Mk1 Indicator de-tango guide..(cheap way to clear lenses)
Discussion
Had read about how to do this on a couple of forums with a few suggesting you need to take the units apart, mess about in an oven to remove the glue and then fit it all back together etc.Then I read another guy suggesting he just bashed out the orange section of the indicator from the rear bulb hole and fitted clear bulbs (he didn't post any pics etc though as he was just commenting in another thread).As I was going to change my lights anyway, I thought I would have a go as if it all went wrong, nothing was really lost.I decided to take some pics of what I did as it's a quick and easy way to clear lenses..
Firstly you need to remove your lamps.Two screws is all it takes, one in each corner, pull the unit out, twist out the small sidelight and larger indicator bulb.You are then left with this..
WARNING: The next bit is really make or break time.The entire orange section inside the lamp is one solid section and it needs to be broken up and removed via the indicator bulb hole.I tried lifting it in the corners first by using a small flat head screwdriver (via the indicator bulb hole) with no luck, so in the end, I rested the lamp on something soft, held a philips type driver angled towards the middle of the orange section and hit it with a hammer.Please don't hit it too hard or you may end up damaging or cracking your front lense! With few decent taps, the entire orange section came loose and this now meant I needed to break it up and remove it piece by piece...
At first, I couldn't see how I was going to break it up without destroying something else, but as tough as the orange part is, the rest of the lamp seems to be just as hardy, so by tipping the lamp and getting corners of the orange section near to the bulb hole, I began gripping it with long nose & regular pliers and twisting.WARNING: You have to be quite brutal.The orange section needs to get 'wedged' on the internals of the lamp to allow you to snap parts off as you twist, but like I say, the lamp is well made and the only part to watch out for is the outer ring on the hole itself which has three cutouts for the bulb holder to snap back in to.That can break quite easily, so avoid yanking parts out too much or using it as a leverage point for the pliers.Once you have a few bits broken off, things tend to get easier and you will end up with orange chunks appearing as seen below...
Make sure you get all parts out of the lamp to avoid rattles and when done you will end up with only two small orange parts left.These are stuck behind the screws which held the orange section in place.You can either live with these, or do as I did and paint them.I also contemplated drilling them out from the rear of the lamp (the screw heads are on the inside annoyingly) and I also tried removing the rear plastic sections the screws bite into to see if I could unscrew them that way with pliers, but as they were so short, I decided on the paint route. (EDIT - DO NOT REMOVE THESE SCREWS as they hold in the reflector part of the lamp, so stick to painting them! - cheers to user 'Niggle' on mx5nutz for that tip)..What you should now be looking at is something like this...old vs new with a photoshop example of the small pieces of orange screw sections left..
To remove the remaining small orange parts, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to paint them.They are both quite easy to reach but are at awkward angles, so I simply snapped the head off a small artist brush and taped it to an angled driver I had.I then used the only silver paint I had (engine paint) and carefuly inserted my new device into the rear of the lamp and painted the screws/orange parts...
The tape allowed me to simply bend the brush head to get to the more difficult bolt after doing the easier one..
The black arrow shows the direction of the harder to reach screw.It was a doddle to reach with my newly constructed brush, however...
You will then need some bulbs.If you want to avoid orange bulbs (I would as you will simply end up with orange reflections inside the lamp again), you need to get the type shown below.They are only a couple of quid but are clear when off and light orange when on..
It's then simply a case of putting the bulbs back on the car and fitting your new orangeless lamp...
Not the best picture as it looks a lot less orange than it does in the flesh, but this is with the indicator on...
Do both lamps, don't blame me if you break anything, stand back, admire your work and enjoy the fact you spent a fiver as apposed to £40 or £50 for clear lenses
Firstly you need to remove your lamps.Two screws is all it takes, one in each corner, pull the unit out, twist out the small sidelight and larger indicator bulb.You are then left with this..
WARNING: The next bit is really make or break time.The entire orange section inside the lamp is one solid section and it needs to be broken up and removed via the indicator bulb hole.I tried lifting it in the corners first by using a small flat head screwdriver (via the indicator bulb hole) with no luck, so in the end, I rested the lamp on something soft, held a philips type driver angled towards the middle of the orange section and hit it with a hammer.Please don't hit it too hard or you may end up damaging or cracking your front lense! With few decent taps, the entire orange section came loose and this now meant I needed to break it up and remove it piece by piece...
At first, I couldn't see how I was going to break it up without destroying something else, but as tough as the orange part is, the rest of the lamp seems to be just as hardy, so by tipping the lamp and getting corners of the orange section near to the bulb hole, I began gripping it with long nose & regular pliers and twisting.WARNING: You have to be quite brutal.The orange section needs to get 'wedged' on the internals of the lamp to allow you to snap parts off as you twist, but like I say, the lamp is well made and the only part to watch out for is the outer ring on the hole itself which has three cutouts for the bulb holder to snap back in to.That can break quite easily, so avoid yanking parts out too much or using it as a leverage point for the pliers.Once you have a few bits broken off, things tend to get easier and you will end up with orange chunks appearing as seen below...
