Disco lights

[Turbocharger]

I've often thought that Defender rear lights are a little poor, and 1940s level lighting on a German autobahn in the rain was enough to nudge me towards a better option. After plenty of vapour thought and some spending at Sodbury I was the proud owner of a pair of Discovery rear bumper lights. I produced this plan (but with more symmetry, less gaffer tape and some bulbs.

This became a Paintshop version to check it didn't look extremely stupid.

Turns out they're both right-hand side and more than a little battered, but for a fiver I'll live with it for now.

Build tech :

Draw a template into cardboard and cut it out, getting it as tight as possible.

Transfer the design onto the car - measure thrice, measure again, cut once. I stitch-drilled this far

... before boredom struck and Mr DeWalt produced a faster 4.5" solution

It's not exactly House of Flying Spanners but I've just cut a big square hole in my daily drive.

If structural adhesive bonding is the new 'nut and bolt', that means I can silicone the new lights in.

Looks ok, so repeat for the other side. For anyone copying me, a true 'imitation as the greatest form of flattery' approach will require you make your offside one all tilty like mine is.

Now some tiny crimps and wires will allow me to make it light up when VWP make a delivery.

[Mark]

John, no need to use tiny crimps - VWP sell the proper plugs to plug straight onto lamp holders...

Will look great when you get a lhs one!

good job

Mark

[simonr]

Doesn't look bad - didn't even notice the tiltyness until you mentioned it.

These are much more likely to stay lighty-uppy in the face of mud & water too.

Well done John - may not be a flying spanner, but it's deffo hovering!

Si

[Turbocharger]

Cheers Mark – I’ll put an order into VWP to get the bits I want then – and the inevitable extras I’ll have to tack onto my order “to make the postage worthwhile”…

The lights don’t look too bad. Square lights are a bit jarring when the rest on the car are round but eventually I’ll get a pair of the ‘clear conversion’ aftermarket Disco lights and use LED bulbs in them so they're the same colour as the roof to reduce ‘visual impact’. At the end of the day it's a LR - crucially they’ll keep me safer on dark misty nights when reps are approaching me with a closing speed of 50mph on the motorway!

[Mark]

John,

I assume you are running the lamps as standard side and indicators? If so, it is pretty easy to mod them to get stop/tail and indicator by just changing the bulb holder on the red half.

The bulb holder is an LR part (as used on freelanders) and dosn't cost much. I will dig out the part number for you... found it - XBP100190

I got the connectors from vwp, but I can't find them on thier website. They are in the paper catalogue, but I still have the order details from when I did the mod on my disco if you want codes.

Oh, and when you get the blingy clear lamp units, if you need a home for those coloured ones, let me know

Cheers

Mark

[FridgeFreezer]

It's simple, cheap, and it works, I'd say your spanner is airbourne enough and I didn't spot the tiltyness until you said it either. A bit of falling sycamore grinder-fu could level the hole if you were bothered.

I like the reversing mirror too, I may have to "Scorpion" that idea

[Turbocharger]

Problem is, my karmic level was skewed and that's as good as I could get it while the overlap still covered the mess I'd made.

Mark - I've already got stop and tail covered My intention is for a fifth brake-only light nestled in the spare wheel carrier too. The battered, chipped, incomplete and rusty lamp units are yours if they resist the power of sillo in one piece when I remove them.

The parking mirror might look like a standard Defender mirror but it's actually lightened and toughened in Extreme polycarbonate over a composite frame. The paint is heavier to compensate and they're only available through me for £45.62 each. It doesn't work as well as you'd hope, needs to be more convex for a bit more warning(!) but I got twitchy living in Kensington and parking in the street between Bentleys and Porsches every day, and I didn't hit any so it probably paid for itself.

[western]

Use a relay for each of the additional upper rear indicators then it'll stop the trailer indicator warning light on the dash flashing when no trailer is attached.

[Turbocharger]

Use a relay for each of the additional upper rear indicators

I'm ahead of you Ralph - won't an LED bulb have the same effect?

[Gromit]

I'm ahead of you Ralph - won't an LED bulb have the same effect?

LEDS should be fine, as the load will be tiny.

My lights are the usual dim LR units, plus they are partially obscured by guards, so I was thinking of doing the same as you, but with round LEDs.

Where are you sourcing yours? They still seem to be on the expensive side.

[Turbocharger]

I seem to remember buying the bulbs I have from Chris Watts one year at Billing... I did some mockups on Paintshop but I didn't like the way round lights looked up there. It's a tough call, I can see why Ford employ stylists

[Gromit]

I did some mockups on Paintshop

Good idea, I must give that a go first, and see how it looks.

(edit to add, I found these guys SuperBrightLEDs.com )

[Turbocharger]

I got some bulbs, crimps and electric string last night and fought the earthing gremlins to make all kinds of pretty patterns. After some fighting, swapping around and much remaking earths, I have this:

I'd like to go to LED bulbs and clear lenses in the future, but for now it works as required.