Inspired by posts about cars people wish they still had, I found a photo of my 1962 Mercedes-Benz 220, a possession I should have kept for a lot of reasons — including the fact it would have been a good investment.
But then, remorse over cast-away treasures is a common experience as we age. Sometimes we discover such articles in a sock drawer, or hidden on a shelf, joyful we didn’t discard them after all. That won’t happen with the car — I distinctly remember selling it to a nurse who worked at Deaconess Hospital.
I had bought it from my girlfriend’s older sister in 1971, for $600. It cost $3500 new, and was only nine years old. Although afflicted with a slipping clutch, I thought it was a bargain. That said, I was in college, too poor to be an auto enthusiast, too dumb not to be.
I always liked the cornering light feature on my previous two cars, particularly when negotiating the steep drop at the end of our driveway after dark. It’s not a Mustang option, but my 2014 V6 Pony Edition has (had) amber corner markers in the right place on the bumper.
So, I started shopping for clear aftermarket lenses. I found lots of them for my model — so many, in fact, I was amazed nobody was touting them for cornering lights. Hm. Maybe for good reason, but I had to find out.
I bought fixtures and a pair of five-element LED lamps to replace the stock 194 size bulbs. eBay. Total cost, less than $22.
There are two ways that I know of to get into the space behind the bumper where the lampholders lurk. Look on YouTube for tutorials, but I can tell you (1) ingress through the wheel-well liner requires removal of 5 screws, and (2) the job took 1 hour 20 minutes, and (3) I scraped my arms bloody doing it.
After all that, I would have been disappointed if it didn’t work, but it did – kind of.
Yes, the mod lights up the pavement in the right spot, but a road test revealed that the LED bulbs I bought aren’t bright enough to make a difference.
I may experiment with another bulb, but I’m not looking forward to sticking my arms in there again. And, I have to wonder if a brighter bulb might be too hot for the lamp holder. OEM cornering lamps only come on when the turn signals are operating, allowing use of a very bright bulb. The stock corner lights on a Mustang are on all the time.
I could wire a latching relay into the turn signal circuit, connect the corner markers to it, yada yada yada. I don’t think that’s going to happen. If you try this setup with a hot bulb, sufficient to throw useful illumination on the road, let us know if anything melts.
Did you try something cool recently? Tell us about it in the comments.
John Dyer Writes 
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