye level of other drivers. If this keeps just ONE person from tagging my rear end, it will be well worth it.
Plus, now that I have the stabilization of a rear wing, I don't have to worry about the car losing traction in the rear at 150 mph...[;)]

Aaron
1976 TR7 FHC (an ongoing project)

Very nice work! I too will be adding an LED third brake light, but to my luggage rack or under the trunk lid. I hate when people get on my tail, especially with not-so brite brakelights like my wedges have.

Johnny

anyone considered of replacing the whole inside part of the lights ( the part that holds light bulbs) with LED panel?

i don't know how that would pass with the MOT guys. but you wouldn't change the front plastics that diffuses the light from the light bulb.

most modern cars have LED lights , you could save on some trunk space (minimal but it still exists) , and greatly improve visibility of the car.

Hi,
Here is a photo of my 3rd Brake light.
Looks better in real life
[img][IMG]http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww97/Dannysportssix/tr7002-1.jpg[/img][/img]




Danny
1980 TR7 fhc <b><font color="green">Brooklands green</font id="green"></b>
1967 Spitfire Mk3 <b><font color="red">Signal red</font id="red"></b>
1953 Ford Anglia E494A <b><font color="black">Black</font id="black"></b>
View my Blog http://www.waringstowntr7s.co.uk/blogs/index.php/danny
http://tr7-n-spitfire.blogspot.com/

I looked into putting LED's in the tail lights. LED's have a narrow width of illumination and they sometimes don't work well with the 'old style' tail light directional moldings in the lenses. Modern cars that use LED's have lenses specifically designed for the directional light that LED's produce.
I'm not saying that it won't work, but I decided to stick with regular incandescent bulbs.
I'm currently running 1156 bulbs but there are some Halogen ones (1156's) on the market that are supposed to be 250% brighter. The problem though, is the heat they produce. It's very possible you'r lenses could get melted.
I'm also looking into the possibility of converting my car to a dual filament 1157 bulb that will act both as a tail light AND as a brighter brake light. Most USA made cars have had that system since the 1960's. There are brighter 1157's on the market called 2357's that are supposed to put aout about twice the brightness with only a marginal increase in amperage pull and heat.

Aaron
1976 TR7 FHC (an ongoing project)

I have all LED bulbs in my rear lights.
And a third brake light fitted to the upper arch of the the luggage rack.
No lights lit:

Brake lights lit:


<font color="red"><b>My two 1980 Wedges...</b></font id="red">

ah a bit like this then [:D]



[8 whole cylinders worth of punch to ram the world through the windshield and out the rear view mirror. Car & Driver]
1981 Grinnall TR7 v8
1981 Black FHC
1979 & 1980 Black Premium FHC(laid to rest) Sorry


John

That looks good and is similar to what I have planned. My spoiler has three supports - one either side and one in the middle, so am planning to fit the two strips of additional lights either side of the central support to make the car more visible in the dark

Heres mine-


See ya',Paul.

WOW - Aaron, that looks great!

Can I have my spoiler back? [:D]

Mickey

What spoiler?
I don't know what you're talking about...??[:D][:D]

Here's a spoiler for you - Rosebud is his sled.

Is that what you mean?

Aaron
1976 TR7 FHC (an ongoing project)