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Working Lights on your Tyco Police/Fire Chief cars

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Highwayman97
Little Six

Status: offline

Posted - May 31 2019 : 1:54:27 PM

A while ago I acquired a US-1 Police car, which looked lovely, but oh how I wished that those dummy roof lights worked.

I tried putting bulbs underneath the roof lights and even experimented with diode strips, but the translucent plastic dummy lights on the roof just would not light up as I wanted them to.

Recently from E-bay I bought the similar Fire Chief car with a Tyco 'Black and White'. Both had seen better days and both needed new roof lights.

After quick clean and tidy up I got some replica roof lights from Dr Oogan and initailly these were fitted, but I still wanted them to light up…

Then on E-bay I found some 3mm sized 'Top Hat' shaped LEDs.These come prewired for a variety of different voltages - I chose 9v. They could be obtained in several colours and are the same shape as, but just slightly bigger than the original Tyco Fire Chief and Police Car dummy lights, so a plan was hatched.

When the LEDs arrived I found that the 9v ones that I had chosen proved capabale of withstanding higher voltages, but most importantly (for me), they gave a decent light at normal roasway running speeds.

I fitted some clear ones to my 'Ideal' 'Race N Chase cars' - Knight Rider's Kit and the Peterbilt Rig from the same set. I also put some in my US-1 Ambulance etc. They gave a really good light. Two red ones went into the Light bar of the Police car from my Dukes of Hazzard set, which now looks great!

Sadly the red LEDs are not actually couloured red! Yes they shine red, but where they could be seen I had to dip mine in Revel red Trasnslucent paint. 2 coats gave a good red appearance to go with the red light coming from the LED!

To fit inside the police car fire chief car I elected to dismantle the wiring to the LEDs and shorten the stalks. I left around 1/4" of stalk on each LED which I bent back on the inside of the car roof to hold each one in place.

You will find that the existing holes in the roof of the police/firechief cars are too small to take both stalks. I elongated the holes on each side towards the centre of the roof, using a small needle file. I extended them until each one could take both stalks from a LED without too much of a squeze.

Then using the resistors (recovered from the wiring supplied with each LED), both leds were then wired up. I chose to run two thin wires from the two motor contact tags and split the supply under the car roof. This saves space and bulk!

Both my vehicles are now joining my US-1 fleet, on modified chassis salvaged from unwanted plain green tippers! They look great when running, even slowly. Sadly I must now decide - Do I take the file to my original US-1 Police car and fit light in that too. If you have seen videos of my displays you will know that I am a runner not mint/boxed type person. Even so, I am going to consider very carefully before I make permanent changes to what is a rare original vehicle…..

PS: Just realised the image shown i am using the original thicker wiring from the LEDs inside the car - Oops!
This was my first attempt - The cars now both have much thinner wires that can't be seen through the windows!

Also, to make a Tyco shell like the standard Police or Fire Chief car fit a US-1 chassis you need to file a 45 degree angle on the rear chassis weight, or it will foul the body! Once filed the weight is probably best painted black to make it less visible or it fills the whole rear wndow.

The Police car and Airport Taxi in the US-1 range use a different body shell that will fit without issues. I have used the tipper truck chassis as these are plentiful and the most suitable type available.

Edited by - Highwayman97 on May 31 2019 2:14:40 PM

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