3rd Brake Light Installation Options

[Chris4099]

Notifier,
While a CHMSL is a good idea, you should also consider replacing the incandescent bulbs in the brake lights with LEDs. Doing this is easy and does not change the appearance at all. Best of all it gives the cars behind you an extra 200ms of response time (since incandescent takes longer to turn on and LED's "instant on" gets the drivers attention fast too). This may not seem like much, but at freeway speeds, that's a full car length! I have the GM LED CHMSL and LED brake lights for maximum safety. If you go with the older CHMSL one, see if you can swap out the bulbs for LED. Same appearance on the outside, but all the safety benefits of LED!

Some "fun" reading on LED brake lights brought to you by HP:
http://chemlinks.beloit.edu/BlueLigh...p/an1155-3.pdf

As for how I mounted my CHMSL, I simply glued it in place using black calking (same stuff I used to seal the roof). It was meant as a temporary thing, but 7 years later it's still holding strong. I also painted the wiring black and simply wrapped down the front of the louver and back. Yes it's visible from the outside, but you really have to look at it. I did it this way as I didn't want to drill into the louvers. I'll see if I can get some pictures later today or tomorrow.

[Notifier]

Perhaps for another thread, I'd like to know how you wired them to blink with your turn signals...

Farrar

I know there's a converter box for doing just that. You use it when you have a trailer that has combined brake/turn signals and your vehicle has separate lights. I used one when I installed a light bar on my wife's Silverado. There's probably a way to build one with some diodes and such, but unless you are good with electronics probably easy to stick with the pre-made unit.

[Spittybug]

Those are the exact same units I used, except I mounted them using brackets to the rear vertical edge of the louvres.

Perhaps for another thread, I'd like to know how you wired them to blink with your turn signals...

Farrar

Diodes are your friend.
If memory serves, I simply tapped both the brake circuit and the blinker circuit from behind the light assembly (although you can do it right at the bulkhead connectors) and put a diode in line before going straight to the light bars. The brake wires go to both bars, the blinker lights go to the respective bars. The diodes simply prevent one circuit from being energized by the other. On the brake wire I also have one of those strobe gizmos so that it pulses the brake light. In stop/go traffic it disables itself for 20 seconds or something like that after the first brake application so that you don't give the guy behind you epilepsy.

One day I may even experiment with making the turn signals sequentially light up the bars, giving a neat flow to the directional.....that would take some work though.... we need Bitsyncmaster to build that module!

[dvonk]

all this discussion about 3rd brake lights reminded me of the "How To" someone had posted on the old forum. it was really thorough and had plenty of photos. after reading the instructions, i felt comfortable enough to do it... and ive never even touched a DeLorean before.

does anyone remember who posted it?

[Cory W]

all this discussion about 3rd brake lights reminded me of the "How To" someone had posted on the old forum. it was really thorough and had plenty of photos. after reading the instructions, i felt comfortable enough to do it... and ive never even touched a DeLorean before.

does anyone remember who posted it?

I managed to find this on the "Wayback Machine" mentioned elsewhere. No photos, unfortunately, but I just may go over to my car and edit them in. The original poster was Shannon Y, to give credit where due!

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?22...9837#post29837

[dvonk]

sweet, good find Cory on the Wayback Machine!

and thanks to Shannon for an excellent "How To" writeup.

[DSNW Toby]

Hi Gang - An excellent option for the high mount third brake light is the kit that we offer through DeLorean Parts Northwest. The kit consists of two individual housings that are very low profile, and fit very well under the upper slat on each side of the center rib. Installation is done with 3M double sided tape with no holes required for any portion of it. Each unit contains a row of very high intensity red LED's, and these are completely water and weather-proof. The kit naturally includes all electrical connectors and required supplies, complete instructions, etc.

http://tinyurl.com/7br3flc

The nice thing about this set-up is that you can hardly see the installed lights when they are not lit up. It is a very clean look that gets immediate attention when the brake lights activate.

[AdmiralSenn]

Toby, do you have any pictures of it installed with the engine cover up?

[jawn101]

+1 on that, I'd love to see it installed with the louvers raised. How do you run the wires with no holes required?

[chef4u]

This is what I have.
Clarito