Trafficators. Nuns and kittens will die.

[angrydicky]

I think flashing indicators look shit on 1950s and earlier cars. I’m planning to remove the ones from my Hampshire and weld up the holes before hiding some in the original sidelights and fitting sidelights in the headlights. The rears would need a bit more thinking about but there had to be a solution that didn’t look glaringly awful.
I told my plans on the beige only for a few melons on there to not read what I’d written properly and complain that what I was planning was dangerous.
Got me wondering though, maybe I could just do away with the flashers (and the ugly associated wiring) altogether and just use the trafficators perhaps accompanied by some handy hand signals.
Or possibly use those flashicator bulbs which you put in your trafficators and they automatically flash when operated.
Pretty much no one under 60 knows what a trafficator is now which is a problem but during the year or so I was driving my Somerset daily with only the trafficator I only had one chavvy retard in a typical blacked out Golf have a go because he wasn’t looking for the trafficators. I think they’re fine if you’re careful.
What do you all think?

[panhard65]

The new led lights that are now available can help. On my panhardi found some that were the same width as the trim around the front of the bonnet. They were not really noticeable until you used them. On the even older 202 Peugeot I found some short strips that looked like chrome trim but with orange LEDs. All were fitted with double sided tape so easily removed. They did need resistors though to get the flash rate right. I will try and find some pictures.

[angrydicky]

That’s a great idea. There’s plenty of terrible British panel gaps to hide them in.

[Hooli]

A mate has some of them on a bike, they are damn near invisible even when you know they are there, till they light up.

[mercrocker]

If you have the confidence in the trafficators that we all had to have when they were the only indicators in the village then why not get them working correctly and ditch the add-ons? After all, many cars have door-mirror mounted repeaters that are far more visible than the stupidly-mounted and often indiscernible modern cluster-fucks of lighting.

I've got LEDs in mine and the flashing addition to their repertoire "normalises" them to other road-users and prevents them being interpreted as non-functional because a steady light is not so easily understood.

I wonder, though, if your current experience of poor courtesy might not be helped by reducing the perceived visibility of signalling? I do agree, by the way, that hand signals in conjunction with trafficators should leave absolutely no doubts!

For what it is worth I am extremely happy with the dual system on the Cowley of add-on flashers (albeit that have been in place since the late Sixties) and LED-assisted trafficators. Two seperate circuits, two relays all though the original steering column switch and the speedo tell-tale linked only to the flashers (it is obvious from the driving seat when a trafficator fails to operates). On occasions when one element of the two systems fails to work it has still been completely clear what the vehicle is about to do.....

[panhard65]

The Panhard ones are a bit noticeable.

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I can't find the pictures of the 202

[angrydicky]

Mercrocker, That is a good point. However, one of the closest near-accidents I’ve ever had was when I was sitting on the A140, on the white line, waiting to turn right in my Somerset. This was after I’d fitted flashers and they are LED ones so very bright and it was flashing away. A gap in the oncoming traffic. I started to turn then hit the brakes as I spotted (in the small overtaking mirror fitted by a previous owner) a car approaching fast on my outside. The idiot also panicked and swerved off the road in an effort to drive around me, kicking up loads of dust before getting back onto the road. He must have been doing at least 50, I was stationary and not wearing a seatbelt (none fitted).
To this day I have no idea what he was thinking. Maybe he thought I’d broken down or something. The daft thing is, there was enough room for him to squeeze past on my nearside. That certainly shook me up, but to be honest the flashers didn’t make any difference there.

[Eddie Honda]

You know what I'm going to say: It'll be grand without.

[captain_70s]

You can get dead tiny LED flashers these days, the sort of thing you get on motorbikes. The aftermarket units that used to get shoved on during the 80s/90s are gash but some of the smaller newer stuff is practically unnoticeable unless illuminated.

I'd quite like to get some centre brake lights fitted to the Acclaim and Dolly as well, if I can work out a discreet fitting option...

[mercrocker]

I'd quite like to get some centre brake lights fitted to the Acclaim and Dolly as well, if I can work out a discreet fitting option...

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