Conversion of dash and tail lights to LED

[widman]

Today I changed out the two bulbs in my dash from the standard incandescent to red LED's. Then pulled the four tail light bulbs and put in LED.

no lights

Normal tail lights

LED tail lights

Normal tail and brake lights

LED tail and brake lights

All from Superbrite LED, Inc.

 

[Towncivilian]

Looks good and quite a bit brighter to boot! I also have converted my entire interior to LEDs and my brake & license plate bulbs to LEDs. I too used bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs. I am happy with all of the bulbs I purchased. One started flickering after a few months and was replaced with another bulb that had one more LED (6 vs. 5) and it has been fine for at least a year and a half now. All other bulbs are still alive as well.

 

[NHGUY]

Watch for hyperflashing turn signals/hazard flashers.The lower load doesnt operate the thermal flashers right.They act like a light is out.

 

[440Magnum]

One thing to watch out for is to be SURE that the difference between tail light and brake light is extreme enough. The last LED taillight conversion I fooled around with made the taillights almost as bright as the brake lights.

Also angle of view is important. Lots of LED retrofits don't have a wide enough angle.

 

[widman]

Yep, when looking at them, you get to choose the angle. With these there is a huge difference when brakes are applied.

 

[Vikas]

It just seems so wrong to have LED lighting on that vehicle

It looks good and bright. Have you looked at switching other lights too? I was under impression that most LED retrofits actually are not as bright as the bulb they are replacing. I recall RichPin changed his interior dome light and it was definitely not brighter at all just whiter and could have been even dimmer than the original.

 

[meep]

if your flashers go too rapidly, you can replace the flasher module in that car with an electronic one that won't fuss over the load. dump resistors are a hack and I'd avoid them on principle if you can.

Interior lighting is cool--- amber or orange works well too. Blue is too harsh for my taste.

Love that old dash.... I had a '57 and it reminds me of that.... all those dials just glowed with flooded light... (though the sealed beams up front weren't very effective at all.... and from the side the car was invisible.... zero marker lighting).

M

 

[widman]

Actually I don't think it would be easy to change over the module if it was necessary (it wasn't). It is a cable operated flasher unit.

 

[meep]

cable-operated?? never seen such a thing?

 

[widman]

Yep, when you push the lever to one position, it pulls a cable up the steering column. When it centers, it pushes it half way down. Push it the other way and it pushes all the way down, etc.

The switch is mounted to the steering column. I've never pryed one apart to look at the insides.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: widman
Yep, when you push the lever to one position, it pulls a cable up the steering column. When it centers, it pushes it half way down. Push it the other way and it pushes all the way down, etc.

The switch is mounted to the steering column. I've never pryed one apart to look at the insides.
There's still a thermal flasher int here somewhere unless you keep flipping the switch to make 'em blink. A solid state unit doesn't care what kind of bulbs are installed.