Re: [T3] was>Too many rear-enders - Rear Lighting

[Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org>]

On 22 Oct 2002, at 13:41, CAD Man wrote:

>  You would not believe how much more light pours out when there's
> good contact AND all these reflective surfaces are....well, reflective.

I'll second this. I believe that more than half of the light that comes out of the 
lights and streams to the rear is reflected off the reflector. If this part of your 
taillight assemby is corroded the brightness will go down by MUCH MORE 
than half. The reason this is true is that the reflector is shaped to direct all 
the light that hits it toward the rear, while the light that doesn't hit the 
reflector streams out in all directions, basically undirected.

A dull or corroded reflector makes a HUGE difference.

I once had a friend who had a car with a single Lucas replacable bulb 
headlight. I think it was actually one of the Lucas Flamethrowers. I thought it 
must be cool, and it clearly worked okay because I had checked it out in the 
daylight and it looked okay to me. Somewhat later he was driving behind me 
and I noticed that the Lucas lamp seemed to be almost dead. Upon 
examination I discovered that the bulb was fine, but the reflector was totally 
shot. Good bulb or not, that headlight was worthless. 

That was my first real lesson in the value of sealed beams, where the 
reflective coating is sealed away from the weather and won't ever go dull on 
you.

-
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Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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