Home Made Light Bar

[Dereck]

Hi All

I have just bought myself a new digital camera and thought I would show off my home made light bar.

http://www.members.aol.com/user875651/LightBar

This picture dosen't quite show the full majesty of my efforts.

Regards

Dereck

[RC]

The magnificence of your light bar is undeniable but how do you scoot around the hedgerows with Arizona plates???

[Desert Stallion]

That's not an Arizona plate, at least not a recent one. In fact not one that's been in circulation since I've been old enough to notice things like that.
http://www.dot.state.az.us/mvd/vehicle/images/owner.gif

Where the Hell'd that plate come from, anyway? Looks like you photoshopped it or something.

[Dereck]

Hi All

That is my U.K licence plate the cars number is J110 RTT, I put the Arizona bit on for fun, as I am going to live there one day.

When I was last in AZ I looked for a place to get some proper AZ licence plates with my cars number on them but I geuss they are issued by the athorities, yes?

Just for a bit of usless info the standerd U.K licence plate is 20.5" x 4.5" but driving a non European import I have an exemption and can use a 12" x 6" as used stateside.

Regards

Dereck

[ February 16, 2004: Message edited by: Dereck ]

[Desert Stallion]

Can I call 'em or what? :D

Arizona's a great place to live, and more Lincolns are always welcome. :cool: Just bring your sun glasses and sunscreen.

[RC]

If AZ has personalized plates, the official way to do it would be to get them for some junker in AZ with your English plate number and ship them to you.

It could be done but the cost could be several hundred and there may be places on the net that will stamp some up for you for a lot less!

[Desert Stallion]

Sorry, I wasn't clear with my "Can I call 'em or what?" statement. I was actually referring to my being correct in that the plate you have pictured with your car is not an actual Arizona liscense plate, but rather one given a bit of Photoshopping.

Sorry for the loss in translation. :D

[pro-five-oh]

I like. Aren't those extra lights pretty common/mandatory on European cars? I remember the extra lights on the current Lexus GS somehow being a vestige of this, somehow making it to the States without getting removed.

[cason1]

When I get some money? I am wanting to do something similar exept with red neon lights so it looks like the gen 2 mark VIII tail lights. I like yours too though. If my idea doesn't work I may try yours.

[Dereck]

Hi All

Pro, can't hide much from you, yes we do have to have rear fog lights, so to the authorities they are my rear fog lights, I didn't want to spoil the look of the car so put them in the reflector panel and I ended up with a home made light bar.

Cason1, they are LED's (about 20 in each strip) I took apart two aftermarket hi-level stop lamps, cut two slots in the back of my reflector panel and glued the LED strips into the slots.

DS, If by photoshopped you mean I made that licence plate for that photo, wrong! it is the licence plate displayed on the car at all times, when I got them made (one at the front as well) I asked for the Arizona bit to be put on, as a hint about my future home.

Regards

Dereck

[ February 18, 2004: Message edited by: Dereck ]

[Steve Moran]

I think DS was getting at, and correct me if I am wrong
He thought you had manipulated the picture by using a computer program called Photoshop, by creating an illusion making it look as if you have an American license plate on your vehicle.
I did not know you could use a second style on imports over there.
That seems funny calling a Lincoln Town Car an import.

[Dereck]

Hi Steve

That's what I thought, no photoshopping going on, that's how my car looks on the road.

You are correct in thinking I did it to give the illusion of American licence plates, we are allowed to use these style plates on non European imports if the regular licence plate will not fit in the space provided on the vehicle.

I geuss I am really a sad boy living in the U.K wishing he was stateside.

Regards

Dereck

[ February 18, 2004: Message edited by: Dereck ]

[pro-five-oh]

quote:Originally posted by Dereck:
Pro, can't hide much from you, yes we do have to have rear fog lights, so to the authorities they are my rear fog lights, I didn't want to spoil the look of the car so put them in the reflector panel and I ended up with a home made light bar.

Excellent. I remember seeing a 95-ish Mustang driving down the French Riveria, it had a ugly foglight tacked on the rear bumper.

Glad to see your little project worked, much better than the alternative I might add.

[92 AZTC]

You can get customized lisence plates on your car, they just cost a little more than the state picking the plate for you. If you like, go to the Arizona DMV web page, and you can get the information from there. There are several different types of plates you can get, these range from the Child abuse plastes(kdis hands on a white background), Environmentally freidnly(white clods on a soft blue background, to name just a few. The latter are only given to vehicles who run on compressed natural gas or propane, and can run in the carpool lanes with only one person.
If you do move to the states, make sure you have PLENTY of sunscreen and your A/C works VERY well... smile.gif

[Capt. Zilog]

That looks beautiful. Now I'm gonna look like a copycat when I do mine :(....

Ah well, it IS a good idea though.

