1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

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Aaron W. Holstrom
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#61 Post by Aaron W. Holstrom »

Mark, excellent work! I am so happy you have posted these pictures and write-up's, they are very helpful! Glad you are driving your car again!

Aaron
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ryan base
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#62 Post by ryan base »

hats off, congrads, nice work, insperational, good thinking, but really thanks for sharing your steps to success

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Mark Dionne
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation - the brake / tail lights

#63 Post by Mark Dionne »

To reduce the chance of getting rear-ended, I decided to beef up my 6 Volt brake lights and tail lights.

First I made some LED "third brake lights" similar to the ones sold by Jack Biersdorff. This involved soldering a bunch of LEDs and resistors, potting them in clear epoxy, and mounting them. It was a lot of work and it might have been better just to buy them.

I ordered the LED brake/tail light units from CuLayer. When I pulled my old tail light housings, I found that the rubber gasket was holding the metal together, so I ordered a new pair from Stoddards.

The Stoddard reproduction units are very close to my original ones--I could probably not tell the difference. The chrome bezel is marked SWF K 3260. The red lens is marked SWF 3260. The differences I can see are that the wires are connected with screw terminals rather than push "bullet" connectors (probably a good thing, since pushing/pulling the bullet connectors puts stress on the bulb socket); and the internal divider plate does not have printed markings of the bulb wattages. Even the cardboard box (which says "Made in Taiwan") is close to the original. Two rubber boots for the wires were included with mine. Zims also sells reproduction units but their description differs in several details.

Then I found that the CuLayer units do not fit into the repro taillight housings without irreversibly modifying the housings. (CuLayer now sells a more expensive 356-R version that supposedly gets around this.) I did not want to do this to my brand new units, so I made up some adapters using old bulb bases. The photo tells the story:
tail light.jpg
The bulb bases are filled with epoxy and a scrap of plastic that can be grabbed with pliers to remove them. Use 6-32 screws for the connections. I think this method is probably much more reliable than the stock setup.

These lights are noticeably brighter than the 6 Volt bulbs.
Mark Dionne
1965 Cabriolet 160920

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Mark Dionne
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#64 Post by Mark Dionne »

My car now has a new protector: Frankie is a semi-feral cat that I recruited from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was found hanging out at Franklin Park Zoo and now lives in my barn along with my 1965 Cab. I have seen no rodents in the six months he has been there.
frankie porsche.jpg
Mark Dionne
1965 Cabriolet 160920

Michael Foster
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#65 Post by Michael Foster »

Good luck with that Mark. Had a girlfriend with a cat that lived with me a long while back. Darn cat scratched my front hood which had to be repainted again before finishing my roadster 25 years ago. You guessed it, the cat is gone, so is the girlfriend.:>)

Michael Foster
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Wil Mittelbach
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#66 Post by Wil Mittelbach »

MICHAEL FOSTER wrote:Good luck with that Mark. Had a girlfriend with a cat that lived with me a long while back. Darn cat scratched my front hood which had to be repainted again before finishing my roadster 25 years ago. michael Foster
Michael -
It also happened to me, while my 65C cab parked outside with car cover and a cat snoozing on the hood. Upon my approach, cat was startled and extended claws thru cover for fast getaway traction. Could not entirely rub-out the scratches on the original hood paint, which will forever remind me of my cat/car experience.
- Wil

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Mark Dionne
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#67 Post by Mark Dionne »

I was planning to keep Frankie locked out of the car once I got the new carpeting installed.

Here's a picture of the hickory nut shells that were left in the bell housing, probably by chipmunks.
hickory.jpg
Mark Dionne
1965 Cabriolet 160920

M Penta
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Re: 1965 Cabriolet Rejuvenation

#68 Post by M Penta »

Hi Mark,

Nice job on those LED tail lights. I was thinking of doing the same, with some help from an engineer friend in the LED industry. I did just buy some SMD head lights though, since the stock lighting (relayed or not) just does not cut it, and draws too much juice from the 6V system.

My cat walked all over my car too, finally had to keep her out of the shop. The paw prints were hard to remove (must have walked in something) and the scurrying up to roof left some scratches. My paint job is pretty crappy, but still...

Mark

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