By: Slater
Material you will need:
Bulbs of your choice
We are probably one of the luckiest Honda owners because we don’t have to purchase clear turn signal lenses, or "clear corners". Honda designed the delSol turn signal so that it has an amber "cup" inside of the housing, which allows the signal to illuminate amber. This cup can be easily removed from the turn signal housing, leaving them totally clear. All other Honda car owners must purchase clear corners for their cars, paying as much as $60 a set. Thank you Honda!
However, as many of us have discovered, the clear corner modification has a downside as well. You see, companies that manufacture actual clear corners manufacture them using clear plastic. This allows light to shine through totally white when a clear bulb is placed inside the housing. Honda however, didn’t design the delSol turn signals so that the amber cup could be removed. (We figured that out after the fact.) So what we find out rather quickly when we do the clear corner modification is that the plastic is NOT 100% clear. It is 90-something percent clear – just enough to look "clear" when someone sees our cars, but NOT clear enough to shine totally WHITE when the turn signal is turned on. It appears a slight brown tint that is very ugly.
(Too see how the bulbs look during all possible times, I took pictures of each of the bulbs during the following conditions and displayed them CLOCKWISE from the top left– 1. During the day turned off, 2. During the day with just the parking lights turned on (i.e. low filament), 3. During the day with the turn signal on (i.e. high-filament blinking), and 4. During night showing both the low and the high-filaments (parking lights and turn signal.)
Now, there are a couple of things that can be done to help the problem. The first is nothing – basically accepting the fact that it’s an ugly brown.
Another thing you can do is install an 1157 amber colored bulb. This
gets rid of the ugly brown tint of the light, but also defeats the
purpose of making the turn signals clear in the first place. The housing,
when the bulb is turned off, will still appear amber (although not
as amber as the original Honda "cup" that was inside the
housing.)
You can also purchase brighter clear bulbs. These bulbs use a combination of higher wattage and gases (halogen or krypton) to make the light appear up to 100% brighter than a standard 1157 bulb. These bulbs are very expensive - $20 a set for Raybrig Hyper bulbs vs. $1.50 for a set of standard 1157 bulbs. The bulbs do look much better than standard clear bulbs, but they still have a slightly brownish tint when lit. Remember, no matter how BRIGHT or POWERFUL the clear bulb is you installed, it will still appear brown because the PLASTIC IS NOT 100% CLEAR. I have also heard reports with the brighter bulbs burning out faster or melting the turn signal housings if they are too high wattage. The Raybrig Hyper bulbs are OK, but there are many other bright bulbs on the market so buyer beware!
Another idea people had was the "bright corner mod" which consisted of using a trailer relay and causing both bulb filaments to light at the same time. This definitely makes the light very bright and whiter, but it still has a brown tint. The mod looks very similar to the Raybrig bulb for comparison purposes. The downside of the trailer mod is that it makes your turn signals blink very rapidly and burn very hot, and some people have had problems that included melted and burned-out relays, melted or burned turn signal housings, blown bulbs, etc.
Remember, no matter what CLEAR bulb you install, the PLASTIC IS STILL NOT 100% CLEAR, and the light will ALWAYS appear slightly BROWN. You are only choosing between "dim brown" and "really bright brown" when you change out the clear bulbs for more powerful ones, or do the trailer mod.
I have come up with what I think is a pretty good solution. It’s cheap and easy to do. It doesn’t require any wiring, and gives us the best of both worlds – a bulb that looks clear in the housing but lights up amber.
All you do is purchase regular 1157 amber bulbs from the Auto Parts store ($1.50 a set). Also purchase some white high-temp engine enamel ($3 a can). I used "Dupli-Color" brand from Auto Zone (Wal-Mart also sells it), because it’s the only one I found that doesn’t require the use of primer. I would HIGHLY suggest using Dupli-Color only for that reason (trust me). Once you have the bulbs, mask off the metal bottom portion with masking tape to prevent paint from getting on the metal contacts. Then clean the bulb THROUGHLY with isopropyl alcohol to remove ALL finger oils, dirt, and other contaminates. (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Just like ALL painting, proper surface preparation will make the difference between good results and garbage results. Don’t touch the glass once you have cleaned it with the alcohol). Then spray the bulb with a VERY LIGHT MIST of white paint. You will only need one coat, and it will dry totally within 20 minutes. If not, then you sprayed it too heavily. The mist should barely cover the bulb, and you should be able to see the amber underneath when you hold it up to light. If not, then you sprayed it too heavily. Remember, a VERY LIGHT MIST is all you want. You should use no more than ¼ teaspoon of paint (basically a few drops worth). You will use so little you could even take the can back to the store and they wouldn’t know (I am not suggesting you do that – it was for illustration purposes only).
Once the bulb is totally dry (you can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process), take a razor and scrape the paint from the last ½" of the bottom of the bulb. You cannot see this portion of the bulb when it is installed in the turn signal housing, but will allow an extra amount of amber to shine when the bulb is lit.
When you are done, the bulb should look like the one on the far right:
Reinstall the bulb into the turn signal housing, and it will look like this:
Enjoy!