Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 240: Decal Patching over Light Fixtures

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 240: Decal Patching over Light Fixtures

Given that many light fixtures have only one slot for their lens (i.e., the glass/perspex cover over a bulb), many Automationeers have learned to take matters into their own hands and create their own custom lens sections - usually red for taillights and brake lights, clear for reversing lights, and amber for indicators (although there are exceptions, depending on era and market). I'll illustrate this with a recent example.

Above, from top: Due to this particular light fixture having only one cover glass slot (a liability when using it as a taillight housing), I had to set that slot's material to transparent (to avoid overlapping with any patch fixtures I want to place there), then apply three regular patch fixtures over it for the desired result: a clear one over the reversing light bulb, an amber one over the indicator bulb, and a large rectangular red one over the taillight and brake light bulbs, effectively making it look like a segmented fixture with separate glass slots for the brake/taillights, reversing lights, and indicators.

The result was that the fixture now more closely resembled a typical taillight cluster, with separate areas for the brake/taillights, reversing lights, and indicators, which are colored accordingly. It takes more patch fixtures (and hence more time and effort) to apply this technique when creating more complex shapes forwithin a light cluster, but in any case, doing so results in a more realistically colored taillight lens than would otherwise be possible. In short, these design methods are indispensable if the stock glass slot arrangement on a light fixture isn't to your liking, and you want to replace it with your own custom setup.