Third Brake Light, and Better Mirrors

[wantahertzdonut 10]

Two questions:

 

First, is anyone using a 3rd brake light in their car? If so, what would be a good modern car to pull one out of? I'd have sworn this has come up here before but I couldn't find the discussion.

 

Second, does anyone sell convex mirrors for the side view mirrors? (the kind that say "objects in mirror are closer than they appear"). I'm growing tired of not being able to see anything out of the right mirror, and it's an odd hexagon shape so it's not like I could go find something generic off the shelf.

[bnickel 10,004]

i can't answer your questions but i also would like to know about the mirrors. i wonder if a local glass shop could make one or possibly cut one down from a different car. personally, i'm not a fan of third brake lights unless it can somehow be integrated into the car. the ones that just sit in the package try are ugly as sin. i've seen some pretty cool billet ones but it's still something that would just mount in the package tray.

 

maybe you could get one of the LED bars that could mount in the rear spoiler, now that would be pretty cool and not look like an afterthought.

[wantahertzdonut 10]

I don't have a rear spoiler and I don't have any ambition to get one. Personally I'm not so concerned about how "perfect" a brake light looks, as I'll take a little "not right" over getting rear ended. I've had too many close calls with people getting very close to the back of my car to worry. A less-than-perfect brake light is much prettier than a wrecked car.

 

That's a good idea to have a glass shop cut a mirror down, I'll have to see what's out there. I was just hoping someone knew of a company making convex replacements.

[Pakrat 1,043]

I don't have a rear spoiler and I don't have any ambition to get one. Personally I'm not so concerned about how "perfect" a brake light looks, as I'll take a little "not right" over getting rear ended. I've had too many close calls with people getting very close to the back of my car to worry. A less-than-perfect brake light is much prettier than a wrecked car.

 

That's a good idea to have a glass shop cut a mirror down, I'll have to see what's out there. I was just hoping someone knew of a company making convex replacements.

 

I think B meant the spoilered lip of your trunk lid, not a pedastal spoiler like you are probably thinking. That would be much more sweet looking than a package tray one, but if safety is your manin concern then why limit yourself to a stock mirror housing either? I have never seen a stock mirror with convex but that doesn't mean you can't put on a more modern mirror design that already has a convex in it. Surely that would be prettier than a blind spot as well. Are you still running stock brake lights in your housings? If so an LED conversion would give you the extra visual "I'm stopping now" aid you need without sacraficing looks or safety.

[Pakrat 1,043]

For example, think about even a Ford product intigrated into the back of the trunk lid like say off the 99-04 crowd like this:

 

Or even a smaller one like the 94-98 cars had:

 

[Pakrat 1,043]

All though I have all but decided against it, I actually had considered doing somehting like this to the lip on my new shelby decklid. Instead of just painting that recess black and putting back the chrome Mustang letters I had considered intigrating a modern 99 mustang third barake light into it and then possibly putting one of those vinyl apliques over it so that it waould all look blacked out until I hit the brakes, maybe even one that lit up Mustang as well. I have pretty much decided to the LED conversion though instead, possibly with sequential, not sure yet though.

 

[wantahertzdonut 10]

Now I gotcha. That would be a pretty slick idea, if I find a trunk lid at the Columbus swap meet I may pick one up for that purpose. Mine is in perfect shape so I'd hate to chop it up for a brake light. If not I'll start trolling the junkyards for one to mount in the top of the rear window.

 

I think I'm going to get the LED taillights too. Mine show up nicely but I'd like to have a very defined "brake" light, mine aren't much brighter than the regular taillights. I've heard of the kits, but who sells them? I'd also prefer not to get sequential lights. As cool as they are they don't do it for me for some reason.

[bnickel 10,004]

www.mustangproject.com has the LED lights. i'm not sure if they have one that is non-sequential but if not, i think Scott Drake is making them as well.

[wantahertzdonut 10]

Mustang Project has non-sequential brake lights for $140/set. It's a bit more than I expected, but might still be worth it. I'll probably lookin into the 3rd light first though.