Make sure you get all parts out of the lamp to avoid rattles and when done you will end up with only two small orange parts left.These are stuck behind the screws which held the orange section in place.You can either live with these, or do as I did and paint them.I also contemplated drilling them out from the rear of the lamp (the screw heads are on the inside annoyingly) and I also tried removing the rear plastic sections the screws bite into to see if I could unscrew them that way with pliers, but as they were so short, I decided on the paint route. (EDIT - DO NOT REMOVE THESE SCREWS as they hold in the reflector part of the lamp, so stick to painting them! - cheers to user 'Niggle' on mx5nutz for that tip)..What you should now be looking at is something like this...old vs new with a photoshop example of the small pieces of orange screw sections left..
To remove the remaining small orange parts, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to paint them.They are both quite easy to reach but are at awkward angles, so I simply snapped the head off a small artist brush and taped it to an angled driver I had.I then used the only silver paint I had (engine paint) and carefuly inserted my new device into the rear of the lamp and painted the screws/orange parts...
The tape allowed me to simply bend the brush head to get to the more difficult bolt after doing the easier one..
The black arrow shows the direction of the harder to reach screw.It was a doddle to reach with my newly constructed brush, however...
You will then need some bulbs.If you want to avoid orange bulbs (I would as you will simply end up with orange reflections inside the lamp again), you need to get the type shown below.They are only a couple of quid but are clear when off and light orange when on..
It's then simply a case of putting the bulbs back on the car and fitting your new orangeless lamp...
Not the best picture as it looks a lot less orange than it does in the flesh, but this is with the indicator on...
Do both lamps, don't blame me if you break anything, stand back, admire your work and enjoy the fact you spent a fiver as apposed to £40 or £50 for clear lenses
Edited by Digby on Saturday 7th May 19:02
I just did the second one by the way and it took approx 15 minutes from removal to refitting.
Once I had a grip on the edges of the orange parts, this time, I mostly kept the pliers still and twisted the lamp around (a combo of both is also fine).Again, I was quite brutal in the amount of force required, but there seems to be nothing that will 'give' before the orange plastic.Just twist until it cracks, then crack a bit more, empty out those pieces and crack away again..
Once I had a grip on the edges of the orange parts, this time, I mostly kept the pliers still and twisted the lamp around (a combo of both is also fine).Again, I was quite brutal in the amount of force required, but there seems to be nothing that will 'give' before the orange plastic.Just twist until it cracks, then crack a bit more, empty out those pieces and crack away again..
MX-5 Lazza said:
I've seen a few people swap the indicators & side-lights over i.e. use the big section for side-light and small section for indicator which I thought looked good. Did you consider that as an option?
No mate, had never thought of that.Not a bad idea though! I know some of those TSI jobbies have small indicators on the sides, but I have never seen standard lamps done that way.Really, that's the sort of mod which makes you wonder why it wasn't like that in the first place!I do this for owners swapping the side light and indicators around,makes a big difference to being seen on the Mk 1's,the 5 watt 501 bulb set up is rubbish,(a match in a jam jar)but i then would change the bulb to the ones that are the same for the import rear number plate bulbs,other wise they will be to bright
But i do thing this is a far easier way of doing this,and i will be doing this way from now on ....good call
M-m
But i do thing this is a far easier way of doing this,and i will be doing this way from now on ....good call
M-m
I must be missing something here. I can understand not wanting the orange plastic to show in your lamp fitting, but surely you must need to have orange bulbs fitted as otherwise your indicators are not indicating your intent to change direction? It would just look like a flashing sidelight bulb to any other motorist?
:Mazdamender said:
I do this for owners swapping the side light and indicators around,makes a big difference to being seen on the Mk 1's,the 5 watt 501 bulb set up is rubbish,(a match in a jam jar)but i then would change the bulb to the ones that are the same for the import rear number plate bulbs,other wise they will be to bright
But i do thing this is a far easier way of doing this,and i will be doing this way from now on ....good call
M-m
Like I did this weekend But i do thing this is a far easier way of doing this,and i will be doing this way from now on ....good call
M-m
Rich
Marvindodgers said:
I must be missing something here. I can understand not wanting the orange plastic to show in your lamp fitting, but surely you must need to have orange bulbs fitted as otherwise your indicators are not indicating your intent to change direction? It would just look like a flashing sidelight bulb to any other motorist?
As Lazza pointed out and from my original post mate.."You will then need some bulbs.If you want to avoid orange bulbs (I would as you will simply end up with orange reflections inside the lamp again), you need to get the type shown below.They are only a couple of quid but are clear when off and light orange when on.."
As you can see from the pic with the lamps back on the car, you can hardly see them at all! In the next shot, they are flashing orange, however.
Digby said:
As Lazza pointed out and from my original post mate..
"You will then need some bulbs.If you want to avoid orange bulbs (I would as you will simply end up with orange reflections inside the lamp again), you need to get the type shown below.They are only a couple of quid but are clear when off and light orange when on.."
As you can see from the pic with the lamps back on the car, you can hardly see them at all! In the next shot, they are flashing orange, however.
My apologies, I missed the bit about the bulbs that change colour."You will then need some bulbs.If you want to avoid orange bulbs (I would as you will simply end up with orange reflections inside the lamp again), you need to get the type shown below.They are only a couple of quid but are clear when off and light orange when on.."
As you can see from the pic with the lamps back on the car, you can hardly see them at all! In the next shot, they are flashing orange, however.
Gassing Station | Mazda MX5/Roadster/Miata | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff