Flexpedition
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Saw that one of the bulbs in the Center High Mount Stop Lamp was burned out the other day. If you have OCD like I do, one bulb out of 5 might as well be 4 of them. Unacceptable. Knowing that if I only replaced the one burned bulb, another would die tomorrow, or the replacement would be noticeably brighter than the rest, so I bought all new ones. Sylvania #2825 long-life incandescent. Not cheap either, but now I have spares? I honestly thought they'd be inexpensive 194's.
After replacing all 5 bulbs, the unit just didn't seem as bright as it probably should be. They aren't LED, but I saw an area of optical improvement & thought I'd share. First, the plastic chrome reflectors were dirty. Its not a water-tight sealed unit, so I broke down the assembly and cleaned the pseudo-chrome. They were pretty dusty and had water spots. The inside of the lens itself was also very dusty. And the outside of the lens was a little dull, had a fair amount of oxidation, which I helped with polishing compound.
Then I noticed the design of the assembly itself allowed much light to bleed out. Why not contain the output of the bulbs to the fixture? What good does it do to light up the inner cavity of my roof?
No logical reason in my mind so I applied a strip of reflective metal foil tape to the inside of the lens on the horizontal planes, top & bottom. You can see trace amounts of the tape protruding from the edges. Created a light box is what I did.
I didn't take any exterior before photos, so here is a random FMF. I've always thought the bright red CHMSL stood out a bit on darker color Expeditions. Its more of function rather than form I suppose. Would be nice if the light was behind the glass.
So I thought I'd tone mine down a little, maybe make it look a little custom. Krylon Fusion plastic paint, black gloss. Put a little square of tape over the washer fluid sprayer/nozzle so you don't block it with paint. Got a little orange peel below the nozzle, but its not noticeable installed.
And here is the finished product. Looks better to me anyway. The light kind of disappears, which is what I wanted it to do. (Now I see that I am needing to repaint the glass window hinges)
Snapped this the other night. Its horrible, yes, but the CHMSL does appear brighter, almost as bright as my LED tail lights.
I'll see if I can get a better shot if anyone cares. I feel like I made a definite improvement to the light output so thought I'd share. And yes, I'm aware there are cheap Chinese LED CHMSL's that you can get in tinted or clear. The reviews are not great.
(Hitch cover is in the garage because we've been towing recently)
After replacing all 5 bulbs, the unit just didn't seem as bright as it probably should be. They aren't LED, but I saw an area of optical improvement & thought I'd share. First, the plastic chrome reflectors were dirty. Its not a water-tight sealed unit, so I broke down the assembly and cleaned the pseudo-chrome. They were pretty dusty and had water spots. The inside of the lens itself was also very dusty. And the outside of the lens was a little dull, had a fair amount of oxidation, which I helped with polishing compound.
Then I noticed the design of the assembly itself allowed much light to bleed out. Why not contain the output of the bulbs to the fixture? What good does it do to light up the inner cavity of my roof?
No logical reason in my mind so I applied a strip of reflective metal foil tape to the inside of the lens on the horizontal planes, top & bottom. You can see trace amounts of the tape protruding from the edges. Created a light box is what I did.
I didn't take any exterior before photos, so here is a random FMF. I've always thought the bright red CHMSL stood out a bit on darker color Expeditions. Its more of function rather than form I suppose. Would be nice if the light was behind the glass.
So I thought I'd tone mine down a little, maybe make it look a little custom. Krylon Fusion plastic paint, black gloss. Put a little square of tape over the washer fluid sprayer/nozzle so you don't block it with paint. Got a little orange peel below the nozzle, but its not noticeable installed.
And here is the finished product. Looks better to me anyway. The light kind of disappears, which is what I wanted it to do. (Now I see that I am needing to repaint the glass window hinges)
Snapped this the other night. Its horrible, yes, but the CHMSL does appear brighter, almost as bright as my LED tail lights.
I'll see if I can get a better shot if anyone cares. I feel like I made a definite improvement to the light output so thought I'd share. And yes, I'm aware there are cheap Chinese LED CHMSL's that you can get in tinted or clear. The reviews are not great.
(Hitch cover is in the garage because we've been towing recently)
