401/403 rear light improvements.

[pasini s]

Hello,

I did put two additional rear lamps at last, making the necessary holes in the blades of the bumpers, as I really hated the idea of making holes in the aluminum panels of the body. They are reasonably bright and IMHO these Lucas round red light don't spoil too much the lines of the rear.

Bristol 403-1404 custom-made radiator blinds

(please scroll to the bottom pic to see how they look)

LED lights are very good indeed but are quite 'directional' and the Aerodynes' rear clusters are angled 45° outwards, so they might not be as effective as we would need, in my case I chose to fit brighter conventional lamps.

The next thing to do will be to add a central stop light in the rear window, but with brakes to mend and leaking fuel pump this is now a lower-priority issue....

All the best

Stefano

[pasini s]

This is how they look....

[Geoff Kingston]

An update, we got there in the end, the 401 now has external LED bulbs all round including the headlights, I decided to use some new rear lights bought through BODA which had red lenses, therefore opted to put two stop tail bulb on each side and re locate the reversing lights.
Looking for suitable light units on line I found some LED bolt lamps at Quicksilver Automotive Gil who runs the company was able to supply the lamps and wire to link to the existing reversing lamp switch, and also another kit with the same size lamps but red led's, wire and switch to fit fog lamps.
The lamps are very small but the light output is amazing, both reversing and fog lamps fit in the space adjacent to the number plate and are so neat and discreet that most people would not notice until you turn them on.
The lamps are small enough to be used as mounting bolts for the number plate hence the name.
Geoff.

[mikebro]

Sounds great Geoff - some photos would be nice! I still have a long way to go on my 403 restoration. However I have started thinking about lights. So far:-

I've found a pair of L516 sidelights on ebay, as fitted to the last few 403's, not mine which is earlier - mine has the sidelights in the foglamps. My thoughts are to mount the L516s on the wings but fit with yellow LEDs to work as the front flashers. Sidelights would stay in the foglamps.

On the back, Stop and Tail would stay as-is in the original housings but using LEDs instead of filament bulbs. Reversing lamp bulbs would be replaced by yellow/white switching LEDs, which would double up as reversing lights and rear flashers. Switching from yellow to white is not yet designed, but should be possible with a bit of circuitry.

I must say though that if your "bolt" LEDs are really that small, I might well follow up that alternative. What I really don't want though is anything that looks like it's been added on.