[Beaverboy]

I´d checked out someone´s website, several years ago, detailing a method to hide the amber bulbs in your clear parking lights, while still retaining the legal amber colored light. There´s actually a european company that makes parking/turn bulbs that are amber, but with a mirror tint on the surface so that they blend into the light housing reflector when off... but when lit they still glow amber. The guy on the website decided to make some himself without paying the intercontinental shipping on a few bulbs. Today I did this myself and am very happy with the results.

You´ll need:

1 spraycan of "bumper chrome" paint
1 foot of masking or duct tape
1 phillips screwdriver
1 shop rag
1 place to spraypaint stuff where overspray won´t be a problem (ie away from your car, pets, people, infants, your neighbor´s new CharMaster 3000, etc etc)
and lastly... 10-15 minutes

1. Remove one turn signal bulb, leaving the other side untouched.
2. Take bulb to your ´spraybooth´ and wrap the socket end in your masking tape.
3. Hold the bulb in one hand, at arms length, while spraying short bursts from the spraycan in your other hand, by your side. Wave the bulb through the mist of paint. You´ll notice the bulb begins to turn silver, but upon closer inspection you´ll notice that there are lots of little holes where you can still see the amber bulb. Continue until the bulb looks evenly coated. If at any time you think you´ve overdone it, use your rag to wipe off all the paint and start over.
4. Wave bulb around until it seems to have dried just a little (or set the bulb down and wait all day if you can afford such luxuries :-])
5. Place the bulb back in the housing and reconnect the wiring harness.
6. Turn on your hazard flashers and take a look...
7. :-o Be amazed that you can´t tell a difference in light levels
8. Turn the hazards off and inspect the difference not having an amber bulb in the housing makes.. a truly clear corner lamp!!
9. Repeat for other bulbs :-]

*Bulbs can be done all at once, but then you can´t compare the brightness and see it for yourself.

**I´m sure some of you already knew about this, and for that I´m sorry about the goofy DIY recipe. The rest of you can get crackin on painting those bulbs.. right now (yeah, you can wait till morning.. .. pussy ;-))

 

[95squirt]

i was just thinkin , wouldn´t the heat from the bulb heat up the paint and maybe start a little fire in there?

 

[Beaverboy]

Ehh.. that guy didn´t have any trouble with it.. The beauty of the chrome paint is that it reflects everything back off of it.. including some of the heat. If they burn up I´ll let you guys know.. The taste of crow doesn´t offend me :-]

 

[fast94tracer]

you shouldnt have a problem with it cause you blinkers dont stay on all the time so they dont build up heat so there shouldnt ever be a prob

 

[Beaverboy]

Ack! A James look-a-like!!!!

The parking(corner) lamps may get warm though.. but they´re a low wattage.. we´ll see.

 

[siragan]

Lol I thought it was james too..

and that isn´t true how they´re not on all the time... unless you´ve modded the lighting system, the parking lights should come on when the high/low beams are on.

However, what I would do is to lightly coat the FRONT of the bulb surface. That way, when viewed from the front, you can only see the silver, however, the back end of the bulb is still stock, so it can dissipate heat normally.

However, don´t think that just coating the front of the bulb will make the lights appear clear. this isn´t always true. due to the optics of the lens, often the focal point of the light assembly is the filament of the bulb itself, so you may not be able to get around this without coating the entire bulb.

However, I wouldn´t worry about heat too too much, because they are a lower wattage bulb than the headlights. I certainly wouldn´t do this to any halogen or xenon bulbs... chances are you´d melt your bulbs and all the plastic surrounding it.

Also, few people know this, but the corners on the escort have a little rubber tube that vents out the lens cavity. You´ll see it on the side of the housing unit, it´s a little J-shaped black tube. If you want to, you can probably modify this with larger tubing or whatnot.

 

[ALIEN3T]

i just put in clear bulbs, since i didnt use any hyper whites or anything they come up a little orange compared to the headlights, so it sems that i have amber, but they are still white! no cop has bothered me in 2 years for it!

[ This message was edited by: aliennation95gt on 24-04-2003 20:05 ]

 

[James92Scort]

That´s awesome. people recognize me. lol Actually, it´s prolly cause you can´t escape me! *Dr. Evil laugh* mwuhahahaha! mwhuahaha! :-]

 

[Juggernaut]

*Mini-me laugh* mwuhahahaha! mwhuahaha! :-]
you can´t NOT have Mini-me in the background when you do a Dr. Evil impression...

 

[James92Scort]

lol...i forgot, but you know he did get rid of him in the third movie and all, then Austin and mini me became allies. that was such a dumb movie...anyway...back to the real post here.

 

[95EsortSittinLo]

That was james up there you see the # of posts 2 thats deff james :-]

 

[nastynate_loves_khendra]

WHy don´t you guys just buy amber led´s, shine amber but are clear when not on...they are only $10 american and can be bought at pep boys, i mean, even apc makes them. number 3157 is the bulb number not the actual part number

 

[95EsortSittinLo]

would that be bright enough? i have blue leds in my headlight hooked up for the alarm and there bright enough to see but idk for a turn signal

 

[nastynate_loves_khendra]

they are made to be turn signals so they should be, even though they say (like all things): for off-road use only

 

[95EsortSittinLo]

ok i think im thinking of something else then