Gary Lewis

Looking good, Ron!!!

Interesting reads. And what people are saying confirms my experience and what I've read. First, when I put replacement LED's in Big Blue's brake light sockets I was disappointed. I still have an LED in one side and a regular bulb in the other and it is obvious - the regular bulb is brighter. And the reason is as has been explained - the housings and lenses were designed for the tungsten bulbs that are essentially point-sources. But the LED's I've tried are anything but point-sources, so they do not work well in our housing. Having said that, I will be trying those that Dan recommended. I trust him - even if he is a MOPAR man. (Well, I do have a Super Bee in my stable, so.....)

EDIT: See this post for a more recent update from Daniel Stern. I'm exploring lighting upgrades for Big Blue and, when the time comes, Dad's truck. In the course of that I've done a lot of reading about the subject, particularly about headlights, and have come to several realizations that I thought I'd share here. First, there is a whole lot of misinformation out there about lighting. So you have to sort through what you read and determine whom to believe. One source that I've learned to put my faith in is Daniel Stern Lighting. In fact, I've found that Daniel is very friendly and helpful, and has responded to my emails quickly and in-depth. Headlamps: Basically we have three possible choices for upgrades: Halogen: Installing a headlamp that uses the H4 replaceable bulb is a significant step up, especially if coupled with a headlamp relay system using larger wiring. But, those headlamps vary significantly in quality, with some being classified as "junk" by Daniel saying "Stay away from it." My old standby of Hella is said to have problems with the low beam and high beam having different aiming points such that if you adjust for the high beams the lows will be way low, and if you adjust for the low beams the highs will be too high. But, the Cibie E-code headlamps are said to be the absolute best, with the Bosch units being good as well. Then there is the question of what bulb to use in the headlamp. Daniel said in an email to me: "Generally the optimal bulbs are precision-focus, ultra high luminance 60/55w items, $43.18/pair. It's tempting to grab for big wattage numbers (100/90, etc) but it's usually not the most productive way forward; please see bulb test results posted by my colleague Virgil at http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?392498-Interesting-headlight-bulb-test-results . Overwattage low beams would not be recommendable on that truck due to the high headlamp mount height -- either you tip the aim down far enough to avoid unsafe levels of glare (and your seeing distance is minimal) or you don't (and you'll eventually get ticketed or road raged for the glare you're causing)." However, Daniel says, and we already knew, that a major part of any upgrade to the headlamps needs to be a set of relays with much larger wiring. He offers a kit, which has the components necessary, including ceramic sockets since the halogen bulbs get hot. HID: On this subject Daniel said "There are no legitimate HID headlamps to fit your vehicle (just headlite-shaped toys/junk). "HID kits" in halogen-bulb headlamps (any kit, any headlamp, any vehicle) do not work safely or effectively, which is why they are illegal whether you buy the lamps and the kit together in one go or separately. See http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html. LED: There are basically two ways to approach this - an LED bulb as a replacement for a halogen bulb, and a purpose-built LED light that has both the reflector and bulb included. What I've learned in my reading is that the LED bulbs that you put in the headlamp in place of a halogen bulb do not work properly at all. And the reason is that a halogen bulb is basically a point-source when viewed from the side so the manufacturer can shape the reflector to aim the light from that point. However, LED's are anything but point-sources and the source of the light is not where it should be, causing the reflection to go where it shouldn't. However, the purpose-built LED units can be very good as the reflector/lens combo was designed with the exact LED light source in mind. Daniel's comments to me were "The "LED bulb conversions" now flooding the market are not a legitimate, safe, effective, or legal product. The failure is at the concept level, not the implementation level. These are a fraudulent scam. Not capable of producing even a fraction of the amount of light produced by the filament bulb they supposedly replace, let alone producing it in the right pattern for the lamp's optics to work. But there's a number of engineered LED headlamps on the market -- they range in quality and performance from pathetic to excellent. The king daddy of them all is the JW Speaker item in chrome https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0120QGXIO/?tag=2402507-20 or black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013588TCY/?tag=2402507-20 . If those aren't in the budget, then get the Truck-Lite item https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ED7HNY/?tag=2402507-20 . Beam focus and width aren't as good as the JW Speaker lamp (there are streaks and spots in the beam pattern), but it's still objectively a fine headlamp. LED headlamps are *not* advisable if you do a lot of wintertime driving with heavy snow and slush; the LED headlamp lenses run cold so snow and ice build up on them instead of melting off like they do from a warm halogen lamp lens. But, in a later email he added "JW Speaker just released the newest version of their top-class LED headlamp in this size: http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/led-headlights-model-8910-evolution-2/?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=image&utm_campaign=8910%20Evolution%202%20Launch&utm_content=slider1" . And, he said that headlamp does have heaters so could be used in heavy snow or slush. Turn Signals/Marker Lamps: Daniel said that he "Can also make your front sidemarker lights 80% brighter for safer all-around visibility of the vehicle, $4.59/bulb. Your turn signals are presently invisible from the side, but there is an easy modification you can make to the front side marker lights' hookup so that they do double-duty as side markers _and_ side turn signal flashers, see http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/markerflash/markerflash.html . This is a very good safety improvement, as your turn signals become visible to the side (cars in the next lane, bicyclists, pedestrians) instead of just front- or rear-on. It is also fully road-legal. With your two-wire side marker lights you have two options for how to do this, both described at the link. Use the logic module method (module kit $59) if you want the side markers always to flash in phase with the front and rear indicators, or use the cross-feed method (no module required, just a couple of wire connectors) if you don't mind opposite-phase flashing of the front side marker light when the parking lamps or headlamps are lit. Either way is legal throughout North America; elsewhere in the world, international rules do not permit opposite-phase flashing because it's considered potentially confusing to an observer who can see both the front and the side flashers at the same time. Brake Lights: Daniel suggested using these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A77TV4Q/?tag=2402507-20 Backup Lights: He suggested these in the factory postion: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TQ8H4KG/?tag=2402507-20. And, for add-on lights since our factory backup lenses don't do much he recommended these: http://www.foxtaillights.com/product/pmc-820kc-10/. If you want to cut the bumper, mount them in these grommets: http://www.levineautoparts.com/peterson-mounting-grommets-421-18.html. Or, use brackets like these: http://www.levineautoparts.com/peterson-mounting-brackets-guards-421-09.html. Day-Time Running Lights: According to Daniel "Daytime running lights significantly reduce your risk of being in a crash during the daytime, and are required equipment in Canada, throughout Europe, and in a large and growing number of other countries throughout the world because they are a very cost-effective safety device (i.e., they work). You can easily enable this functionality in your vehicle using a DRL-1 module ($59); see http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/DRL/DRL1.html for instructions and demonstration videos. This is the best way to put a daytime running light function on a vehicle not originally equipped (or which has had its headlamp-based DRLs disabled for installation of headlight relays). The module enables the steady-burning operation of both front directional signals as daytime running lights (except, of course, when you're signalling for a turn). They produce a light distribution with a wide view angle, are generally well located for DRL service at the outboard edges of the front of the vehicle, consume considerably less power than any headlamp-based DRL implementation, use light sources of generally much longer life than a headlight bulb, do not encourage improper nighttime use of lights, and do not require additional lighting devices to be added. I'll add more as I get further into this and as I make decisions. But, I thought I'd share what I'm learning and get your thoughts as well.

