Flush Tail Light on Cafe Seat

D

Darkbane

New Member
My current setup has the typical shock side mounted license plate tail light. The quality isn't the greatest and it bends a lot, plus it's really bent after my roommate backed into my bike and knocked it over. So I'm thinking about just installing a tail light into the rear of the seat cowl. I would like this to be as flush as possible. I can't seem to find many options for this. Most setups I see is just a big tail light sticking out the back. I want mine to stay as smooth and clean as possible.

GSRear.jpg


I guess my first question is, doesn't anybody know where I could find a flush mount tail light for a cafe seat?

my Second option is just to fabricate something myself. I don't have rear signals as it is, so I was thinking about getting a large round tail light lens and making a divider in an encloser, and running my signals to the tail light, so that they'll act as the tail light, but also as signals illuminating one side or the other. If I do it this way, I've found tail light lens I can use, but how could I make it completely flush with the contour of the seat cowl. I was wondering if I could boil the lens till it gets a little soft and then bend it the the shape I need for the seat.

Roundlight.JPG


Any thoughts? I've seen some pics with the tail light flush, but on the forums I'm on people don't seem to do it.

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions.
 
You'd have to boil that lens a lot to get it to flex to your seat, and even then it might fold/crease on you as it cooled before you got it to set right. However I do like the idea of a flush tailight, it's on my concept idea page for my seat when I get around to doing it.
 
I went round and round about this as well. If you done mind repaintingbthe seat. You could French in he taillight. Or you could get a rubber disk that will conform to the seat bend, then bolt the flat light to that. Or you could file and sand a wood piece that matches the seat, then lay thenplastic on that and pop it in the oven for a spell. If you're lucky, the light will soften around it.

In then end, I hung mine off the side. On the cb360, I built a seat out of aluminum that will allow a flush mount light...and room for signals if required
 
I found this cool cat eye lens plus it's an led. I was thinking about integrating it into the cowl of the seat
I'm building!http://xchoppers.com/product_info.php?products_id=581 Hope this helps. There are some
other nice lights on this sight that you could french. I thought this would be the best for me. It seams to
be a manageable size, plus the led's are cool.
 
Had another thought on molding the light to your seat. You could find a metal bowl, like a salad bowl, that had a similiar curve as the tail of you seat, place the lens on the bowl then place in the oven to bake. Similar to what you would do for vacuum forming but instead you would let the lens relax onto the bowl. Pull it out once it's relaxed and let it cool. Just watch is carefully cause I've formed some things and the plastic relaxes very quickly.

If you've got another lens or something similiar you could test it on that.
 
jay_kent said:
Had another thought on molding the light to your seat. You could find a metal bowl, like a salad bowl, that had a similiar curve as the tail of you seat, place the lens on the bowl then place in the oven to bake. Similar to what you would do for vacuum forming but instead you would let the lens relax onto the bowl. Pull it out once it's relaxed and let it cool. Just watch is carefully cause I've formed some things and the plastic relaxes very quickly.

If you've got another lens or something similiar you could test it on that.
Click to expand...

That's what I was trying to describe. I would let it cool slowly in the oven.

--Chris
 
You might find what you need looking to the hot rod industry, The light you've posted, I personally wouldn't use. In my opinion it's completely the wrong shape for what you want to do, if you do get it to conform to the curve the refractor array in it and placement of the bulb will have it pointing toward the sky. There are flushmount kits out there designed for hot rods that are made up of led taillights with extra thick lenses. With these you can cut a hole, place the light, bondo any gaps, sand the lens to match the body curve. Then pull the lens out, paint the part and fit it back in. I'd look it up right now if I wasn't at work.
 
Mysta2 >>> I like the sound of what you're talking about. If you have any links to some affordable options, I'd love to see them. I wouldn't use the exact lens that I had pictured, it was more for reference. I was eye-balling a tail light from a C5 corvette, but I'm having a hard time finding out exactly what size it is. It may be a little big, but I like that it's a bit elliptical.
 
Hmm... after much searching through Google I may have made a liar of myself...

this:


Is the closest I found
 
Thanks for the links guys. I'm going to keep searching my options though. I can't justify $100+ on a tail light.

If I could get just the lens for the Flush mount kit, that would be killer, but the hold LED cluster makes it pretty expensive. I can fabricate my own lights, that's not a problem. It's just the lens part I'm having problems with.

Again...thanks for the links. I might try the "heating in the oven" option.
By chance, would anybody know what the tail light of a C5 Corvette measures?

Thanks

DB
 
C5 taillights are HUGE; probably 5" or so. You can go to WalMart and buy a 4" trailer light for $6. It's all plastic, but all you're worried about is the lense. If the oven method doesn't work, you're out $6.

--Chris
 
On link i posted if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can buy just the lens in red or clear!
 
I personally love this Carpy seat+cowl. Found enough inspiration and simply love most of the stuff he's done. You could try something like this, but it would mean cutting the cowl AND repainting it.
 
hi,i think it's a personal taste ..i do not like the chopped back at all as i think it ruins the flow of the seat cowl from the side view, plus this set up conceals the body, all you see is a small lens/rim no gaps or openings either as it fits tight in the grommet...if you want to make your own led tail lamp assy there is a site that calculates the array,led qty and resistors to use then just order the parts up and solder it up...and if you do not want to spend big money on a lens kit go to a junk yard and look around for a lens that you can cut down for your project...i made one for a chopper and one for a bsa a10 and arranged the leds to form a "v" as in my businesses name.....joe@ v cycle
 
very clean also,does not change the lines of the tail section...i bought one of those repop vintage lights and it looked like a kid made it, plastic cover,letters were leaning and different sizes, chessy stuff...so whatch if you buy one. joe@ v cycle
 
Did you guys notice how the rear shocks were mounted at the top. I've never seen that before thats slick.
 
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