48 replies to this topic

[Brams96]

I've been thinking of mounting a third brake light in the boot lid but wanted peoples opinions of what it looks like first. I was going to use one from a Peugeot 207/307 or slightly smaller one like the MX5 (mk1).The car will be silver or gun metal grey not red.
What do you think?

[bcjames]

I quite like it from the styling point of view on a modified Mini. It looks smooth without the number plate lamp. That said, and considering functionality, would it not be better placed higher up than the other two brake lights?

Edited by bcjames, 07 January 2012 - 08:26 AM.

[Carlos W]

There are definitely safety benefits of a 3rd brake light, but I was going to go top or bottom of the back window!

[matt615]

Looks good. How do you plan to light the numberplate though?

[h4wx1e]

You can get number plates that light up from the back or them bolts with the LEDs in, I have used the latter and their fine, I have had no problems with them.

[Brams96]

The plan was to weld a small strip of metal at the top of the number plate recess to create a lip & use an LED strip hidden under that.

There isn't really enough room at the top or bottom of the window to put the light & the internal frame of the boot limits where the light can go. I suppose I could relocate the handle somehow but then it'll be getting a bit too complicated.

Edited by Brams96, 07 January 2012 - 10:23 AM.

[james962]

Good idea. I've not seen it done before. Like said above, I would use the LED bolts lights to illuminate the number plate.

[screech]

Nice idea.

Iv had a similar idea for a couple of years... to mount a row of Leds in the edge of the original number plate light housing.... I now see a car around my area thats done this... does look good.

[Brams96]

I saw another third brake light I like the look of that might work but could be a little long. From one of these:



For lighting the number plate I might even end up custom installing some LED's under the edge if I cant find something suitable to fit.

Edited by Brams96, 08 January 2012 - 05:25 PM.

[AVV IT]

I do like how it looks, but I have to say that it's just too low to be effective. The classic mini is so low to the ground, that anything beneath the rear screen is below the eye line of anyone driving any other car that may be behind. That said though, I suppose that having it mounted there wouldn't actually do any harm. It would certainly be better than no high level brake light at all, but then it also wouldn't be any substitute for one mounted in the rear window either.

If you could find a way of mounting one in the rear of the roof panel...now that would be effective!!

Edited by AVV IT, 08 January 2012 - 07:05 PM.

[Brams96]

Do you mean something a bit more like this:



Or do you mean above the window?

The MX5 has it's third light between the tail lights & wouldn't be that much higher than a mini.

[bcjames]

Higher the better I'd say, although my Rover one is mounted in the bottom of the window.

[chrisj]

I like the idea of a third brake light but for me it would have to be in the top of the window to be really effective.

The boot mounted one like on the vectra look ok but the amount of LED ones I see with two three LEDs blown puts me off.

[project mini chris]

Would look good run with a Mk1 style bootlid with the numberplate light underneath
Don't the rozzers get funny about running LED bolt lights that don't Illuminate the whole numberplate? My friends mini and Step Dad's Capri runs them and the conversation has arrisen before?

Edited by project mini chris, 08 January 2012 - 08:14 PM.

[AVV IT]

Do you mean something a bit more like this:



Or do you mean above the window?

The MX5 has it's third light between the tail lights & wouldn't be that much higher than a mini.

If you sit behind a classic mini in any other car, you will notice that depending on the particular car you are in, you can often almost look over the top of the mini, so the higher the better really. Hence my suggestion about mounting it in the back of the roof panel (although in reality, I don't think that this would be particularly easy and may well cause structural problems too).

Most after market high level rear brake lights fitted to classic minis tend to be in the bottom of the rear window, (as were the third brake lights fitted to the late Rover models). Realistically mounting them at the top of the rear window would probably have been more effective, but of course this wouldn't have been as straightforward. As for the MX5, just because other cars have low level third brake lights doesn't mean that they are particularly effective either.