Replacement Light Glass - An Option

[wildebus]

Now I had to take off a light fitting off in my Motorhome to access the cavity behind to do some wiring. Nothing unusual about that really.

This is the 240V fitting in question

Now there is a decorative frosted glass plate in front of the fitting (this is the the one opposite)

Now I discovered two things about these glass fronts ....

1) They don't bounce very well if you let them slip through your hands

and;
2) The company that produced them for Autotrail went out of Business in 2011 and replacements are not available
I called Autotrail, who while very pleasant, were unable to help me.

So tried suppliers who may have old stock ...
I called Brownhills, who were unable to provide the parts but pointed me to Magnum Motorhomes
I called Magnum, who are located in Grimsby same as Autotrail and often buy clearance obsolete parts from Autotrail. They were unable to help.

So needed to work on an alternative solution as I couldn't just leave the fitting exposed!


Perspex to the Rescue!
Visited a local company that creates stuff in the stuff and came up with a suitable perspex that had the same thickness with a frosted front. Then they cut to size and curved

Next Step - paint the back in white same as the original glass was

Used my modelling kit for this - so Vallejo Acrylic paint sprayed on in the booth and then sprayed on a coat of floor finish for protection (sounds strange I know, but a floor finish rather than varnish works very well in an airbrush)

And comparing the Acrylic Front with the original Glass Front ...
These are the backs

And time to fit, along with a comparision
Glass, then Perspex

And same again with the light on (Glass first, then Perspex) ...

One thing I am still waiting to arrive are a pair of LED bulbs to fit in place of the standard ones. The heat from a normal 40W bulb could potentially cause a problem with the perspex due to heat so replacing with a 5W LED will eliminate that.
While waiting, I did a trial with a single LED Bulb I have with the Perspex shade and it looks just fine

The dimmer is a bit lower when I took this photo but looked good all the way from off to full.
Oh yes, the lights are on a dimmer so need to get dimmable 240V bulbs for the fitting.


Pleased with how this has turned out and that my butterfingers moment didn't turn into a major hassle, just a bit of an annoying temporary inconvenience.
It is a different shade of white to the original Shade which I expected due to the natural product and paint variance, and for that reason asked for a pair of shades to be made so I could have two matching replacements.

 

[Millie Master]

Dave I was about to type don't forget to fit a low energy LED bulb so as to reduce the heat and there in about the next line you wrote exactly the same thing!
That is a brilliant result, but just as a meaningful question, would it be possible to buy some opaque or self coloured perspex to make these covers with with rather than spray painting the clear perspex?

An amazing result, well done

Phil

 

[wildebus]

Dave I was about to type don't forget to fit a low energy LED bulb so as to reduce the heat and there in about the next line you wrote exactly the same thing!
That is a brilliant result, but just as a meaningful question, would it be possible to buy some opaque or self coloured perspex to make these covers with with rather than spray painting the clear perspex?

An amazing result, well done

Phil

Cheers Phil.

I looked at the various perspex sheets the chap had in stock and the frosted clear was the clear winner, if you excuse the pun
I don't think you get frosted coloured glass? The frosted aspect was important as keen to replicate the original as closely as possible. I was happy to paint the back as that was how the original glass was coloured as well so again keeping the same approach.

I had the advantage of having an Airbrush but if I didn't I would have bought a white primer Aerosol for the job (primer would be better than a white top coat paint to allow the light to pass though I think).

 

[SquirrellCook]

I don’t know if it’s true of all paints, but when I was weighing out the paint for Murk. I noticed the white primer was heavier for a said volume. I’d assume that meant it had more solids?

Overwhelmed with your results.

 

[trevskoda]

Why are they not 12v,where do you get 240 from.
Also i took a reading here in house and its 230v, is mainland higher volts.

 

[wildebus]

could be the case? maybe I am thinking primer as tend to have lighter coats with primer? I used a finish paint but modelling paints are much thinner than car paints (to work with the smaller airbrush spray needles)
I actually really dislike painting white. It always tends to splatter and clog up the spray gun or airbrush faster. No idea why, but it does.

 

[wildebus]

Why are they not 12v,where do you get 240 from.
Also i took a reading here in house and its 230v, is mainland higher volts.

they are 240V because they are 240V and how Autotrail do it for those lights. I think it is pretty typical for factory Motorhomes and Caravans to have both Mains and Battery Lights. If no 240V mains available, then I just use the standard 12V lights instead (of which there are numerous).
I could have rewired to the Leisure Battery instead and fitted 12V E14 Bulbs but actually I like the idea of having both types available as I could disconnect the 12V system and still have working lights

The "240V" vs 230V question is a different matter and too off-topic for this thread.

