I’m not necessarily someone whom I think people should listen to when it comes to making predictions. I’m no Nostradamus; I’m pretty sure there’s records of me insisting that we’d have lunar colonies by 2005 and that a sentient frankfurter would be America’s greatest sex symbol by 2010. I wouldn’t trust any prediction I’d make. And yet, at the same time, I found that there’s at least one bit of evidence that a car customizing trend I called for way way back in 2013 has now become car customizer reality.
Well, so far all the evidence I have is that it has become custom truck reality, but that’s good enough for me! The trend is the use of trafficators or semaphores – those little electromechanical arms that pop out of some old cars (think old Volkswagen Beetles, old Morrises and Austins, and many more) to indicate a turn – on more modern cars and trucks.
You know the sorts of things I’m talking about, right? These things, which you can see here delighting and amazing my spirit Muppet, Gonzo the Great:
Here’s how one would maintain their trafficators:
…and here’s one featured on an old magazine cover:
You get the idea! They’re fantastic, wonderful, whimsical things, one of the most charming ways a human can indicate a turn. Back in 2013, I wrote at The Old Site just how much I’d love to see these become a trend among car customizers:
They’re goofy and charming, and I think it’s absolutely time to integrate these into some modern custom car designs. As long as they flash an amber light, I believe these are still legal, so let’s not let that stop us. What makes them exciting is the element of surprise. They could be completely hidden into the bodywork of the car unti activated and then, whammo, it’s like a little blinking orange party right there on the side of your car. The turn complete, the little arm hides back into the bodywork, ready to delight anew.
I still think this would be a wonderful detail to add to modern custom cars, so imagine my delight when I came across this Instagram reel of a minitruck that features fully-functional semaphore indicators! These seem to be the same kind used on old Beetles:
View this post on Instagram
It’s brilliant isn’t it? I don’t even feel like it seems too anachronistic, because it’s so novel and unexpected. There appears to be another truck that uses traffictors/semaphores as well, this one via TikTok:
@aircooledvintageworks Semaphore turn signals on the oldest known VW barndoor single cab. #vw #vwbug #volkswagen #aircooled #aircooledvw #aircooler #kafer #classicvw #oldcar #slugbug #volks #classiccar #vwbeetle #vintagevw #hotvws #fuchs #fuchswheels #patina #vwrestoration #vwbus #barndoorbus
I’ve yet to be able to find more complete information about either of these trucks, so if anyone has more knowledge of the minitruck community, I’d very much appreciate knowing who actually built either of these trucks, and would love to see the entire machines, too. Another version of the first truck video seems to have shown up on the Muscle Cars of Trinidad and Tobago Facebook page, but I don’t think the truck is from Trinidad and Tobago, necessarily.
I’m delighted these creative truck builders took it upon themselves to incorporate such a wonderful and functional detail. I doubt my old post was any sort of factor here, but I’m still happy to remind everyone that this was a concept I was hoping to see over a decade ago, because why not?
Any time we reference trafficators and semaphores here, I feel like I need to embed this video, because it’s just one of my favorites:
Again, if anyone has a clue as to who made these trucks, please let me know!
Any auto part bearing the name “festoon” gets my vote as an absolute necessity.
#1 People need to actually use the turn signal first.
#2 Bicyclists and pedestrians waiting too close to a crosswalk will not be happy.
#3 I can’ see these fitting into a B-pillar which already has a seatbelt anchor, the strength to survive the roof-drop test, and any extra airbags tucked in there.
As a pro traffictor cyclist, I must disagree.
First, there is plenty of space for a traffictor to pop out. It just needs to be shorter than the side mirrors.
Second, we need to be able to see turn indication from the side of the vehicle. Many Euro models have side indicators, which I appreciate. Many older cars had blinkers in the outside of the light complex, so they are visible from the side of the vehicle— this is inadequate but better than new models.