[Dereck]

Hi Capt.Zilog

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery so copy away and I won't tell anybody smile.gif

Regards

Dereck

[Conti94]

Dereck that's a beautiful job man, I think i'm going to try this on my Conti.

Hey 92AZTC you have a Jack Niklaus Town Car. that's awesome!!!! :cool:

[Steven]

Damn...
I thought I saw "Home Made Light Beer" and came running....

[Joeychgo4]

I love it! Can you post some info on how you did it?

[RJ Sclafani]

quote:Originally posted by Steven:
Damn...
I thought I saw "Home Made Light Beer" and came running....

:D tongue.gif

[Dereck]

Hi Joeychgo4

It's really quite simple to make your own light bar. I bought two aftermarket Hi-level brake lights, the ones with a strip of LEDs (can't remember how many are in mine, I think it's about 20) took them apart so that I had just the LEDs on thier backing.

Them I removed the reflector panel, marked the center line on the rear of the reflector panel, set up a 3/8 inch drill bit up in my drill press and slowly cut a slot in the back of the reflector panel the same length as the LED strip. This bit is actually a bit tricky as the reflector panel doesn't sit flat on the drill press and the drill bit tries to wander, so go steady. Another way would be to cut through with a utility knife. Then blow out all the plastic swarf in the refelctor panel.

I then glued the LED strips into the reflector panel with some RTV, plenty of RTV all over the outside of the LED strips to weatherproof them.

Refit the reflector panel and run the wires into the trunk through the grommet on the left side for the licence plate light wires.

Connect one wire to ground and the other into the brown side marker light wire, LEDs are polarity sensitive and won't work if you connect them the wrong way round.

Then sit back a enjoy the red glow of your new light bar, it really does look a whole lot better in the flesh than in a photo.

Regards

Dereck

[AceFrehley03]

quote:Originally posted by Steven:
Damn...
I thought I saw "Home Made Light Beer" and came running....

LMAO!

[Nick Stratta]

Dereck,

Very pretty!!

I've seen one or two 90-94 Town Cars with the reflector panel light up with the brake lights on and wondered how they did it.

I've got a nasty scabby red fog lamp hanging from the rear bumper on mine and would love to get rid of it. [I did pull it off one time but the kind MoT man put one back on again!!].

I've also got no back up lamps becuase they are wired as the rear turn signal indicators So I'm wondering if I can put some white LEDs in thre.

Is the reflector panel easy to get off?

best regards
nick

[Dereck]

Hi Nick

The reflector panel is very easy to get off, remove the trim panel inside the trunk, this reveals eight or ten nuts, undo all the nuts take out your back-up bulb holders and the reflector panel will pull off.

I always fit my home designed electronic back up/turn signal control box to my American cars smile.gif (or any car I do the light conversion on), this control box allows the back-up lights to be turn signals as well.

When the turn signals are on and you select reverse the back-up lights/turn signals come on steady and the fronts still flash, the only concession is amber back-up lights, I even fit a slight delay into the back-up lights so they don't flash when you shift from park to drive.

The electronic back-up control units I make cost £50 if you want one, only seven wires to connect into the existing harness.

The electronic light control I fitted on my 92 TC cost over £250 to make it allows me to switch between American and European style lighting, controls my back-up lights and controls my rear fog lights all at the push of a button. I have a simpler one on my 79 Continental.

Regards

Dereck

[Nick Stratta]

Dereck,

Interesting! My back up lenses are couloured from the inside. not very pretty but functional.

Is there any way of drilling the lamp housing for the rears to put in a 21W bulb for a fog?

On my '86 Corvette I had two back up lamps either side of the licnece plate. I had a 50W back up lamp in the left one and a 21W fog bulb, painted red, in the right. Worked a treat!

Definitely think I'll have to come adn see you.

[Dereck]

Hi Nick

The trouble with adding another bulb to any lamp is the depth of the bulb, lamp units have a curved reflector to amplify the light output, this usually means there is no extra space to put another bulb in the light unit.
Another problem is fixing a bulb holder and wiring it in so that all is weather proof.

LEDs take up very little space, draw very little currant and are relitivly cheap, that's why I chose them for my rear fog light set up.

Sounds like someone spray painted your lenses on the inside, why didn't they just buy an amber bulb?

Regards

Dereck

[jonnylbluejeans]

I'd love to see a picture of it at night.

[Dereck]

Hi jonnylbluejeans

Not sure how it will come out in a night picture, geuss I will have to turn the flash off, I will give it a try tomorrow night and see what happens.

Regards

Dereck

[Benny]

Hi Dereck
Do a tech article on what you have done. ;)

[Dereck]

Hi

As promised a night picture of my home made light bar.

It didn't come out terribly well, looks a little blurred. I took severall pictures and they are all the same, it could be the lack of flash, too dark for auto focus or just a cheap $350 camera.

http://lincoln.superstitiongold.com/pictures/NightLightBar.jpg

I will see if I can put together a Tech article as a few people have asked.

Regards

Dereck