My fiber optics to the rear of my 70 is cut under the console, so everything in the rear end is not able to light up. This is something I could ignore, but I happen to think this is a cool gadget and I want them working. So how difficult is it to replace the cable going back from the interior to the back end of the car? Do I need to drop the tank to accomplish this or is it routed in a way that it is serviceable with the car fully assembled.

Now, I see there is potential to splice the fiber. I will probably try this as it is very accessible.

 

I installed the fiber optics when the wiring was replaced. Most of the dash was out of the car at the time but the tank was in place. So I do not know about the difficulty that you may run into in the dash but I don't think the tank will be a problem.

 

Trying to "repair" the actual Fiber optic tube after having been cut through might be tougher or more expensive than replacing the harness that includes the entire length. I see that the 1970 harness with new fiber optics is a mere $625 and then it needs to be installed by a person familiar with how they did it that year. That price is at ZIP and there might be better deals but that gives you an idea.

I am lucky as my fiber optic still works well as long as the parts are clean and bulbs bright!

 

The stuff barely lights up as it is, so you would need an immaculate perfectly cut perfectly smooth surface orthogonal to the cable to avoid any reflective loss with a splice.

As things go, you'd have to strip out a lot of the interior, but most of that is just busy work if you are up to it.

That price seems rather high to me, I would shop around. I replaced mine years ago but don't remember it being exorbitantly priced.

It is a fun piece of 'kit' however. Looks like it starts here at the back of the console

 

I pulled the rear fiber optic cable from the rear harness on my 1969. I used a painless harness to rewire my car. I have a custom car and won’t be using the fiber optic cable. I was going to post it on sale here eventually. If you are interested PM me and I can send you some pictures and discuss a price.
Tom

 

Just a cautionary mention, there are little brass clips on the interior ends of the fiber that are impossible to find. Don't lose them, they keep the fiber in place.

 

Will do!

 

I've watched a youtube and it seems possible. I've worked in the telecom world with fiber so I at least have a clue, but I agree it will be a challenge to marry up to cut ends without loss. But then if I switch to LED bulbs that may help them work.

 

I have not switched my bulbs over to LED's because I have learned that with proper voltage and clean connections/contacts that the original bulbs in my 1968 C3 are brighter than I would have chosen for them. A great example is your headlights. Go start your C3 and put the headlights out and then measure the voltage present at the bulb. Now for kicks apply full battery voltage to the same light and see what happens. ~30% More Light for the full battery voltage. Since the interior lights go through the headlight switch I would bet that they are getting a much lower voltage than the battery is making.

If the parts are clean you should not have to make more Lumens just to see them light up. I carefully cleaned the Fiber optic pick-up at the bulb sockets and then cleaned off the lens and blew all the dust off the parts and they shine brightly on the center console.

With your being in the Telecom Industry you might have better access to the right tools to make the splice. Here in Northern Virginia Verizon has little trailers with AC and a generator to give their tech's a place to splice fiber-optic lines safely and with no dust. The tubes used in our Corvettes were much bigger than the F/O tubes used commonly today. I tried to fix my audio line on the home theater and it was a single glass tube that broke and I could not fix it due to the small sizes. It was tiny, like ~.1 or .2 mm and very hard to handle.

Are there any tricks to making the fiber optics work longer in our C3's? Any maintenance that I am not aware of? How do you recommend we clean the ends? Can we polish them or anything?

Best regards,
Chris

 

From the quick glance I gave to the break in my fiber under the console it looked like we have a bundle of glass fibers which would be similar to those used in telecom. I need to take apart my console and look closer when I have time. But as I understand it, they basically fuse the ends together (glue them into a circular pattern) then break and polish the ends (so you actually have a bundle of glass fibers making up each connector). I toured a fiber plant once where the demonstrated placing a fused block of strands (hundreds of them) in about a 1/4 by 1 inch rectangle. Simply placing one polished end onto a sheet of paper you could read the writing on the other end. No light source at all. The ambient light in the room went through the glass block in your hand, through the fiber to the paper, reflected off and allowed you to see it. The glass is that clear. Now, I don't know the make-up of the Corvette fiber. Could be plastic for all I know at this point. But, if it is glass, it would take very little polishing to get a light source to shine through. If it were as good as what I described the light would appear as if you were looking into the bulb. So I would guess the factory ends were simply done or they just get dirty.

I'll dig into this more over the winter. My car is stored remotely so I will get a few days here and there to deal with all the issues I have. I promise to get back to this but don't hold your breath!

 

i tried splicing the fiber optics on my 68. i could never get them to shine properly. I could get them working with my test light, but once in the bulb housing it never worked right.

i purchased just the fiber optics harness, not the wiring. i ran it beside the wiring harness to the back. i was able to do all of this without dropping the tank. worked perfectly

 

Tom, your inbox is full and can't get my message to you. I'd like to buy this cable. Please check your message capacity.

Thanks,
Greg

 

Pm sent.

 

Our fiber optic cables were originally called Crofon and are made of plastic fibers, not glass. These were the first examples of fiber optics that I know of. If I remember correctly, the real original ones were very short glass ones in the medical profession. Lou.

 

Why have a fiber-optic system that doesn't use fiber-optic light cable? Seems a bit odd to me....

 

Quick update:
I do not recommend trying to splice the fiber optics in the corvette. It is actually glass and can be dangerous. I've got bits of glass fiber in my carpet and it's hard to vacuum up and can actually get into your blood stream in extremely unlikely scenarios, but being glass it's not going to be reasonable or worthwhile to splice it. I'm replacing my cable and front carpet.

 

They should not be glass. They should be clear plastic fibers. I repaired two of mine that the body shop cut by accident. I cut them with square ends, butted them together and had them secured in wire shrink tubing. Lou.

 

^^^^
This is what I've been doing the past few days. Years back I was trained on splicing communications fiber optic cable and yes, you had to be careful. This ain't that. A razor knife and shrink tube is all you need - as you already know.

 

If you are restoring the vehicle and need the originality this isn't for you.

The Corvette Tax applied to everything really frosts my doughnut. I don't mind it so much on repro items but on common stuff it does get irritating. Take the crimp ferrules for example, $30+ bucks later you have maybe 4 of those tiny little things. That's one example of many. In that case Amazon will send you a lifetime supply of copper crimp ferrules that'll work for ten bucks.

I'm repairing my cool old Chevy and won't faint if it gets a chip in the paint. I actually like trying to find alternatives that work, not just hacking something together. Maybe this'll help.

Need a headlight connector ? How about four bucks. Have a look:
https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/19...motor_products

Need some of that fiber to splice in?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/364803570310

Small pieces of vacuum tubing + shrink tube + vacuum caps can make for a nifty and functional replacement to fit into the various light receptacles that are not the headlights.

Not being cheap, this is just the way I look at it and no doubt many will disagree. Dollars saved are better spent on gas.

 

Many of the C3 parts are available for a regular Chevy, too. If you do some basic research on the parts you need, you can ask for the Chevy part and save some $$$. Also, for things like the little brass FO ferrules, make homemade substitutions, ie, small rivet sockets that have the same I.D. In many instances, I've fabricated some items that provide the same function and they are not visible after installation, anyway. Even if you are getting NCRS judged, they don't open up your console....they just verify that the FO system functions as intended.