Do you know Helphos, the car eye?
One accessory that I, as a 6-volt-limited classic driver, would not want to do without are the Helphos searchlights, which I bought at classic car fairs or from the showcases with the gold pieces from my favorite parts dealer.
The principle is amazingly simple, but the details are astonishingly ingenious. But first of all, the most important reason why I got hooked on this tool is that in the 1950s and 1960s, every self-respecting globetrotter traveling in a VW bus or similar apparently relied on the help of a Helphos. Another reason is that the installation of the Helphos does not require any holes in the bodywork or changes to the wiring harness. This is because it is "popped" onto the windshield using a vacuum. The core is a ring with a very soft rubber lip that can be pre-tensioned using small levers. The glycerine supplied ensures that the lip lies flush on the glass so that the headlight is not thrown off on the washboard track when the headlight is placed on it after the ring has been fitted and tensioned. However, this works better on a flat glass pane than on curved glass.
The searchlight can now be swiveled in its hemisphere as well as rotated completely around the retaining ring while illuminating the road through the windshield. Why do I need something like this? The Helphos helps to better illuminate junctions and forest entrances when "getting lost" in the forest, for example when looking for a place to sleep in a VW camper van. It is also ideal for illuminating signposts in the dark in the often pitch-black French villages. The Helphos can also be removed from its holder and used as a hand lamp.
This way or that way? When the 6-volt sparklers reach their limits, the Helphos - here mounted in the windshield - also helps to illuminate the edge of the bend.
And: it looks like an adventure! In my Bulli ambulance, the only model of the T1 - a Type 27, a socket was standard. It took about 30 years just to find it. After all, why should you look for something if you don't even know it exists? It was only a reference in a forum that made me realize that the extra in question could be found right at the front, virtually at the top under the dashboard shelf. It was used here, for example, to connect a searchlight.
