Install LED Turn Signal Mirrors

For those who drive their classic Mustangs on a regular basis, quite often the wish list of modern conveniences and safety items grows while rolling down the road. All it takes is one person stopping short in front of you to add better brakes to said list, or trying to parallel park at a cruise night to write down "power steering" as well. That list of convenience and safety items can grow quite lengthy and entail some serious expense for some of the items on the list, but there are certainly several items you can check off as a weekend project without breaking the bank and still feel safer when you drive your classic in today’s distracted driving environment on our over crowded streets and highways.

One particular problem we’ve encountered while highway driving is inattentive drivers in our blind spot. Apparently, they don't teach "if you can’t see me, I can’t see you" in driver's ed these days because it is a big problem on our roads. Many new cars include some sort of turn signal repeater on the side of the vehicle to alert blind spot squatters that a car is changing lanes.

Ford originally started using in-mirror turn signal repeaters in the early 1990s. Shaped like an arrow (chevron), they illuminated whenever the turn signals were activated. Later, Ford moved to repeaters at the end, or at the base, of the mirror housing itself. Today, Ford has added their Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) that now tells you when a car is in your blind spot area via a radar based system which illuminates an LED in your side mirror and also displays a warning on your dash.

While it would be great to incorporate the BLIS system into our classic cars, along with other new technologies like speed sensitive cruise control and heads up displays, we’re most likely a good five to ten years before those items will trickle down into the aftermarket for upgrading older cars—if it will even be possible at all, as some systems will require numerous modules, wiring, and inputs to update a classic. But adding turn signal repeaters is very possible, as all you have to do is tap into your stock turn signal wiring. But where do you mount them so they don’t look out of place on a classic Mustang? That’s the real question. You don’t want some bulbous amber light sticking out of your front fender, right?

Enter the masters of LED lighting, Mustang Project. Leave it to the Mustang Project guys to come up with a solution that offers safety and classic looks that look like they belong on a vintage Mustang, all by tying them into vintage Mustang mirror housings. Mustang Project offers two different versions of their LED turn signal mirrors. Based off Scott Drake mirror assemblies, Mustang Project adds their patented electronics and 12 bright LEDs per mirror. We're installing their more traditional deluxe-style turn signal mirrors, which replicate the deluxe remote mirror option—part number MP-8001-RD. Mustang Project also offers a new Bullet mirror, as used on Shelby Mustangs and Cobras in the '60s, under MP-BULLET-MIR. Both mirror sets simply attach in place of the original stock mirrors and require a minimum of wiring. In just an hour or two, you’ll have these mirrors in place and will be much safer going down the highway.