LED's in wing mirrors

Last year when i done my rear light conversion i had a few red LED's left over so i was thinking if the strips would possibly fit in the black finger at the back of the wing mirrors,so with a spare mirror i had, i made a prototype.

Well while the coups off the road for the winter i've been doing a few bits and bobs to my car,the past couple of weeks i've been playing around with some yellow strip LED's and this what i've come up with!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14762173@N05/8349613343/in/photostream

I'll try and get some more photos of the LED's in the day time tomorrow.

cheers JG

I like that

looks good, are the leds stuck on or are they inside?

They are fitted inside the black finger with holes drilled through.

JG

More pictures!!!

Do they take the feed from the side repeater?

At last!

After failing an attempt at doing this with crap leds 6 years ago, I've been waiting for someone to come along and get it sorted

When are they going into production?

I hate LEDs on cars. Nonetheless, well done for the work. Looks well made in the video.

seconded, where do i send the deposit?

I new you would like this one James

I'll get some more photos uploaded later on today

Yes i did,

Theresa, NO way!!!

Just to put 6 LED's in a black finger was a long and fiddly job as you well know, took all day plenty of tea,Golden virginia and strip half the bloody car to wire them up and that's just one side.

Mind you i am a slow old git with failing eye sight and a telly in the garage watching football aswell as doing the car

Nice job jobug . You need to do a how too when you do the next one .

Nismo I bet you have been having sleepless nights over these.

Mine mine mine mine. Lol.

no mate Jame5 has taken the led crown now , just something i always wanted to do but never got round to doing it .

you you denial is a hard thing to see.

As promised i took some more photos today in the day light so you can see what the LED's look like when they are not on as you can see there is only 6,behind the black finger there is not enough room to fit any more.

Here's another quick vid of them all working
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14762173@N05/8355190846/in/photostream



To wire them up you pick up the feed from each side indicator (for each side) LED wing mirror. Front wing has to be unbolted at the top,and the door card has to be taken off. I've threaded the wire from the outside into the door then through a little hole i made in the middle of the rubber hose where the wiring loom goes from the car to the door then to the side indicator loom.


Here's a couple of photos of LED's in the black finger at the back,i'll have to go into more depth about these during the week,i'll try and sort a how to out but some of my photos did'nt turn out very well. But if you do this mod the LED's have to go exactly where they are as in the first photo and use the off cut 6 LED's with tipex to mark the inside of the finger. The wing mirrors are the most time consuming part of this project, check and pre fit two or three times before finally fitting. The LED's will only fit on one side of the finger at the back the widest part witch is the bottom part of the finger when fitted to the wing mirror,also the two little ridges where the LED's sit have to filed down so the LED's sit flush.


JG

nice job joe , thanks for the pics.

would it pass an mot if you were to take the wing repeater away and flush it off?

Depends where you go

By law, the Coupe should have a side repeater, but MOT standards say they can't test what's not present.

I haven't had side repeaters for 6 years now, hence my constant interest in wing mirror repeaters.

My main concern is not the MOT though, it's that someone can't see that I'm turning, unless they've seen the front of the car approaching them froma distance.

So, when are they going into production?

That was 1 of my questions. They have to be able to be seen from all angles. But why would you want 2 repeaters on 1 side lol.

I wouldn't have two repeaters on one side though.

As mentioned above, I haven't had side repeaters on the car for about 6 years, as I have vented wings and have never wanted to ruin the look of them by drilling holes for side repeaters, hence my desire for wing mirror repeaters

IIRC, when side repeaters started to be used on cars, they were originally placed ahead of the front wheels on the front wings, but over time, they've moved back to behind the front wheels, or into wing mirrors). I'm not sure that they need to be seen "from all angles", surely just the front/side (the original intention was eg: so that your signal would be visible as you edged out of a side road at a junction) but best check what the MOT Tester's manual says!

Good to see this finally happening

I don't know about the legal side of these LED"s?

I agree i think if you have side repeaters on wing mirrors with cars they have to be seen from all angles,thats why i left the wing repeaters on for the time being.


And the answer to your other question is it's not been done before on a
coupe,

people have tried before with no success,

i wanted to see if it can be done,

and the big thing is i like them not every body's taste!! but mine

JG

Have a look here at the relevant section of the MOT Tester's manual

From this I conclude that Theresa ought to be in trouble:
(...unless fitted with a front wraparound lens which can be seen when standing 1m to the side of the rear bumper)

If at least half of the new wonder-LED's can be seen directly when standing at the same 1m position to the side of the rear bumper, then I'm sure you could argue that they're acceptable. But since the "finger" part of the mirror points to the front, they won't be seen from the rear.

