Thursday, March 31, 2011

December 6th, 2016 - A Little Diddy About "EL License Plate Brackets"

December 6th, 2016 - A Little Diddy About "EL License Plate Brackets" 

One of the best things about this hobby are the stories that come along with it. Building a car is also about meeting people; about making friends but sometimes it's the history of the parts themselves that can make the tapestry come to life.

I've been fortunate to have some fun stories about parts over the years: the barn-find Mugen spoiler, the Personal Box ashtray that went missing and led to a great friendship, the Mugen MR5s that ended up on a race car from Lethbridge, the Mugen rear bumper that I raced up the highway to Red Deer 150km away to pick up late on a Sunday evening are just a few. Even my CR-X, and how it became mine, was a "story" in itself.

This past weekend, I found a part for sale and I was only mildly interested in it as a curiosity until I read the seller’s description of the item. Apparently, it had been originally purchased close to twenty years ago and the seller told the full story of the part's history and I've included a translated version of the story below:

This goods was purchased about 20 years ago from now, manufacturers price at the time made "Abros" was a fairly expensive product and 9800 yen. This time is only EL backlight has been adopted in the automotive accessories industry, his was a license levy is, I wonder "cool every time I see the EL backlight of Toyota emits light in emerald green in the dark of" Carina ED "," ED " I was longing and ~ ... ".

Since the license plate holder has also ¥ 9800 only emits light in EL, it's at the time and had been hesitant to buy too high, even if quite want, became a clearance sale is supposed to be the store to transfer In the Mihakara~tsu It is the thing which was purchased in about 8000 yen.

Inventory and ¥ 8,000 at the disposal price, still a strong feeling that you've purchased the plunge a was a high priced commodity..., But was then attached to the car, you can Mottainaku is given to the weather-beaten (?) It would remove, the While I think that would someday turn coming day will come, and had been carefully kept in the closet forever.

And while this like no turn, was re-attached to finally own car last year because we kept nearly 20 years if noticed. But the technology has evolved over the last 20 years, EL rather than cold cathode tube or LED, such as backlight that emits bright in the power-saving has been developed, and the brightness of the view in the familiar in their eyes when 20 years ago EL backlight is it look like glowing with thin hazy.

Although past loved racer-ish dress-up, now that has changed the direction of the age specific to also dress up, since the position and head lamp had no longer suit the car that turned into HID and LED , I will bate.

Attached only to connect the position line and the ground of the car to the igniter to emit light the EL backlight. Because there are still things that you have copied the package back and I yield together. Product name was "license gear".

At the time, Toyota and Nissan, etc., but there was also lineup of other manufacturers, and to become a now long been out of print I think that it's quite a rarity, with only a slight protrusion in this thin structure and the "click" sturdy The height of the combine precision "indeed, made in Japan!" to in the can that said, I think that it is a difficult part is also going to try to own the same thing.

As Honda car of dress up parts from 80 to '90 at that time, or such as replacing with modern LED panel and the EL backlight for surface-emitting if attached to the Honda car, why the person you know the value of this part?

Then once EL as image to emit light, In 20 years ago parts but I think the beauty goods, small scratches and dirt because had actually seated, and rust. Igniter The Yes is part name is dug as yourself easy to understand in the engine room, the outlet of the code we are closed with epoxy putty in order to increase the water resistance.

So, basically, the seller was in love with a model of Toyota vehicle that had an EL emblem of some sort on it, and when he found this part for Honda he loved it as well, but it seemed too expensive to him to buy at the time... that is, until he found it on sale. He bought and installed it but then was worried the new, expensive part would get damaged due to weather etc, so he removed it and put it in storage in a closet thinking "one day I'll install this and use it". But for almost 20 years he never did. Then last year he reattached it to his car, but found that with all the advancements in automotive lighting technology (LED, HID, etc...) and with changing trends away from that kind of race-car-inspired stuff, he felt it looked a little dated. 

I loved the history of the part and because the seller took the time to share the story, this part went from a odd curiosity to a part I wanted badly. Trying to be practical about my build, I couldn't just buy it because of the story, and I couldn't just buy it for the sake of buying it; I had to use it as well, and it had to have some sort of a purpose. My thoughts for this were not for a license plate frame holder necessarily, but rather if the lower arms were removed, it could make a decorative piece for my front bumper instead of a front license plate holder, and its thin profile would likely complement the Mugen Pro.2 style front bumper I have.





Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.

No comments:

Post a Comment