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At last I got round to trying to put some LED’s into the back of the O/E mirrors. A job I’ve been mulling over and procrastinating about for the best part of a year. Something roused me today and I went out and bought a long thin drill to get the job going. It’s about 130mm long and just over 3mm dia (it’s imperial, but I can’t remember the size). Here it is next to a 5mm wood bit.



Here’s me lining up the 1st drilling attempt. Thought I’d go with freehand so as not to inhibit my artistic tendencies (no, I’m not gay – fuck off), also I’d no other way of doing it. I lined up the drill by eye and took it easy, stopping to reassess as I went, but realistically after you’re a little way in it’s all or nothing, Oooh Errr.



I’d advise a slow drill to make the hole. I got it right the 1st time, which is a miracle given my inherent ability to seriously fuck up just about everything. You’ve heard of Midas right? The king who turned everything he touched into gold. Well I’m like his doppelganger, his antithesis, the complete opposite of him. Pretty much anything I touch turns to poo, sometimes I only need to think about touching it from a distance and hey presto it turns into a turd.

Anyhoo, here’s the 1st attempt and how good is that.



And here’s attempt No. 2 made with a high speed drill, not quite the result I was hoping for. Fortunately I have enough mirrors to make a couple of mistakes.



Got the next one right, well I think I did ‘coz I did it with the mirror still in place. Got the drill all the way in without it piercing the outer or any fingers. It’s currently wallowing in a pot of petrol for the night to dissolve the glue holding the mirror in place.

I used the 5mm wood drill to make the holes through the mirror (5mm LED’s see, I’m no dummy) and as this is the test piece some of the holes didn’t quite line up along the high point. Drilling from the outside in leaves a nasty finish so it’s got to be inside to out. I reckon I’ve got the right line for the real thing now. The 3rd LED from the left was out to in, the others were in to out.

Outside shot



Inside shot with them twist connected just to test them.



And here you go. I just used a 9v battery to get them lit. I had these LED’s laying about and they are likely to take about 2v each so 4x2=8 so the 9v battery worked perfectly.
This is using the cameras flash



And this is without the flash.



With this set up I'd need a resistor that might get hot and melt stuff, also if 1 LED goes out they all do. So I'll probably try and find some 12v LED's and wire them in parallel to avoid both issues.

I’m pretty happy so far, just need to figure out how the hell I’m going to get the wiring through the mirror joint and to the inside of the fairing. I reckon that’s going to be a piece of piss......NOT

Falcopops are you sure the reason for the poor aiming with the high speed drill on the second attempt wasn't anything to do with the bottle of liquid lubrication shown in pic 2!!!!!!!!

They look good thou, how will you weather proof um, LEDs don't tend to work so well when they get damp (more of a problem for us UK dwellers than you, obviously)

Olig7475 wrote:Falcopops are you sure the reason for the poor aiming with the high speed drill on the second attempt wasn't anything to do with the bottle of liquid lubrication shown in pic 2!!!!!!!!

That thought went through my mind too.

excellent fettling

Looks v. cool, but there's no way I'm drilling holes in my Fut for the sake of some fairy lights.

i thought all you hawkwind types were in to fairies goblins etc?

What preparing for Christmass already?

Suppose Dale it keeps you out of 'trouble'.

Good work Dale - keep it up and you'll get a job on Blue Peter


..... just don't take up dentistry ................

Aladinsaneuk wrote:i thought all you hawkwind types were in to fairies goblins etc?

Yes, but the real ones - that lurk on the footpath back from the pub

Looks good Dale.
As has been said already, it will need to be sealed well for us poor sods back over here.
Hope it works, cos it's good to see somebody trying something completely different.

Best of luck mate!

Have had a few other jobs to do and not had a chance to revisit this, but thanks for the comments.

I've thought about sealing it and the LEDs are sucha tight fit there's no problem there. The only potential for water ingress is from the around the mirror.

I was thinking about using a generous amount of bathroom silicone sealant. Only problems I can see are if something fails and means I need to take the whole lot apart again to fix it.

So I have another plan that involves several metres of shrink wrap. Easier to repair of there's a problem, but not as watertight.

Just as I'm typing this (and it just goes to prove the value of discussing these things) I'm thinking about how to reattach the mirror glass. about 12 hours of immersion in petrol allows the mirror to come away, with a little persuasion. Once the backing adhesive pa has dried it's still very sticky and I reckon could be reused. However, that would mean soaking in petrol again should I need to fix anything. So I'm thinking about velcro strips for the mirror and sealing the backing plate with silicone. That way I shoule be able to remove the mirror easily enough (need to test it) then slice round the backing plate silicone to get to the LED's. The ring of silicone will be simple enough to clean up and replace.

Damn another cunning plan!

Still not figured out how to run the wires yet!

Hey FP,

Excellent looking setup. I like it.

FP,
very interesting development and looks pretty nifty.

I also thought that the bottle of Pinot Grigio was probably responsible for the misalignment when drilling.

I think we all look forward to the finished article.

Keep up the good work.