Interesting. Let's let others chime in with their observations and then I can take the empirical data to Nabble.

Hey, drywall is a major milestone! I remember when it went up in my shop, and it transformed things from insulation and electricals running everywhere to a real set of rooms. As for the browser, I wondered if there was a problem with yours. The folks at Nabble said the change they made would cause problems with Safari, so they recommended that I make changes to fix that. Now it appears that Mozilla is a problem? Ok, when a few more chime in and we get a handle on what the issues are with which browser then I'll go back to Nabble. Thanks.

Let's see if I can do this.... 3 pictures embedded, lessee if this works... First picture is the front page of Gary's forum; notice the RH slider bar is at the very top: When I scroll down to the bottom of the content (i.e. to the end of the list of threads) notice the RH slider bar is still pretty close to the top of what the browser considers to be the entire page: When I scroll all the way to the bottom of what the browser considers to be the end of the page (can see that by virtue of the RH slider being at the bottom) notice the "View More" link at the LH side. Myself and a few others needed to click that View More thing in order to see "long" threads, e.g. the one about the foglight switch bezel: ~~ As an aside, another problem since the most recent change.... At the front page, list of threads... Observed Problems is purple BUT Bill Vose had posted and the timestamp representing that was blue to tell me that. I click that blue link which would normally take me to Bill's post, it doesn't do that anymore; instead, it takes me to partially down the FIRST page, I need to scroll down to the bottom of the thread (which is still way above the View More link) and click the furthest RH page number to be taken to the last page (and to Bill's post). I think I heard Rod Serling talking and I've entered the Twilight Zone. Chris - You did a good job of explaining and documenting, but I can't duplicate your symptoms. Chrome doesn't seem to give me View More, even on really long threads like the fog light bezel or WHYDTYTT. In both cases I can scroll to the bottom of the page w/o getting a View More. And, if I click on the timestamp for your post it takes me directly to your post. So, is this a browser issue? Let's see who sees these issues and what browser they are using.