I've noticed a few side/rear view mirrors on new cars where the outside egde of the casing is illuminated, so it can be seen from "all directions" as hinted by others above...I stand corrected

How about also fitting LED's behind the mirror, facing backwards? You'd need to carefully scrape off 6 neat little holes in the silver backing of the mirror to match up with the LED's...

Well lets keep that quiet then lol. Are you suggesting to actually have the mirror backing scraped off and have the leds glued from behind?


Or have the leds mounted on the inside of the case to illuminate the edge of the mirror glass??

I think that would be one option seeing the LED's from the rear,but by the time you have walked around towards the front of the car there my be a point by the time you have got to the side that you would not see them at all.

I noticed today driving to work in my lorry while following a new car the orange bulb/glass was right on the end/edge of the wing mirror so the light could be seen from rear,side,front all the time.

So i'm sure these LED's that i've done on my coupe wing mirror are like i said before are not a replacement for the side indicator on the wing they are just a cosmetic thing.

Bling,chav,boy racer,but in my case OLD boy racer

JG

Mine too! So, when are they going into production? This is going to be my response each time now




Yes, I'm very aware of this law and that's why I want wing mirror repeaters.

I've got away with it for 6 years now

nice work!

My scirocco has wing mirror indicators, it gets around the problem of seeing the side indicators from the rear quarter of the car by having one LED mounted on the inside lip of the mirror.
It also acts as a reminder that you've left your indicators on as you can see it flashing

How about if the LED's were fitted to the underside of the mirror in the casing, that way it would or should, be visible from all angles.

I like it in the finger though, might give it a go sometime in the future.

Hi,

Take a look at this:
http://www.ricambituning.it/en/product1.asp?id=218&cat=26&mn=FIAT&sr=Coupe

The offer nice things!

Henk

Good morning,

Could someone explain me how to remove the black finder at the back? I have to replace it and I do not know if I have to remove the mirror glass and how to do it.

Thanks,

Yes the glass will need to be removed first, then the motor which will then allow access to the retaining screw holding that hinge plate in place.

Yes, you do have to remove the glass. There are two types of fitting, and unless I'm mistaken as you have a 16v yours will be the older type.

There is a howto but the photos have been corrupted and I'm not sure I follow one or two bits myself!

Push one side of the glass in (can't remember which) as far as you can, and in the enlarged space on the opposite side shine a torch to see the two ends of a large horseshoe-shape spring which holds the glass to the mirror.

If you can picture this, think "400m running track" shape that has 2 straight sides and two bends. One of these "bends" is broken and bent outwards - these are the two spring-ends you are looking for.

They lock in place, so your job is to lift+push the top one, and push+lower the bottom one from their respective clips.
You will need a narrow blade screwdriver to access them.

The glass should ease off - it's not held with a circular plastic grip like later models (unless someone has changed it like I have )

* You cannot remove the black trim from the back of the mirror without removing everything*

The likely trouble spot is the small screw that often corrodes into the rear aluminium casting. Lubricate well with penetrant to avoid shearing it or stripping the head.

Okey thanks!
I’m not sure what type of fitting would it have since it’s a 1.8 16v year 1998. As soon as I make the job I will send you some photos so as to have a tutorial.

The other type of fitting is like a crown of thorns, a ring of plastic gripping teeth that hold on to the the rear of the glass. There's a technique to removing it.

I put two loops of rope/strong material around each side of the glass as near to the middle as possible then fastened the two protruding bits together with one strong cord.

Tie the other end of the cord above you then pull down sharply on the mirror to release the glass from the gripper, without letting the glass fly free and smash against the wall

But you have to be sure it's not the early type of fixing....

If I’m not mistaking I have the right mirror with the spring method and the left one with crown method😅 . So one day with much patience I will dismount both from the car and at home will try to take the glass off. I will try to take some photos when doing.

I did both of mine in 2018. Not too bad a job - just be patient. I also found a pair of slim long nosed pliers did the job with the retaining spring clips, and some 1mm double sided adhesive sheets to re fix the glass to the housing if you are stripping down completely