European rear teardrops

[Frederic Prince]

Hi,
I need to find 2 rear lights for europe, orange with turn signal, red with bulb for Brake and running lights, so 3 input on the light.
where can i find these (prefer old original, or NOS, or new if it doesn't exist original ??)
thanks for the help
fred

[Guest]

Fred,
I would consider trying ebay, I remember a set going there not too long ago.

Secondly, I would contact Mr. Hofmann at http://www.classic-parts-france.de

Regards, Martin

[Bill Leavitt]

Hi,
I need to find 2 rear lights for europe, orange with turn signal, red with bulb for Brake and running lights, so 3 input on the light.
where can i find these (prefer old original, or NOS, or new if it doesn't exist original ??)
thanks for the help
fred

Lights that function as you describe were only used originally on 1962-1965 (T6) 356es that were targeted for export to Italy or Australia. Other European cars simply had orange brake lights.

You're going to have a hard time finding true NOS originals of these, or even good used. I don't know if anybody's manufacturing repros to perform this function, maybe the aforementioned source(?). Most likely you will have to modify a set of regular lights by replacing the single pole inboard lamp socket with a dual pole. Try to do so such that the bulb stays as far away from the lens as possible to keep it from overheating and melting (seen that). The original Italian/Australian socket bodies were much larger and deeper to help prevent this problem. My '64 is an Italian-spec car, so I've had the chance to do a side-by-side comparison with the RoW units.

Keep in mind that unless your car is a '62-'65 Italian/Australian model that you'll also have to do some rewiring. Joe Leoni's T6 B/C schematics book details how this was originally done by the factory.

[Paul Vernon]

Hi,

I have recently gone through this myself with my U.K. A coupe. I bought some repro rear lights and modified them by removing the single filament holder and soldering on a new double filament one which I bought from PR Services here in the U.K. I then put a new wire in with the loom running from the brake light switch to the two rear light units and now my brake lights work in the same way as any other european car.

Cheers


Paul

[Jim Nelson]

Depending on how "pure" you want your car, you might want to consider these, as well...
http://culayer.com/356_Purchase.htm

No relationship, etc...

[Bill Leavitt]

Depending on how "pure" you want your car, you might want to consider these, as well...
http://culayer.com/356_Purchase.htm

No relationship, etc...

But these won't put the brake light function on the inboard red part of a red/amber Euro lens, which I gather is what Frederic really wants (as well as many, many other people over the years who've asked about how to do this).

Not to otherwise put down these units, I've heard very good things about them. One potential rub is that they're designed to pretty tight tolerances to work with original fixtures. They plug into the bulb sockets, and some repros may be angled slightly differently causing installation problems. I saw this at a tech session where they reportedly worked fine on a car w/ original fixtures but had problems on one w/ repros. Flexing them to fit probably isn't a good solution, as the pc board is likely to crack eventually if not right then rendering them inoperable. YMMV.

[Michael Eker]

It is the UK you don't need them for vehicles first used before 1 September 1965, my car

has passed several UK MOTs with US style all red covers, and indicates turns at the rear by

flashing the left or right brake light.

Here is the relevant bit:

http://www.motuk.co.uk/mcmanual_150.htm

If your MOT station doesn't know the regulations you can get them to contact the

scheme managers at:

VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency )
Berkeley House
Croydon Street
Bristol
BS5 0DA

Tel: 0870 606 0440

Of course you may want to convert to amber indicators in which case you need to replace

the single contact brake light bulb holder with a double contact one and rewire the

indicator switch and run extra wires to the rear lights, a lot of work.

meker

[Stefan De Vleeschauwer]

Fred,
I would consider trying ebay, I remember a set going there not too long ago.

Secondly, I would contact Mr. Hofmann at http://www.classic-parts-france.de

Regards, Martin

If they don't got them, you could try http://www.jomaparts.be/