SMB Penthouse Brake Light is Loose

[Twoxentrix]

^^^^^ I have the same ^^^^^

But, I do have rubber gaskets between the third brake light and the top - kind of useless since the housing doesnt really have any pressure to create a good seal.

[BUFFALO]

Mine has what looks like was originally double sided sticky foam tape.
Of course it’s not sticky at this point.
It’s amazing what they put out as a finished product. Especially all of the top issues.
Anyone have a link to a good LED replacement lamp?

[joefromsf]

Thanks for the additional posts and pics today.


I went back out this afternoon and took a closer look. No holes on the side for screws like snomad and Twoxentrix have.


I'm leaning towards it having been installed with a two sided sticky foam gasket or tape like BUFFALO, where the penthouse side is no longer sticky.
Its a very inadequate solution for a vehicle with 4WD ambitions as the relatively large mass extending into the penthouse bounces around. I can also tell that my penthouse side fabric comes in contact with that mass when the top is down.


I'll still contact SMB West to get their take on it, but I'm leaning towards the simplicity of the screws in the side. With more attention to detail than SMB Texas I'm sure I can get a snugger fit.

[Scalf77]

Sorry for the bad picture, but I don't own the van anymore, but i was able to find this in my picture album.


You can just see a part of the clamp right hand side. This would be relatively easy to make out of some aluminum.

-greg

[joefromsf]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

Sorry for the bad picture, but I don't own the van anymore, but i was able to find this in my picture album.


You can just see a part of the clamp right hand side. This would be relatively easy to make out of some aluminum.

-greg

Yeah, that's kinda what I imagined you were describing earlier and had me thinking how to fab something. I even looked at the aluminum and steel stock at Lowe's when I was there today but they had a poor selection. I have another local hardware store that should have a better selection.



Seeing the light witness marks of the canvas contacting the back of the light housing means I have to be careful to not introduce any sharp edges back there which is why I might just go with the side screws for Plan A.


Thanks


--Joe

[Blowby]

Originally Posted by joefromsf

Hey Blowby,



So are you saying you looked at the back of your brake light and also don't see any evidence of brackets to secure the light?


Mine has zero attachment to van other then the wiring. If yours is only a little loose, does it look/feel like there is still some attachment with some adhesive along the outer flange?


--Joe

Yep that is exactly it, there is no indication that there has been any type of adhesive or clip holding it in.

[joefromsf]

I decided to not bother calling SMB West and implemented my own solution; a variation on the side screws that a few folks found on their brake lights.

The side screws provide security that the whole light won't come too loose but they are often installed without the needed tension to pull the brake light outer flange tight against the penthouse.

I thought combining the side screws with small right angle brackets would work better. However I didn't like the size of the screw holes on the smallest right-angle brackets. They were too big as they were designed for seating flat head screws and sheet metal screw were more appropriate for providing a secure grip in the plastic housing. I also wanted a bracket that was easier to bend for reasons you will see later. looking thru the various bins of hardware in my garage I found the perfect candidate; a 1/2" pipe strap.





A couple of cuts with tin snips and some straightening in the vice and I had my two brackets.



Note I purposely bent the brackets to be less than 90* to start with. Now I had to drill holes in the sides of the brake light. I didn't want the side screws to run into the post for the lens screws so I wanted to make sure they entered into the bottom half of the housing, which I marked with a line on some masking tape.






I then held the each bracket in place as "sherryfromsf" held the light tight against the penthouse and I marked where on the line I would drill the hole

I then carefully stepped up thru drill bit sizes until I found one that would allow a tight fit for the sheet metal screw and not crack the housing.



After drilling the holes I rebent the brackets to now be much greater than 90*.



This new bend provided pressure to pull the housing against the penthouse as I tightened the screw.






Not a thing of beauty, but certainly provides the needed function that the SMB implementation didn't. And it cost me $0.00 it was sourced from bits in the garage.

--Joe

[joefromsf]

Forgot to mention:

• When working on the light, only raise your penthouse about 2/3 of the way so you have the penthouse canvas loose enough to provide easy access to the light housing.
• Aluminess bumpers make a great work platform for this job.

--Joe

[Bellpilot]

I think I would have just run a bead of RTV around it. The mechanical fasteners seem like they might just come loose again.