Many brands have started making what I call “inside” turn indicators. So the left front light housing has a turn indicator positioned on its far right, towards the middle of the car. The outside of the light housing is reserved for emergency flashers. Was there some dumb federal rule about flasher placement driving this idiocy? I don’t know.
All I know is that traffictors are the correct response for safety.
I defer to your personal experience.
Next up – custom hubcaps are the new cool! Nostalgia is a beautiful liar.
Spinners are going to come back at some point I am sure.
I would say that Jason should add these to his Pao (I’m not suggesting any 2CV customization until it is running…), but we all remember how he “customized” the A/C controls on the Taxi.
Well, a semi-sentient wiener became POTUS, so you were not that off.
Semi-sentient is a bit of a stretch. Quasi-sentient? Whats less than quasi?
I tried to look it up and “semi” is actually less than “quasi”
Unci-sentient, would mean 1/12 sentient.. That’s close
The life algorithm is out of control. I never seen these before, I think, maybe some old black and white 1930’s stop motion clip played and I’ve seen one, but I digress. Yesterday I watched a YouTube video about renovating a 49 “bettle” and it had these funky things on it. Now an article also?
Yes, let’s make indicators that much more complicated, expensive, and failure prone system than a LED on a fender. Splendid idea. That way every car becomes a BMW on it’s 10th birthday.
Don’t let me tell you about pump my ride. You might have a stroke
Pump my ride was on cinemax i believe?
Yes, but BMW’s don’t even come with turn signals.
After years of an analysis BMW found exactly .001% of buyers used their turn indicators. The Accounting department, seeing a major profit area, suggested removing them and their related cost. Ka Ching. Audi followed suit, even though their analysis showed.003%.
Reminds me of the meme that said “if you ever feel useless imagine being the guy who installs turn signals on BMW’s.”
I had 12 volts in my 1953 VW Beetle, so the old (6V) semaphore solenoids would get hot and smelly, if you didn’t turn them off after a short while. The thought of having something potentially explosive close to your ear also not great… Fun times 😉
How hard is it to change a Beetle over to 12V? Does it entail swapping 100% of the electrics if you don’t want a solenoid cooking your scalp?
New bulbs all round, another alternator and ignition coil.
Starter motor, wiring loom and wipers will take it. So quite easy.
I guess you could wire something in series with the solenoids to get the volts down to a suitable level 🙂
Huh, interesting. Not knowing much about car electricals I assumed it would involve replacing all the wiring throughout the car.
A nice aircooled Beetle is one of my dream cars but decent examples are starting to get pricey. I don’t know what they’re all smoking over at The Samba.
Increasing voltage will decrease amperage for the same load, so it would generally give a greater safety factor for the same wire size. With an increase in voltage your arcing distances are larger, so you would need better insulation, but I doubt the arcing distance from 6 to 12 Volts is significant at all.
That’s a really good point; I hadn’t considered that the load would stay the same. I guess I assumed that you’d be increasing the voltage to have more power (P=(I^2)*V) available to the system.
This is really cool knowledge; thank you!
I’m all for this – so long as it is stipulated in any construction & use regulations (or whatever) that if said vehicle is fitted with hazard lights the operation must involve the semaphore arms performing a synchronised ‘in/out’ action for each flash; thus drawing more attention to the situation which has required operation of the feature and also – into the bargain – making it look as if the stranded car/truck/bus/whatever is attempting flight.
Get this man a pair of solenoids and a 3D printer stat! 🙂
You haven’t lived life unless you were part of the 80’s accessory trends. Nothing like finding neon pink, green, or blue rubber sleeves to wrap around your windshield wiper arms. These lights got nuttin’ on that. They are cool, though.
Don’t forget triple airfoils on those arms to hold your wipers tight to the glass while you’re running your EG Civic flat out at 94mph.
Can’t wait for the Bosozoku version!
So everyone has finally gone off the deep end, have they?
That ship sailed long ago…. we just embrace the nuttiness round here.
They should be shaped as manicules (☚} and lit up with sequential LEDs.
