Sunday 15 November 2015

Ferrari 400 tail lights + front marker lights.

Earlier this summer I approached someone who bought a salvage 400 for a project. He only required the engine from the car so I figured to approach him to obtain some parts. The only usable parts I noticed were the tail lights and the front marker lights.

Last year someone mentioned there was a difference in color of the tail blinking lights. Something I did not notice before, but he was right. The right side was more dark. I wonder if the particular light simply got dark due to the greasy fumes of the exhaust. Especially because it was also noticed the right tail pipe was smoking more severe then the left side. I link this to the right cylinder bank of the engine which appeared to have quite an off-set on the cam-shaft", see blog update:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2013/11/400-maintenance-camshafts.html

Maybe I'm wrong, I'm just guessing here. Fact remains, they no longer match color wise. Hence I thought to buy them from the salvage car. I also noticed it did had the front marker lights. I figured these items are nice to have on stock just in case. Clearly these were all used items and I was informed they had the usual wear and tear including cracks. I went ahead and purchased them from someone  in the USA which I trusted to be a realiable source (since it was a company and listed). This turned out to be long breath battle of 3 months but with a little help from someone (thanks again Otto!) and a strong push I finally got them yesterday.

Unfortunately one of the front marker lights did had indeed a crack on it. I do happen to have another set of front marker lights and also the same right side does happen to have a crack, so I can not make a good set out of 2 pairs. Bummer. Nevertheless I'm going to make an attempt to refurbish them sometime when my personal situation allows. For now I have quickly dismantled them to make some pictures and look at the part numbers.






These lights consist of very minimal parts. I think it only requires a good sand/soda blasting, new white paint on the inside. Rechrome the reflectors, clean the electrical contacts and fit/glue the lenses. The only part numbers listed are on the lenses. These are by the brand Siem and not Carello as I would expect.

Right side: SIEM 8395
Left side: SIEM 8330

I was actually interested to learn more about the brand Siem. This was more difficult then I anticipated. I figured it had to be another brand that did not survive over time. Random searches regarding Siem + Light + Lenses only revealed some pictures, mostly Ebay related. No Wiki or history website could be found. When checking Ebay I noticed one of the items did had the Original package which revealled the Siem brand with the additional words Fari Fanali Fendinebbia. With these additional Italian words (meaning headlights & foglights) I was able to find more detail. First some nice adverts:




The registered company name is Siem Spa. The company was, just like Carello, eventually absorbed by Magneti Marelli.

(I found the following patents by them: https://www.lens.org/lens/search?applicant=SIEM%20SPA)

A little more digging resulted in finding this advert:


It's an advert from 1967. It includes extra references, their adress, and the name Jodolux. And that's about it.

Continueing with the tail lights. As might be known, these are identical as the ones used on the 308. Except it does have a stainless steel bezel / chrome ring. And these lights are made by Carello. Now I have them in front of me I can have a closer look at them and dismantle them. It consists of various parts. Interestingly the red rear lights does have color difference as well.



 
The black outer mantle case is identical for each of them and all have the part number 12.280.848

 
The rubber ring is also identical for each of them and all have the part number: 12.280.523
(interestingly no matches found on Google)

 
 

 
The inner case of the light does have part number: 120.280.748
(again no matches found on Google)

 



 

 
The lamp holder are of course also identical as used on each with part number: 12.280.040
Furthermore it had another number: P25-2 3/32 CP
(again no matches were found on Google)


The lens appears to be glued. The red lense is one piece with part number: 12.281.718

The orange blinking lense with rear light indication is also glued (it was already partly loose - so I completely took it off. It does consists of different parts. On the inside the inner case is very likely also a glued part (I can feel slight movement) with number: 12.281.722 (again no matches found on Google)



On the outer case the orange lense has part number: 12.281.717
The white lense is very likely also a seperate part that has been glued and has number 12.281.716



Next time I will check what I will do with these lenses regarding the swap out on my 400. To be continued.

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