Nothing says “old school” quite like some vintage late 70’s - early 80’s technology!
There has been some mild interest from a couple of you in the past about these fender mounted signal light indicators, so I thought I’d take a minute and show y’all what’s going on inside one of these lil goobers.
It’s extremely simple really, they use fibre optic cables to transfer light from one source to another. Three partitions in the indicator, three fibre optic cables. One for the park lights, one for the low beam headlights, and one for the high beams. The light ends simply point at the source of the light, and the other ends point at the indicator lens.
Inside the pot metal housing that mounts on top of the fender, there’s this rubber block that sits firmly inside the housing and provides a spot for each of the three cables:
If you look closely, you can see where the crimped metal ends of each cable sit recessed down inside the rubber block:
On the front side of the block, there’s 3 larger oval holes that correspond with the 3 protrusions in the lens:
Pretty simple, 3 cables go in one end, lens goes in the other:
Once assembled, the rubber block fits up securely inside the housing, and the housing mounts to the fender:
It should be obvious by now, but just in case it isn’t, the outermost amber indicator is the park lights, the clear middle one is low beam headlights, and the blue innermost one is the high beam indicator.
These aren’t especially fun to attach or remove, the horns on the driver’s fender and the battery on the passenger’s side need to be removed to gain access. Being double jointed 16 ways and the ability to see through metal is also almost a prerequisite here. But anyways, here they are mounted in a couple of shameless glamour shots:
They're pretty typical of 80’s GM styling, a bit bulky and awkward, but also kinda cheesy cool at the same time. I’ve done all I can to streamline them and make them look a little less out of place by eliminating the bulky rubber gaskets underneath and building up the outer edges to match the fender profile, so they are what they are now.
I’m just happy that it’s another piece of the car that’s back on now!
I’ve already started on the next section of the car, finishing off the trunk lid. Got the first stage of it done last night, DA’ing the whole surface with 1000 grit:
Hate that part, so nerve racking! But also so rewarding at the same time. Actual wet sanding is next.
It finally stopped raining here yesterday for a change to open the big door for a bit, the car sure is glossy and reflective with some natural light!!
That’s it for now gents, I’ll post up again when I’ve made more progress.
D.