Everything old is new again:
https://auctions.neauction.com/online-auctions/new-haven-auctions/early-car-hand-signal-3792036
That is delightfully ridiculous.
Two words: Signal Flares
Are you thinking just a big gout of fire shooting out the side of the car? Or firing a flare out of the side like a big firework?
Because we should have both. For safety obviously.
Rebuilding the temple, one world government, widespread traffictor adoption. I fully expect a plague of locusts tomorrow.
Oh! A weekly series of insightful or insipid predictions from Torchadamus! Come on, It’ll be fun, you’ll do another in a couple months, then forget about it.
Trafficators Rule!
You also invented that thing that some company tried to patent but some other company used your article to fight the patent. That makes you 2/2 for predicting the future. What was that thing again?
Front truck bed. Google “torchinsky bollinger patent”
This being New America, we will probably have truck nutz popping out of the sides instead of trafficators.
As long as they flash amber, shure why not.
If they start flashing amber you should probably visit your doctor.
Might need a prescription for Scrotaval™
As a former color guard performer as well as a huge fan of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, I’m waiting for full size flags or streamers to become a modification
So condoms?
I could totally go for this. Although the streamer idea would likely end up being a little like kids bicycle handlebars
As an Atlanta native, giant foam tomahawks.
That’s amazing; I’m pretty sure the very first Torch article I ever read taught me about trafficators. Was that really 12 years ago, or have there been more articles since then?
The next phase of the trend is sure to be “my turn signal is bigger than your turn signal” as these things go. I can’t wait to see how this turns out.
Well…
https://ogden_images.s3.amazonaws.com/www.farmcollector.com/images/2022/10/27145029/left-turn-signal.jpg
Does quanity count? I knew a guy that set up his semi truck so that all the chicken lights on the side of his tractor and trailer would flash with his turn signals. And he had a couple hundred penny lights on his rig.
I want drop-in Halloween variants with a skeleton hand pointer.
“This car has mail”? I can imagine postal workers trying to get into the car to retrieve it.
Cool to see. Now you just need to make a “drop in” modern version with a bezel so you just need to cut out a small rectangle to mount them. You can definitely sell them for big bucks, everyone will want them and you’ll be worth billions in no time.
I’m having enough trouble trying to add the turn signal mirrors available on the JDM Prius v (the Prius Alpha) onto mine, which didn’t originally come from them.
I cannot begin to imagine what it would take for this to be installed cleanly.
Even if, yes, they’re cool as hell.
Come on, just cut a slot and double stick tape them in place what could go wrong? Just be sure to use knock off Scotch Locks to connect the wiring for maximum reliability. /s
Yes. The execution is impressively tidy.
Owning 2 Prii I’m curious, what does the JDM Prius V have that is worth the swap (to you)?
Looking them up, it looks like they are powered folding, which could be a neat feature.
Oh, I literally just want the turn signals on the mirrors. Nothing any more complicated than that.
Really, I wish I’d been starting from a Prius v Five here so that I also had the “Softex” heated seats and headlight sprayers, but other than that, I’ve been adding a ton of mods.
…this is no longer fully up-to-date, but you can read a little about it here:
https://www.theautopian.com/econoline-love-and-lifted-prius-action-members-rides/
This is excellent I love it when people mod their vehicles to meet their specific needs
+ nice feature of your personal rides!
Every time I go to Japan, I’m tempted to go to Autobacs and check out cool Prius mods. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to find one with transit access and I’d probably spend a lot on things that turn out to be incompatible with non-JDM Prii.
Someone infected me with the knowledge that the Prius v was also sold, only in Japan in fleet spec, as the Daihatsu Mebius, and now I want the badging for that, which means the front logo, rear logo, rear model badge, front airbag/horn button, and possibly the hubcaps.
Sadly, they seem to be unobtanium online.
That would be ridiculously car guy dorky cool!
I’m like 70% confident something like this is already on a back shelf of your local PepBoys. In faux carbon fiber finish, of course.