reflectors on back bumper

[true knight]

i know someone already done this but
do the reflectors have to be a pacific lengh and placement?

anthony

[GuestGuest]

erm......... as long as they can be seen through the blackout when a light is shined on it thay are fine and no more alteration is needed.

Rik

[Tony Westwood]

I don't know mate, but mine's passed 3 MOTs now with them like this....

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So copy this set up if you like

[GuestGuest]

mine passed with none. they only need to be seen at night when lights hit them. Its personal preference really lol.

Rik

[Tony Westwood]

Yeah, I noticed Mark's KITT hasn't got any either.

I suppose it depends upon the MOT guy and how he's understood the regulations about what is legal.

[lutonmatt]

mine passed ok
was a good looking tester that did mine lol
and when he did it well sort of he changed allthe carpet at teh same time
lol

[GuestGuest]

yeah, but if in doubt stick em on the already reflective number plate rofl.

Rik

[Tony Westwood]

hey Matt, isn't there a regulation against MOTing your own car????

[lutonmatt]

nope i have moted all my own cars
i am the only one that tests yanks at my place the other 2 dont like testing them or even anything old i get all them

[Newcastle knight]

cant say ive had any reflectors on my car, i took the outer lenses off my lights to fit the blackout, and the reflective strip is on them.

If you cant see the back of my car without a stupid reflective strip then you shouldnt be driving ! lol

[Tony Westwood]

nope i have moted all my own cars
i am the only one that tests yanks at my place the other 2 dont like testing them or even anything old i get all them

LOL, I was talking about the "Conflict of Interests" thing (you know, the fact that it is in the interest of Road Safety to fail any car not up to scratch, but not in YOUR best interest to fail that car if it belongs to you, LOL).

Tony

[lutonmatt]

well that is true
the only car i have tested right was my 78 as i did not know the bloke i was selling it to

[Tony Westwood]

Oh that's charming!!!

So if you'd been selling it to someone you knew (like ME) then it would have been a "Death-Trap"???

[lutonmatt]

of course what more would you want lol
you coming to the kent meet sunday if its dry dont know if i will be in kitt or on the bike

[Tony Westwood]

I don't know mate, I still don't want to risk driving KITT until I can find out what is causing the massive power loss over 3.5K rpm (if it goes "Bang" on me I'd have REAL problems getting it sorted when there's no-one local to me and the car would be a non-runner).

[lutonmatt]

no worrys might be raining yet as normal lol

[Tony Westwood]

Ever the optimist as usual I see

Anyway, back on topic, Anthony... in case you hadn't figured it out from the friendly banter, Matt here is an MOT inspector, so I'm sure that if there were any regulations about the size & placement of the reflectors for MOTs Matt would know about it.

So unless Matt suddenly comes back with something, I think you are okay to do whatever you want my friend (as long as they can be seen).

[knight2]

Hi guys
My tuppence worth
I too have a blackout fitted with the entire stock lights underneath.
You can see my reflectors at night as i was in another car and the headlights illuminated it perfecty.
The reflecters are there for safety reasons and that is why at night when parking, you should be facing the same way as the traffic flow as if the street is poorly lit the cars coming down the road can see clearly your car from the rear.

Scott.
Its not a good idea to not have none fitted.Why did you have to remove the stock light lenses.For your information the origional KITT's had the stock lights with blackout over the top.if you look in some season 3 episodes you can clearly see this.Besides removing the stock outer lense runs the risk of water ingress around your lights.
I remember all to well the KOE ones that were very prone to breaking and required the stock lights to be removed.
I have Don Colies version made from lexan which is super tough and i lightly tinted the necessary parts as it is a bit light in colour.I made sure my rear fogs (integrated into the outer rear lights) and indicators/reflector were'nt too dark but made sure the Pontiac logo and other rear lense parts were.

Hope this helps..............Be SAFE...........

............Kev

[Tony Westwood]

Hi Kev, I think THAT is the problem it all depends upon which tailights you have as well as which blackout you have too.

I've had to remove the outer smoked cover from my tailights in order to fit the blackout, and inner covers have no reflectors on them.
I have heard that there is a way of cutting the outer covers down so that they will still fit under a blackout, but so far I haven't been brave enough to attempt this (which is why I have reflectors on my bumper instead for now).

Either way I agree with you that you should definetly have one form of reflector or the other (whether required for MOT or not) as it reduces the chances of anyone hitting your KITT while it is parked up) and remember guys NOT EVERYONE WILL STOP TO OWN UP WHEN THEY HIT YOUR CAR (as I have found out a few times now, even KITT has been "Hit & Run" once already).

Tony

[knight2]

Hi Tony

I'm sorry to hear that........

Maybe i should'bve been clearer in that the 82-84 lights's you should have no issues, and i was always not happy with some blackout's, in that you had to remove the outer stock cover!

I believe you're reffering to the sanding down of the ribbs on the 82-84 covers so the covers sits more flush.
I did mine a different way to get it nearly perfect and complete.
I removed the mounting metal studs and hack sawed off a fraction of the plastic on the outer three screw studs .Then when winding the studs back in they allow the stock light to sit back further but not too much they touch or restrict the lamp holders or hit the body of the car.This saves sanding the ribs down and is easier if tricky to do.
I also added a couple of washers to the rear hatch securing bar ,to allow it to drop down a fraction further and avoid making contact with Don's heat bended top of his cover.Mine now looks good and allieviates all those 'niggles' in every way.

Mind you i had to go through the 'trial and error' phase as i believe most do.

..............Kev

[GuestGuest]

well, the blackouts were never fitted that well to the originals to be honest.

The tailgates were shifted back a bit so that the blackouts went behind it, then they were held on with 4 screws at the bottom on brackets that came from under neath the stock lights. Never once did they actually screw into the lenses. As these were only needed to be good enough for screen reasons thats all they did. But with ours being show cars etc we want a neater look. I have a very simple solution to getting a flusher fitting blackout. you remove all lights. then flatten all the holed mounting points, trim the small like recessed piece of trim off the top of the light clusters and presto they go back further. simples.

Rik

[lutonmatt]

here is what the mot book says about them

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[Newcastle knight]

Thats just the way i done it Kev, and the way most other people had done it too when i done mine so i just went with the flow and removed the outer lenses. The rear lights i got for my car were/are mint removed from a recaro so i didnt want to hack the lenses up or anything incase for some reason my blackout got damaged and i had to put them back on for a while.

Ive got the old style KOE blackout on mine still, its got a couple of little cracks here and there some it will probably go one year, so whenever i replace it i'll probably look at a better way of mounting.

Infact i could probably install a universal reflective strip behind the blackout itself, hmmm

[Tony Westwood]

I don't suppose you've got any pics of how you do the tailight modification have you mate?

[pbryant_knight]

I used to have a reflective strip on magnetic material that i could take on and off the edge of the boot lip.

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