[Staowners] Rear Light Lens

Fri Aug 3 14:37:30 EDT 2007

All. I'm looking for a lens for over my license plate on the Alpine. Anyone
know where I can find one? Also, I'm looking for a set of wheel trims for
the car. Frank

  _____  

From: staowners-bounces at sunbeamtalbot.info
[mailto:staowners-bounces at sunbeamtalbot.info] On Behalf Of
starcars8 at comcast.net
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 1:00 PM
To: Max King; Mal Clark; Staowners at sunbeamtalbot.info
Subject: Re: [Staowners] Rear Light Lens

More on Mk111 tail lights. The Mk111 "wedge " shaped lens covered a one bulb
tail light. the stop light filament also did double duty as the flasher
element enabled by the use of a Lucas DB10/L relay which  allows the flasher
to operate when the brake is applied. Very similar to  a lot of US cars. So
with the brake applied you have one brake light on steady and the other
flashing. I have wired my Mk11 and 11a via a double pole switch to have
flasher only or flasher and trafficators. The flasher only being more
effective for freeway use. Doing it this way also retains the original
lights with no "add on's" to detract from the original look. Export Alpines
with flashers also had the reverse light incorporated into the license plate
light.

                                                        Pete

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Max King <mjking at pobox.upenn.edu> 
These are all Lucas Type 464 taillamp assemblies -- the lenses varied based
on whether 1 or 2 bulbs in the 464 body.  These red lenses had
correspondingly either 1 or 2 "centering cones" (Lucas nomenclature), which
are approx. 1" Fresnel circles molded into the lens over the bulb location.
The red lenses are (pictures attached):

464A (Lucas 572673): one centering cone, used for one stop/marker bulb
("Non-Flashing")

464B (Lucas 572672): two centering cones, used for one stop/marker bulb and
one turn signal bulb (two bulbs) ("Flasher Type")

464E (Lucas 572876): Fitted to Mk3 90s (this lens is wedge-shaped and
compensates for the curvature of the body): two centering cones, used for
one stop/marker bulb and one turn signal bulb ("Flasher Type").  For some
reason , the Rootes parts manual lists and shows Lucas 572888, which is a
one bulb/centering cone lens, but most of the Mk3s I'm familiar with have
turn signal flashers and are fitted with two-cone lenses...  By that time,
UK cars were no longer fitted with trafficators but had turn signal
flashers, and at the recent STAR rally, I only recall seeing two-cone
"flasher" lenses on Mk3s -- any comment by Mk3 owners?

All of the above have either 464A, 464B, or 464E molded into the surface of
the lens.

Just to complicate things, in later years to reduce stock, Lucas made a
replacement lens also listed as 572672, which had three centre cones and
thus could be used as replacements for either one or two bulb 464 lights.
These have no "ribs" on the surface and are made of a more modern red glass
that is a bit brighter (but the original 464As & Bs are remarkably bright if
in good condition).   Some stockists still carry these replacement lenses,
but are not cor rect for the period of our cars (but perfectly functional).

Relative rarity:

--464As are relatively available and can be picked up at UK autojumbles for
as little as 50p -- these were fitted to a lot of UK cars.

--The 464Bs are getting quite rare and fetch a premium whenever they show up
on eBay (this I know from experience).  These I speculate were fitted mostly
to cars exported from the UK.

--The 464Es (for the Mk3) are mildly rare and can be reasonably priced; they
were fitted to many cars as well following the demise of trafficators.

Regarding reversing lights, generally only Mk3s were fitted with the number
plate lights that incorporated a reversing lens (although some folks I've
consulted are of the opinion that some earlier cars, particularly export
Alpines, were also fitted with the reversing lens number plate lights).  If
you are using red lenses with a non-reversing number plate light,
appropriate period Lucas reversing lights would be the ubiquitous Type 494
or possibly Type 661.

Hope this is useful.

Cheers! --Max

At 11:14 AM 8/2/2007, Mal Clark wrote:

Hi all, wonder if some of you over in the other parts of the world can
answer a question,asked of me by Bob Stewart,(Aussie Bob) as we know export
Sunbeam Talbots and Alpines didnt have Indicator arms, But had Flashing
indicators, he wants to know what configurations was on the rear lights as
far as the lens go, according to the parts manual, export Sunbeams had two
types of rear lens a Lucas number of 572673 listed as Non Flashing Lens,and
a Lucas Number of 572672 Flashing lens,these are not the numbers for the Mk3
Sunbeams,which I think used the same red lens for all world supply, Back to
the two others mentioned above, I have a flat red lens off of my early ex
USA Alpine,but want to know what the other lens was? no pictures of these
lens in Parts Book, and are these lens easly obtained,? Bob has reproduced
the Curved White lens for the rear of the home market cars and what we had
here in Aus,and is willing to pro duce the red lens for export cars,anyone
help. last question,if all the export cars had red rear lens,can we assume
there were no provision, (apart from MK3) for reverse lights?  Thanks Mal
Clark.
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