Info: Clear front indicators
Discussion
Decided a week or two ago to replace the orange front indicators with clear ones. Trawled the forum and found a couple of bits of info, but nothing definitive (without forking out a fortune), so here's what I found...
Proper TVR parts are £140 or so. And with a bit of a waiting list at the moment by the look of it.
So, for £30 I got a set of Chimaera reversing lights off TVR Power. Important Note: These don't fit as standard - they're a good eighth of an inch too big.
Process (that took a whole weekend) involved:
Day One
1. Take main bonnet off, and remove panels over the wings. Fail to get the original lights out. They're held in place by some kind of nuclear forcefield apparently. Took a serious smack or 5 from an irish screwdriver. Fingers bruised and broken.
2. Fail to get the lights to unscrew so that I can pull the bits out of the wings one at a time. More judicious usage of aforementioned screwdriver & WD40. Bruised and broken fingers even more so. And covered in oil.
3. Fail to get the bits of the lights out as they still won't fit past some kind of relay next to the light below it. Eventually pull the plastic cap off the relay and force it past. Curse, swear, and tear strips of skin off forearms in process.
4. Find there's no way in hell the replacement lights will actually fit. Curse, swear and have a break for a cuppa.
5. Smash the lenses on the original lights. Mainly for therapeutic reasons. Prise the clear lenses out of the housing of the new lights by bending back the metal surround. Find that the plastic lenses alone are still too big. Hands and fingers now look like I'm a chosen one, blessed/cursed with stigmata.
6. Sand down the surround off the clear lenses till they're almost the same size as the original orange ones. Manage to do this without shredding my fingers once.
Do, unfortunately, inhale lots of molten-plastic type gases. 
7. Superglue the trimmed lenses onto the original housing, and use liberal amounts of sealant around the edges to make sure this is a "permanent" upgrade. Go to bed at this point, having lost as much blood as if I'd given a transfusion.
Day Two
8. Go down to Halfwits to see if they've got any clear bulbs that light up orange, instead of the two orange bulbs I currently have waiting to go in it. They don't, so I go home. Get home to find that the ignorant youf in Halfords that dropped the bulb whilst looking at it actually broke the filament, so go back down. Much shouting, cursing, and "let me speak to your manager" ensues. Go home a much more tranquil person, having vented frustrations, and with a free set of bulbs.
9. Plug everything together outside of the wings to see if it works. It doesn't. Front indicators don't work, and others flash at twice the speed (because of this). Note here to anyone who's indicators seem to be flashing stupid-fast: it's probably for the same reason - a bad earth or something similar. Curse some more, and attempt to solder a wire from the bulb holder on to the engine block to earth it. Give up after ten minutes after realising that that'd be more mickey mouse than the original car wiring. Trace the problem to the connector being a bit iffy - turns out that clipping it together firmly isn't a good idea.
(Only on a Tiv)
10. Clean all remaining gunk from around the holes in the bodywork, and line the new lights up, and slide the lights back in again, accompanied with the customary cursing & lacerations.
11. Use silicone sealant like it's going out of fashion, and go for a well earned cuppa. Return (as it's getting dark and starting to rain) to find that the lights are caving back into the bodywork. B
r. Curse some more.
12. Glue the lights in place with Loctite's finest, and seal them again properly, from both front and back this time.
13. Go inside to soak my arms in Savlon and drink myself into an "it's not like this on a Vectra" stupor.
Job done
Kind of think I might as well have spent an extra hundred quid and saved a day, but I'm feeling proud all the same. It does beggar belief that it'd be almost as hard simply to change a bulb at the roadside.
Hope that's of use to anyone thinking of doing the same. And I'll post a couple of pics as soon as I get a chance.
>>> Edited by J_S_G on Tuesday 21st September 12:09
Proper TVR parts are £140 or so. And with a bit of a waiting list at the moment by the look of it.
So, for £30 I got a set of Chimaera reversing lights off TVR Power. Important Note: These don't fit as standard - they're a good eighth of an inch too big.
