Well, somehow Santa knew I was in trouble, and managed to bring a set of "Crystal Clear" headlights for Beck last Christmas. These are halogen H4 headlights, and thankfully don't look like standard sealed beams, rather sport a sort of "vintage" look. They also have the useful characteristic of being DOT and SAE approved. I guess Santa shops at Moss Motors, because they sell them:
https://mossmotors.com/light-unit-semi-sealed-beam-headlamp-halogen-h4-bulb
While fitting those lights, I noticed that the wiring for the headlights was non-stock. I wasn't too surprised, because Beck has turn signals, but clearly doesn't use the complex eight-way relay box that the stock TD system used. Those flashers were a late addition to the TD, and Beck didn't come from the factory with turn signals.
Now that I could see, my attention turned to being seen. My goals were to vastly improve the taillights, brake lights, and signals. I also wanted to fix a problem I had previously noted, that the turn signals didn't work the same way on left and right sides.
I did some research, and decided to invest 100 bucks in some LED taillight panels that are specifically designed for the TD. As noted in a previous post, I waited until I had converted my electrical system to negative ground before buying, and then I bought the negative ground system from www.brittrix.com. It looks like this:
When I disassembled things to figure out this custom re-wiring, my first surprise was that the existing taillights had been seriously modified. The left photo was taken from a superb website (link) by Steve Maas, with tons of photos of his 1952 TD restoration. The right side is what I found - a conversion to two lamps! Actually, three filaments, because the top lamp is a double-filament lamp.
Incidentally, the arrow points to a little hint of of Beck's original color (one of four colors I've found hints of). The site "Original MDTD Midget" (link) identifies that as Ivory/Cream, and by coincidence that is the color of both Steve Maas' car and Cor Engelen's car. Here's Cor with his:
On disassembly, I found that the previous modifier had done a good job, with bullet connectors on all connections. He also did a workmanlike job of modifying the stock plate to hold the two bulbs, with holders carefully soldered in place:
Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't follow the instructions from Brittrix to reuse those plates to mount the new LED panels. I made some custom ones using an electronics product called perfboard, just because I had it and it's easy to work with:
The Brittrix system was designed to work with the complex stock MG flasher system, so I couldn't use it as turn signals. No problem, because I had already decided to use external turn signal units, a very common TD modification. But first, I needed to figure out that wiring. It befuddled me at first, because the lead that should have been ground, wasn't, and I was reading continuity where I shouldn't. I eventually realized that second problem was reading the resistance of the front bulbs.
Of course, nothing is ever easy on Beck TD, as I found that both of those bulbs at the front were basically welded to the sockets with corrosion. I had to break out the bulbs, disassemble, and on one side remove and rewire the socket, but then they had brand new bulbs that worked.
Still, I needed to find out why the rears flashed differently left to right. After much head-scratching, I made a 14-foot-long probe for my meter and recruited Kelly Williams to be at one end of the car while I was at the other. We identified wiring paths, and found that a ground was disconnected at the rear, probably when Beck's rear shocks were converted to Koni tube shocks. Reattaching that connection underneath the shock mount got the system working perfectly, so then I was able to install the new Brittrix panels, and they work great.
Next came the new rear turn signals. In my last post, I showed a setup I was experimenting with, with a long tube holding the lights. I could never make that look just right, so I started over. There was a good bit of cutting, drilling, and lathe work, but I eventually completed a pair of this set of components:
A little rewiring of that customized system, including a new flasher unit specified for LED lights, and all was well there.
The last major bit was to install a center brake light. I chose a big one, 16" long, because I want to be seen! I did some measuring, and found that the inner holes for the spare tire mount were 16" apart. I bought a plate of 1/8" steel, and cut and drilled it to fit. It's mounted on custom spacers that hold it out from the bracket another half inch.
Then I proceeded with the process that Michelangelo is alleged to have said in describing how he created the sculpture of David: "It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David." In my case, I installed the LED at the top, traced around it, and then removed material to visually lighten the rest. That process included drilling, tapping, band sawing, milling, grinding and sanding. After a while I had this:
A bit more refinement, and then I painted it body color using spray cans I ordered several months ago, matched to the front splash pan. Here it is in place:
It's hard to take pictures of car lighting, but I think this photo demonstrates that I now have some rather visible brake lights!
There is actually one more lighting related project for the future - I would like to add driving lights. It's easy, but the cost of the light bar and two high-quality lamps plus relay approaches $200. There are plenty of other things to spend that money on first!
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