21 replies to this topic

[babsbrown]

Has anyone thought of making their own rear mounted spot reverse lamp? I imagine all it would take is grinding the chrome back on the spotlamp then drilling a hole for some threaded bar to sit in, welding around it to keep it in place. Seems much cheaper than buying a purpose built one that are even £40 second hand

[johnR]

What you wouldn't have is the ability to change the angle of the lamp very easily - the genuine/repro ones sit in a cup that allows you to swivel and tilt them. You could cut a short length of (alloy?)tube and profile it to the back of the lamp, then you'd need a large dished washer in the back of the lamp bowl - it would be a lot of faff for the saving.

 

[Cooperman]

I have mounted a 5" standard base mount fog-light on the boot lid for a reversing light. To do this I made a polished aluminium bracket which sat behind the light unit and was not really visible. For the light unit I used a Lucas Fogranger with a normal white bulb. Inside I used and illuminated switch. It worked well.

 

By the way, you should use a fog-light as a rev. light, not a spot-light, as when reversing you are going very slowly and need a spread beam, not a pencil beam.

[1984mini25]

I'm sure although reversing lights/lamps aren't tested on a mot, a reversing lamp shouldn't be any brighter than 21watt.

[Cooperman]

They shouldn't, but in all my years of using fog lams as reversing lights on rally cars I have never had anyone, like the Old Bill, require me to remove the lens and take out the bulb for inspection. It's really not an issue, unless you use it to deliberately 'blind' a following driver.

[Ethel]

Wire it with a manual off switch and call it a work light.

[babsbrown]

Thanks for the Reply guys, I have some inspiration now. by the way cooperman do you have a picture of yours? I'm trying to get a picture of it in my head haha. Thanks

[Cooperman]

No, I don't have a photo. I have a Lucas back-mount fog-light on my rally 'S'.

But from memory I just used a piece of aluminium bar about 1/4" thick by 1.5" wide. Bent it to give a vertical leg of 3" long which bolted to the boot lid using a bit of bath sealer as jointing compound, then fitted the Fog-Ranger fog light to the piece bent out at just under 90 degrees. The vertical part was behind the fog-light, so could not easily be seen and the horizontal flange was not noticeable really. I ran the wires through a small hole with a grommet just to one side of the vertical piece and it looked very neat.

 

Of course, the Lucas back-mount fog light is best, but, as you say, they are very expensive these days.

[babsbrown]

Ah that's great, I know exactly what you mean now. to be honest my car is that scruffy (paint work is poor quality, however solid) that its not worth spending the extra money on something purely cosmetic. But I intend to do some road rallying so want to add the light for some degree of practicality. Thanks for the help

[finch661]

here is mine. i fitted it with a 21W bulb and has passed the mot each time. My light has a thread right on the back, so there was no need for a bracket. I bought it off a member on here!

 

Edited by finch661, 31 March 2017 - 12:33 PM.

[babsbrown]

I love the retro mk2 look you have going on there. Looks really smart

[Mervyn]

Who did your wall art finch661 that's great

Ps cooperman just get a nice lucas unit at an auto jumble, they're rear mounted and poseable, not worth messing around

Merv

Edited by Mervyn, 31 March 2017 - 09:29 PM.

[Cooperman]

The rear-mounted one is what we all used on rally cars in the 1960's and 1970's. Not only on Minis, but on everything else we rallied, like Cortinas, Escorts, Triumph 2000, Healey 3000, etc.

 

The bulb wattage was never checked, but the one check which was made was for an illuminated warning light when the rev. light was switched on. The event scrutineers were always a bit hot on that.

[babsbrown]

Bit off topic cooperman but where did you mount the passenger map light?

[Cooperman]

I have mounted the flexible map light across the lower screen rail and I have a plotting light clamped onto the roll cage over-doos bar.