I get that often. When I do there's a note that says "show more" or something to that effect below and to the left of the last line it shows. When I click that I'll get another screen's worth. Sometimes I have to keep doing that over and over, but most of the time it eventually jumps and shows the entire page. It seems to be related to update speed. If I use "Ctrl" with the mouse click to open a thread in a new tab and then don't switch to that tab too soon it doesn't seem to happen. But if I get to the tab before either my computer or the host (I don't know which) is ready to show everything, then I run into it. I'm at a loss on the "View More" thing. I've not seen it, but believe that you are. Let's see if it persists and then I'll go ask Nabble about it. Perhaps we can figure out common denominators first. So please report when you get it.

Being logged out was to be expected with the changes that were made. But I don't understand having to click "View More". Let's see if that persists.

When you only see a bit try increasing or decreasing the zoom on your browser using Control + or Control -.

Was it visible before the post?

Stealing Jim's line, progress is good! And getting things like the spindles done is a big step.

The known problems that this fix was intended for were: You are shown to be logged in, but you type out a long response, hit Post, and it asks for you to log in - and trashes your post. You aren't logged in but it shows that you are. Has happened to Bill, but none others that I've heard of. And, a new-to-me one of the log-in doesn't show but you really are. Hadn't heard of that one, Rembrant, but thanks for sharing it. Nothing in the Bullnose Forum can be found by Google. I wasn't aware of this until very recently. As said, it had something to do with 3rd party cookies and a hack that had been placed in the Nabble code quite some time ago that they took out to fix the problem. So, after they made the change they had me make three changes that should be transparent to y'all. Plus, I've submitted the forum to Google for crawling again. So, hopefully all has been fixed.

FYI, there was one more change that I needed to make and just did it at about 5:50 PM Central. So you may have to log in yet again. Sorry for that. But I think all of the changes have been made and we will try it for a while. So please tell me if you have problems.

Yep. Shapeways just announced their new HP printer that does Nylon. If we get Bill's retainer nailed dimensionally but it doesn't have the needed strength then he can have them print it.

It'll be 9 here in the morning, and the GLK is sitting out. This will be the coldest we've had it, so I'm going to let the glow plugs do their thing for a few seconds before cranking. Never bothered to before, but ....

Nice machine, but at $10K I could wait a while for someone else to make it and ship it to me. However, one of these days those capabilities will come down by a factor of 10. I hope.

Interesting read, Rick. I've seen both the Ford and GM problems that were listed, but haven't seen the Chrysler ones.

I hope it is warmer and drier there than here. Snowed and is around 20. Brrrrr!

Just tried to post from my phone - after typing out a reply. But, I hadn’t logged in since the change so it asked me to log in. I did and it went right back to my post! I didn’t lose it. 👍

I spent that much buying the parts and making my own. So, did you get it installed? Can you tell a difference?

Yes, I should have mentioned the additional log-in. I had to log back in although I had literally just been on the forum making the change. So I'm guessing that was part of it.

I sure hope it fixes it. I tried Edge for a while but have gone back to Chrome because Edge doesn't appear to have the ability to force the results to be "verbatim". Yes, you can put quotes around the text for which you are searching, but if you put the quotes around the whole string then the words have to be in exactly that order. But with Chrome you can say "verbatim" and it forces it to find only those pages that have all of those words.

Thank you for capitalizing "Nylon". As an ex-DuPont employee I should have done so as well. But I didn't realize it is hygroscopic. That would be a problem when heating it above 212. Is storing it in a zip-lock bag sufficient or does it have to be in heated storage? I was fairly up to speed on 3D printing a couple of years ago, but haven't followed it since so I'm sure there have been many, MANY advancements in printers and material in that time.

Jim - I wondered about the ability of PLA to do that job. Do some printers allow the use of nylon? And, that makes sense about smoothness on the bed. Perhaps the HP printer that Ron's sending the bezel to has a really hot bed that makes the first layer quite smooth? That would be handy for the top of the bead since it will be painted silver and texture will show.