Red Indicator Lenses - Amber Flashing ??

[Wolfmann]

I know that in the USA red direction signals are in common use but here in the UK people are looking for the orange colour and can thus miss, with potentially hazardous results, red indicators altogether.

I want to keep the original red lenses on my 1964 230 SL but would like the rear indicators to flash amber/yellow. Would a green bulb (LED's are available in green) achieve the desired effect ?

Has anyone else figured out a solution to the problem ??

Thanks,

Steven.

[Wolfmann]

Or,  or not ?

[al_lieffring]

Try it out, two green LED bulbs are at the most $30 USD. a whole lot less than a set of amber lense tail light assemblies.

[114015]

Would a green bulb (LED's are available in green) achieve the desired effect ?

Green?

Are you sure?
If I were you I would use yellow LEDs or even better 25 Watt yellow bulbs. Try them first. The latter are pretty common in car supply shops.

Otherwise you could hunt for a set of early taillights with amber turnsignal lenses instead of red. These were common for Italy- and Australia-delivered cars until 1969.

See our WIKI how these look like.


Achim
(taillight collector)

[mdsalemi]

Here's a little bit of color theory at you.

No way will you get a red lens to flash the amber you are looking for.  Part of it is color, the other part is "value"; a certain amount of density or transmission of light is held back by the darker red lenses as compared to the lighter amber lenses.  At best you might get some kind of muddy dark yellow/amber which would not be what you are trying to achieve; might even be worse.

That being said, as a driver I don't see the rear lenses; the person behind me does.  So, Steve, with the same idea as you vis safety, some years ago I sold my original all red lenses, got a  LOT of money for them, took about 1/3 of the proceeds and bought nearly new amber ones on eBay.  A year later, seeing an opportunity, I sold those on eBay, and managed to find a fellow Pagoda owner unloading a NOS amber set new in box, and I made a few dollars on that deal too.  End result after the wheeling and dealing was some excess funds and all new amber tail lamps--with my original goal of safety achieved--in theory at least.  Never been hit though!

All of the "profit" went into the endless list of stuff I am always needing to buy for the car...  I did not go to Rio with the profits.

[Ulf]

Wolfman (funny, that's my nickname too), are you sure that the red flashers are that dangerous? I have them too and love the clean look of them against my silver paint and I have never experienced any problems. My previous classic was a 1958 MGA with tiny rear lights used for light, braking an indication (before they got seperate indicators in 1959) - those were really tiny compared to the big, angular ones on my SL and I had no problems there either. Could it be an option to go for brighter bulbs in the indicators, is that even possible?

Best

Ulf