Process (that took a whole weekend) involved:
Day One
1. Take main bonnet off, and remove panels over the wings. Fail to get the original lights out. They're held in place by some kind of nuclear forcefield apparently. Took a serious smack or 5 from an irish screwdriver. Fingers bruised and broken.
2. Fail to get the lights to unscrew so that I can pull the bits out of the wings one at a time. More judicious usage of aforementioned screwdriver & WD40. Bruised and broken fingers even more so. And covered in oil.
3. Fail to get the bits of the lights out as they still won't fit past some kind of relay next to the light below it. Eventually pull the plastic cap off the relay and force it past. Curse, swear, and tear strips of skin off forearms in process.
4. Find there's no way in hell the replacement lights will actually fit. Curse, swear and have a break for a cuppa.
5. Smash the lenses on the original lights. Mainly for therapeutic reasons. Prise the clear lenses out of the housing of the new lights by bending back the metal surround. Find that the plastic lenses alone are still too big. Hands and fingers now look like I'm a chosen one, blessed/cursed with stigmata.
6. Sand down the surround off the clear lenses till they're almost the same size as the original orange ones. Manage to do this without shredding my fingers once.
Do, unfortunately, inhale lots of molten-plastic type gases. 7. Superglue the trimmed lenses onto the original housing, and use liberal amounts of sealant around the edges to make sure this is a "permanent" upgrade. Go to bed at this point, having lost as much blood as if I'd given a transfusion.
Day Two
8. Go down to Halfwits to see if they've got any clear bulbs that light up orange, instead of the two orange bulbs I currently have waiting to go in it. They don't, so I go home. Get home to find that the ignorant youf in Halfords that dropped the bulb whilst looking at it actually broke the filament, so go back down. Much shouting, cursing, and "let me speak to your manager" ensues. Go home a much more tranquil person, having vented frustrations, and with a free set of bulbs.
9. Plug everything together outside of the wings to see if it works. It doesn't. Front indicators don't work, and others flash at twice the speed (because of this). Note here to anyone who's indicators seem to be flashing stupid-fast: it's probably for the same reason - a bad earth or something similar. Curse some more, and attempt to solder a wire from the bulb holder on to the engine block to earth it. Give up after ten minutes after realising that that'd be more mickey mouse than the original car wiring. Trace the problem to the connector being a bit iffy - turns out that clipping it together firmly isn't a good idea.
(Only on a Tiv) 10. Clean all remaining gunk from around the holes in the bodywork, and line the new lights up, and slide the lights back in again, accompanied with the customary cursing & lacerations.
11. Use silicone sealant like it's going out of fashion, and go for a well earned cuppa. Return (as it's getting dark and starting to rain) to find that the lights are caving back into the bodywork. B
r. Curse some more. 12. Glue the lights in place with Loctite's finest, and seal them again properly, from both front and back this time.
13. Go inside to soak my arms in Savlon and drink myself into an "it's not like this on a Vectra" stupor.
Job done
Kind of think I might as well have spent an extra hundred quid and saved a day, but I'm feeling proud all the same. It does beggar belief that it'd be almost as hard simply to change a bulb at the roadside.
Hope that's of use to anyone thinking of doing the same. And I'll post a couple of pics as soon as I get a chance.
>>> Edited by J_S_G on Tuesday 21st September 12:09
Well done!
powerlord said:
they just fitted no problems.... not that you want to hear that...
Look like standard Lucas parts to me. But there was so much heresay and "A mate said..." that I thought better of just trusting people and ordering more bits. You see, even TVR Power said that the ones they gave me would fit... But they didn't.
I must admit I thought about doing them myself and actually ordered the parts from TVRGear. Luckily they knew it wasn't a good idea and so, for my own good, never bothered to send them. I ended up getting them done by the factory for the price of the lenses while they were doing other stuff.
Chim450 said:
I got mine changed at the dealers. I had researched doing it myself but found similar threads to yours James. Life is too short for me anyway, spending an extra £100 was definitely the best option.
Ah, but at least now I know that if I ever lose the headlights through stone chips/whatever whilst on the motorway, I'll just call the AA and get THEM to cheese-grate their arms, rather than even attempting to replace the bulbs myself. That lesson was worth losing a weekend over.
