L542 LED conversion

On the way back from viewing a very nice Aceca a couple of weeks ago, I saw a white Healey 3000 in a layby which had sustained significant rear three-quarter damage from a 'rear-ending'.  This turned out to be someone heading for Oakham to partake in the following day's Prologue Tour, for which we had entered the Cooper 'S', so I got to chat to him about it.  Someone apparently just drove into the back of him, with no clue why - he was now in a hire car, but had been quoted over £20k for the repairs (the centre section, or 'shroud', of a Healey's body is aluminium).

I had noticed that the damaged car was a pre-'64 Healey, with single red taillamp on each side and using a DB10 relay in the same manner as the leafspring Cobras.  This is the third Healey I've seen that's been rear-ended in this way, and was enough to make me decide to forsake originality in this one area and go for a conversion to amber indicators.  I did buy a set of Spiyda's L542 LED conversions a while back, when Paul first was involved with them - but chose not to fit them, as having followed cars fitted with them I was concerned about the relative invisibility of the indicators* when the brake lights were illuminated.  I reasoned that the flashing red indicator with the brake light extinguished by the DB10 gave clearer indication of my intentions.

Chris had a Spiyda stand at the NEC Restoration show in March, and generation 3 (or4) of the L542 kit was on display.  It was so bright it was truly painful to look at indoors, so I thought I'd give them a go.  They're now installed, which was so easy it defies description.  The set is beautifully made and very robust.  I presume the layout is the same as the earlier models, with taillight and brakelight in the lower section and the indicator alone at the top.  The LEDs are arranged in a radial layout which kind of mimics a filament bulb, but now there seems to be much clearer definition between stoplamp and indicator when both are active.

The even better bit is that with everything else still filament-lit, there is still enough resistance to power the original bimetallic-strip flasher can.  The electronic replacements are nasty black plastic boxes (although bettercarlighting makes one in a plain, longer than original aluminium can).  However this is a very visible component on a Cobra, so it's nice to be able to use my correctly-date-stamped Lucas period original can with the LED rears.

* Probably just my aging eyesight...