 

[Millie Master]

My first caravan had a single 12v light in some gaud awful shade, it also had 4 gas mantles.
All my other caravans had a mixture of 240 and 12 volt lighting.
My 'Millie' only has 12v LED lighting which when we are on hook up are, in turn, powered by the mains.
At home, the down lighting strips I have in the kitchen are 12v which have a 12/240 transformer built in in-line. They are the very same 12v self adhesive strips I bought from Toolstation

Phil

 

[trevskoda]

they are 240V because they are 240V and how Autotrail do it for those lights. I think it is pretty typical for factory Motorhomes and Caravans to have both Mains and Battery Lights. If no 240V mains available, then I just use the standard 12V lights instead (of which there are numerous).
I could have rewired to the Leisure Battery instead and fitted 12V E14 Bulbs but actually I like the idea of having both types available as I could disconnect the 12V system and still have working lights

The "240V" vs 230V question is a different matter and too off-topic for this thread.

Surly if on hook up the battery charger will work and feed the hab battery so 12v lights only would save having two sets of lights, seems daft to me.

 

[wildebus]

Surly if on hook up the battery charger will work and feed the hab battery so 12v lights only would save having two sets of lights, seems daft to me.

I'm not going to defend or to criticise on this thread the fact that there are both 240V and 12V lights in the typical Motorhome and/or Caravan. It is just a fact that there are. It is an interesting discussion for the pros and cons of doing that, but let's do that in a separate thread on that topic as it is not pertinent in any way to why I started THIS topic.

 

[SquirrellCook]

Trevor, don't steal Dave's thunder

 

[wildebus]

Trevor, don't steal Dave's thunder

It's just a matter of keeping things relevant. Trev raises a very good point, but just (IMO) in the wrong place.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I'm having to do similar but less complex. previous owners of the present van never bothered to remove the protective covers of the ceiling light lenses, and the covers had labels on them which to my eyes was dreadful and lazy so off they came, disaster they had faded except where the label was.

I've bought some Perspex off eBay big enough to cut them out of and after 3 attempts I got the opacity right so it allows light through but you can't see the gubbins above, I keep meaning to buy a fine jigsaw blade so I can cut them out, fixing will be a challenge but I think 2 SS screws will work.

This is most likely our last vans as we can't really downsize from this as they don't make a PVC to our needs.

 

[wildebus]

I'm having to do similar but less complex. previous owners of the present van never bothered to remove the protective covers of the ceiling light lenses, and the covers had labels on them which to my eyes was dreadful and lazy so off they came, disaster they had faded except where the label was.

I've bought some Perspex off eBay big enough to cut them out of and after 3 attempts I got the opacity right so it allows light through but you can't see the gubbins above, I keep meaning to buy a fine jigsaw blade so I can cut them out, fixing will be a challenge but I think 2 SS screws will work.

This is most likely our last vans as we can't really downsize from this as they don't make a PVC to our needs.

View attachment 5672

View attachment 5673

couple of suggestions ....
Cutting with a jigsaw could be tricky. Perspex has a tendency to shatter and split with little provocation - if you have a dremel-like tool you might find it easier?
Securing the cover could maybe work using a hot glue gun around the edge? that would keep in in place on the surround nicely I think.

It is so strange the labels on a light were never removed. why would someone leave labels on lights?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I dunno it had 5 owners when we got it, must have all been muppets easy to believe as I had a lot of work to do on it mainly cosmetic and fixed with superglue, plugs and longer screws maybe they all had stiff necks and never looked up, but even then tey would see it laid in bed and that would drive me nuts until I'd taken them off, but they didn't look like they had seen a finger nail on the labels or the plastic wrapping

This is the actual label I pulled off, but I never managed to find any replacements, but that was almost two years ago.

 

[trevskoda]

Pudsey they look like old flossies from the dark ages, you can buy led replacements.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

that's a pic I took when I took the lenses down Trev, I have already fitted the new LED tubes, work fine but we rarely use them.

 

[trevskoda]

that's a pic I took when I took the lenses down Trev, I have already fitted the new LED tubes, work fine but we rarely use them.

I have mine also on a remote on my key fob as well as switched at the dash, handy for my step lights when coming. back to the van if getting dark

 

[Nabsim]

Fluorescent tubes are hardly any different to led for power consumption, at least the size you usually get in motorhomes aren’t (12v ones)

 

[Pudsey Bear]

10w for the flo, and 4.5w for the LED tubesI got, 300mm


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Pardon our interruption...