Probably. But given the severity of the cuts inflicted by plastic & fibre-glass, I thought that'd be bordering on a visit to casualty... 
Got my done at the factory for <£100 IIRC when in for a service last year.
Did you know - that when TVR started using clear indicator lenses on the front of Tuscans - THEY RAN OUT OF THEM!
So what did they do? Use reversing light lenses on the front instead. How do I know? I was at a car show talking to a TVR employee who pointed out the difference between my Tuscan and the one next door to it. Mine had the "proper" ones, t'other had reversing lights front AND back!!!
Only TVR....
Did you know - that when TVR started using clear indicator lenses on the front of Tuscans - THEY RAN OUT OF THEM!
So what did they do? Use reversing light lenses on the front instead. How do I know? I was at a car show talking to a TVR employee who pointed out the difference between my Tuscan and the one next door to it. Mine had the "proper" ones, t'other had reversing lights front AND back!!!
Only TVR....
TUS 373 said:
Got my done at the factory for <£100 IIRC when in for a service last year.
Did you know - that when TVR started using clear indicator lenses on the front of Tuscans - THEY RAN OUT OF THEM!
So what did they do? Use reversing light lenses on the front instead. How do I know? I was at a car show talking to a TVR employee who pointed out the difference between my Tuscan and the one next door to it. Mine had the "proper" ones, t'other had reversing lights front AND back!!!
Only TVR....
Well, reversing light lenses DEFINITELY don't fit in mine, and I've got the manly scars to prove it.
(Heard from someone that they changed the size of the holes in later Tuscans for this reason - not sure if I believe it or not, though) >> Edited by J_S_G on Tuesday 21st September 23:46
Mine came with clear lenses at the front, but suffered from 'water ingress'. I figured having water sloshing around inside the lamp wouldn't be a great long term thing, so I had the factory look at it while it was having a few other jobs done. It came back with different lenses, slightly deeper with friendlier, rounded edge. They carry the ID 'LAP Elec Mk 3' on the front of the lens. I was told the indicators are bonded into the wing during the build and needed to be removed with a hammer. Unfortunately, the 'techician' in his exuberance managed to clout the inside of the wing with the hammer, thus causing a star craze in the paintwork. Thus necessitating a paint job on the wing.
My invoice itemises two Tuscan Clear Indicators at £62.30 each, but no labour charge, so after VAT, you're looking at £146.41 for the lamps alone.
I think, having read what an adventure the refit turned out to be, almost 150 quid is the easiest option. JSG, I hope your scars, physical and mental, are swift to heal.
My invoice itemises two Tuscan Clear Indicators at £62.30 each, but no labour charge, so after VAT, you're looking at £146.41 for the lamps alone.
I think, having read what an adventure the refit turned out to be, almost 150 quid is the easiest option. JSG, I hope your scars, physical and mental, are swift to heal.
S1X OK said:
I think, having read what an adventure the refit turned out to be, almost 150 quid is the easiest option. JSG, I hope your scars, physical and mental, are swift to heal.
To be honest, getting them out to begin with and finding a decent substance to seal them with was the hardest part... and you've got this even with the £150 set. Once they were out, and I was in the relative warmth of the garage, with proper tools to work with, etc. swapping the lenses over was probably an hour/hour-and-a-half of effort, plus an evening to let the sealant dry. Figure that's worth it for the saving of £120 or so. However, doing it again, if somebody offered to fit them for me for £50 I'd probably take them up on it!
nsparey said:
What type are the front indicator bulbs?
The type that slip through the hands of Halfrauds muppets that aren't blessed with opposable thumbs.
Standard orange/clear indicator bulbs (depending on whether your lenses are clear/orange) - £5 for 2 from Halfords. Would like some of the clear bulbs that light up orange, but I gave up on that.
Philips make them, around £20 i believe, www.powerbulbs.co.uk do them.
david beer said:
Philips make them, around £20 i believe, www.powerbulbs.co.uk do them.
Cheers. I'll pretend I didn't read that, though, or I might be tempted to guillotine my forearms some more...
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