Tail light source?

[Carcass]

I hope this is the right forum to be posting this under; my apologies if it's not.

I'm trying to find a source for blackout tail lights (and their housing buckets (?))... I've seen them on all sorts of things here, and a question about them a few posts down.. but I'm only now getting in to the military surplus vehicle stuff Starting with a trailer soon. Anyhow, here's a picture I found that has what I'm looking for:

http://groups.msn.com/M416/customm416.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=316

I think they were used on a good few of the M series vehicles? Again, I could be wrong. I've found a few places trying to sell a thin LED version, but they wanted nearly $800 for a set; ridiculous!

I'd appreciate any help with this, thanks in advance.

 

[Jones]

That's a "composite light"; composite meaning plastic body and/or face-plate. The thin LED versions you're seeing are the replacement face-plates that go on the bodies once the bulb socket assys. are removed. $800.00 does seem a little high stateside but I'm not sure what you're up against in Europe as far as availability and pricing goes.
Go to TruckLite's site and click your way to online catalog. Once there, in the left-hand catalog search column, click on military and see what's available.

 

[Elwenil]

And if you want the regular incandescent versions, they can be found at just about any US military truck parts supplier like Saturn Surplus, OD Iron, etc.

 

[Carcass]

Good deal, thanks for both of your responses; I'm used to things being very close and available (Southern California) and that's certainly not the case where I'm at currently. Anyhow, it looks like I can order exactly what I needed from Saturn Surplus Hopefully they'll ship to an APO address, heh.

I'm hoping that I can modify the lenses slightly, as I won't need the blackout bit; I'm hoping to convert the lower to lenses for use as turn signals & backup lights. Weak backup lights I'm sure, but they won't be alone. Then they'd be legal in just about every country, as some don't allow your turn signals to be red (like they should be!).

Thanks again for the help

 

[Elwenil]

The blackout portion of the lamp use some sort of semi transparent shield to limit the amount of light that shines through them. You should be able to remove them and the arrow shaped shields without much trouble. It shouldn't be too hard to use them for back up lamps but they won't shine much light from the narrow slots. It will be ok for letting other people know you are backing up, but probably won't be enough for you to see to back up by.

 

[Carcass]

Thanks again, I'm hoping that it won't be too bad as far as removing the blackout shields (or whatever they might be appropriately referred to as) and it sounds like I may just be lucky.

My main concern is wiring it up to integrate the turn signals, and I'm going to be trying to convert the standard light to use LED replacements for the bulbs; they're readily available for many types of bulbs, so I'm hoping for luck again. If not, incandescent lights are fine. I'll be placing an amber bulb/LED for the turn signal, and that's my number one concern: they would be the only turn signals on the rear. I've got 55W floods for backup lamps

Now to figure out the cleanest way to have a reflector as well. That's not going to be difficult, but I'm abandoning a lens with the required reflectors as part of it... I'm trying to keep things as neat as possible, though.

 

[Jones]

If you're talking round reflectors-- they're a pretty standard size and readily available.
If you're going for authentic; you might also search the site for 'delineation plates'. They're the bigger, square, red and yellow reflectors seen on most all MVs in the European Theatre.

 

[Shizzlemah]

Napa P/N LIT07415 (black) or LIT07411 (green) for the whole body/lens, and LEDs inside. Brace yourself, they list for $170.each