Thread: Evil genius wanted.

bah, bugger the mirrors, go with a 50cal on each chassis rail...

Originally Posted by incisor

bah, bugger the mirrors, go with a 50cal on each chassis rail...

Geez... and here I was trying to be subtle...

Hi,
A long time ago when it was fashionable to have twin overhead foxtails and pom-poms around the rear window to really look cool while you did a few blockies, I was seriously hassled by a hoon in his hot rod with lights on high beam and continually coming up menacingly close behind and generally being a right pain.
Perhaps spoiling for a 'drag'.
I had been out on a job, and still had the trusty old Graflex 5x4 press camera on the seat beside me, complete with a very powerful flash gun that ran PF50 flashbulbs.
Now for those that don't remember the old flashbulbs, they are the size of a 100W light bulb, and burn to a peak brilliance in about 0.1 seconds, melting the plastic coating the on the glass that is there to stop the thing exploding.
In a word, they are dazzling.
Black spots before the eyes and total loss of night vision with a negative image of the lamp and reflector burned into the retina for a minute or so if you are unfortunate enough to look directly at one in action.
As we were approaching a roundabout, complete with post and rail fencing (not a good idea for road saftey), I unclipped the flashgun already loaded with a bulb, and at what I thought was the critical moment, pointed it back to the rear window. With my eyes tight I pressed the open flash button and seconds later manoeuvred around the roundabout successfully with out any bright lights at all in my rear vision at all.

Now in retrospect, simply adjusting the mirror may have been a more appropriate action, but I was fairly naive at the time, feeling threatened and wanted to escape the situation with out speeding.

At the time I thought it was a spectacular success.

The fence was replaced by Works and Jerks a few days later.

cheers

Easy, ramp your speed down slowly until they are up your date. Or pick up speed then back off, pick your time and hit the picks staying in the middle of your lane.

Your rear cross member is usually a bit more robust than there plastic lowered bumper, lights and radiator. Then hop out for a chat.

The problem isn’t just the high beam behind you but also the oncoming cars who flash there lights.

Your only options are, to deal with the situation and benefit the safety of all drivers and passengers, or pull over and pray that some other poor bugger don’t end up in a ditch

In NSW "fog lights" are illegal unless there is fog, rain or any other atmospheric condition other than clear weather. In NSW it is not a demerit offence but attracts a penalty of $81 last time I checked.

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

Driving home up the hill the other night and finally got jack of those glaring headlights blasting my mirrors.

Now here's my plan.

I need an evil genius to set up system aim the mirrors back at the offending driver by tilting the electric wing mirrors (Caravelle, not Defender) so that the beam is reflected back, and all on the fly.

Whaddaya reckon, who's up for it?



Oh, and I guess it has to have an off switch, sort of like a reverse high-beam.

Go to your local uni which teaches mechatronics and suggest it as a project for one of their 4th year students.

My series3 work ute has a couple of "large" 150W worklights facing rearward and wired through a switch to operate as either worklights or reversing lights via the gearlever going into reverse.
At times the reverselight switch fails and the worklights come on.
( I think the fault is caused by reflections in my rear vision mirror, as the worklights go out once the following vehicle has dipped his lights).

At the moment I can't work out how to fix the problem.

Disco Denmark

The problem is that 99.9% of the idiots who have them on either think they are "cool" or are using Daytime Running Lamps. Have a look around a few of the street forums and all the spotty boy racers think that they are the bees knees having them on.
As I pointed out to somebody once before, read the owners manual that comes with the car, believe it or not it tells you in black and white that they are fog lights, then, read the road rules and find out that you are breaking the law as well a ****ing people off.
Last week there was a blitz around here on vehicles with defective lighting.
Not 1 was booked for having fog lights on when it's patently obvious that about 10% of the cars on the road at night have them on.
Either it's a ****y law that the cops couldn't be bothered with or nobody's told them.
Fair Dinkum, I'll be going to prison for smashing some soon. I had a laugh last night, (and scored a Fifty for the Tow), but I actually getting too ****ed of to drive at night, especially when it's raining and they reflect up of the road as well.