Upgrades 9. High Level Rear Brake Lights

After a week of driving the car it is noticeable how a small percent of people (mainly those in SUV's it seems) like to drive as close to the back of you as possible. When they are that close, the brake lights can't be seen easily, so with that in mind I decided to get some better visibility on the rear of when I put the brakes on, so I went for some high level rear lights.

There are loads of options out there to choose from but for me none of them ticked the aesthetic box as well as the double round lights from JAL. I knew where I wanted to mount them and how I could make them look like they should be there, rather than looking like something bolted on afterwards.

I bought two of them from JAL here, with the 32mm P-Clip for the trackday rollbar, this means they will mount on the cross parts or the bits which slant to the rear of the car. If you want to mount them on the main part, you need a 38mm clip.

To hide the P Clip and make it look like it should be there when mounted, I first removed the rubber outer seal and then painted a few coats of Hammerite Black Metal paint on parts that needed it. Once this was dry I then got some left over Carbon Vinyl wrap from another mod and covered the central part with it. I then attached the rubber to the outside again to finish it off. I also painted the bolts and washer in black to remove any bare aluminium from sight. I then chose to attach them on the slanted part of the roll bar as shown.

Once they were both in place I used some 25mm wide gorilla tape to secure the wire to the diagonals, and a black cable clip at the bottom (where it is hidden in the boot). The gorilla tape was spliced to make it 20mm wide and I used a black sharpie to make the edge of the tape black. It was applied to the underside of the diagonals and once in place you really cannot see it at all.

the rear right cable was then sent through the boot and spade connectors were added and it was plugged in to the female spade connectors that Caterham kindly leave for you to use. I then checked this light worked before moving on.

The next job was to join the left rear light to the circuit. for this I simply cut the right light wire in half in the boot, and used wago connectors to join them all up, I also applied some heatshrink around all 3 cables. The connections and cables were hidden behind the fuel filler cover so there is absolutely no trace of the wires in the boot.

Overall I'm really happy with the finish and much more confident that people behind will see me when I put the brakes on.