So a little further along. I got excited and brought the car around back, installed the lamp, chocked the rear wheels, fired it up in reverse and no light...







Pulled the lamp off and bench tested it again, OK. Then had an "AHA" moment, fired up the car and hit the rear fog lamp switch and was amazed at the brilliance emanating from the left side housing, for about three seconds. Then it flashed a couple times and went out. Turned it off, back on, and it did it again... So, methinks the lamp monitoring circuit overload is tripping and trying to save the module form a shorted wire problem. Now I'm pondering if a 3x 1 watt lamp controller will keep the chassis module from tripping or if I should go with a dedicated relay circuit and use the factory lamp to control it. I will say 3x 3 watt LED's is very bright, blindingly bright when it's dark.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

 

So, I was told there were no reverse lights showing on my car the other day when I was backing up. Are there supposed to be, and if so, why do you think there aren't any or they are not working on my car?

 

US cars only have them on the right side, UK cars on the left. The other side is a red oddball Euro standard "fog" lamp that uses red LED"s in the clear reverse housing. Kind of a MEH deal.

I think I'm going to keep and eye out for a broken right hand lamp housing and pull the guts out of it. Not as bright as what I came up with but at least it'll be twice as bright as what we have. Once I pulled the car out of the garage I hit the fog light and it really did a good job of lighting up the area.

 

So, been a while since this one got updated. Basically because, winter sucks...

Car's been driven most of it, the clear coat has slowly been delaminating and peeling off which makes the car look pretty bad from any distance. I finally had to do "something" about it to get it somewhat presentable for 10 feet away at least. No pics until I figure out my new phone but clear wood lacquer actually looks pretty good over the old base coat and it's thin enough that I won't fight it when I finally give the whole car a recoat.

In other news I spent yesterday at the Carlisle spring swap meet and picked up four wide mouth exhaust tips from newer 'vettes and intend on mounting them in a week or so. Kind of neat because they used an electronic valve to close off two passages.

Otherwise, like the proverbial Energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going...

 

*drops monocle into chardonnay*

This is ghastly.

No, I get it, you do what you got to do. I actually had this happening to me, only instead of lacquer I went with equally ghetto buff the f**k out of it approach to get it looking decently at 5 feet.

 

Updated with some new pictures. Hood vent shows what I'm dealing with. Car looked just plain bad before.



Now it's not so bad. You can still see the line where the clear is peeling but it's all one shade of shiny.


The top of the drivers fender was completely bare. Now it looks pretty good from a distance...

 

I am very surprised that it turned out not that bad. You should call your car Wood Turtle now.

My buffing attempts weren't nearly as successful.

 

Lacquer is lacquer, spray it evenly, on a clean dust free painted surface, & you get nice shiny paint.

 

Oh there's a little yellowish green pollen flake mixed in... Still doesn't make me cringe walking up to it now. I figure after a bath and maybe some wet sanding it'll buff out decently enough.

As said, it's just added protection at this point.

 

$3,000 for a full wrap vs. $6,000 for an OK paint job.
Do the wrap yourself and around $1,000.
Do the paint yourself and around $1,000, but needs special shi-uff and takes probably longer and needs more skill to look good.

Vinyl is less scary and easier to fix/repair.

A nicely polished excellent paint job looks a ton better, but also needs a lot more maintenance.

 

You make it sound so easy!

 

I have too many lumps and bumps for either right now... Seriously thinking about an base XK nose and new passenger door. Then fix the quarter panel and deal with the paint or I'd love to do the holographic wrap. Still need a good substrate first...

 

One step at a time,at a sustainable pace, gets the job done, eventually.

 

Just a quick update to show today's work swapping the salvaged Vette megaphone tips in place of the smaller rounded ones. Don't mind the tired old guy holding the pipes.



Yes, the drivers side is hanging a little lower than the passenger. I'll fix it the next time I'm in there.



Per the sound, it's about the same, maybe a db louder which is good. The bad is while doing this work I noticed the pinion seal is leaking gloriously and it took about a quart of oil to top the diff off. Expecting to be in there sooner than later. Doesn't look like a fun job...

 

Beside being slightly askew they fill the back out really well!

 

Many would never notice, unless looking for it.

 

Nice tips! Very cool.

 

Nothing else catches your eye like a great rear end and a nice set of tips! ...

 

Diff not too bad to get out no need to drop rear cradle just the braces .

Lincoln & thunderbird diffs also straight swap (Gen 2) 3.58 ratio will also work without throw a code ranch

 

That's good to know. Just looking at it makes me cringe. How do the axle shafts come out, C clips or? No gear oil smell once I got to work so maybe it'll give me a couple weeks more life. The shaft didn't have any play either. I am a bit concerned about going to 3.58's since I pull @3k now at speed.