LED Tail Lights.

[bige386]

I'm sure this has been brought up in the past But here we go again. Does anyone use the 6 volt Led Tail light bulbs. Do you like them ? Are they brighter than the filament style bulb. I have tried just about every thing to get the tail lights on my car brighter but nothing seems to work. Tried painting the tail light sockets white, Tried using tin foil in the sockets . Bought some super bright light bulbs. And you still cant see them. I would like to try the LED's. Where can I find a set and who has the best one's.
Any information on this would be sweet.
Thanks.

[Old Henry]

Read this thread where I show and tell about all of the 6 volt bulb options that I have found (which are way more limited than 12 volt) and my pick: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67558

[bige386]

Thanks for the reply I can't believe 142 people read this thread and only 1 reply. I think you are one that told me about the super bright light bulbs that I bought. They seem to work ok at night but during the day time I have been told more than once that people behind me can not see my brake lights. Don't they make an LED light with a band of leds to illuminate the entire light socket instead of just the center glow ? I looked around the web but didn't find anything.
Well Professor thanks again for your reply.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by bige386

Don't they make an LED light with a band of leds to illuminate the entire light socket instead of just the center glow?

Yes, for 12 volt - Lambert has a great selection here (click LED LIGHT SIZES): http://www.lambertenterprises.com/ But they are mighty pricey. If I was 12 volt it would be 100 bills for the pair for my tailights.



But none for 6 volt. At least not that I have ever found or anyone has ever disclosed on here.

[Old Henry]

Maybe there's hope. I was just reading some more on the Lambert site and it said some of the kits were available in 6 volt but are not listed in their catalogue. A phone call is necessary to find out which ones. May be worth a call.

[Kurt in NJ]

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For a red lens you want red light led ---yellow lens --yellow ---clear lens whatever color led light you want

I have been collecting used led from damaged lights to make my own

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by Kurt in NJ

For a red lens you want red light led ---yellow lens --yellow ---clear lens whatever color led light you want.

And for blue dot lenses???

[Kurt in NJ]

Originally Posted by Old Henry

And for blue dot lenses???

You glue a cree light chip to the back, wire it seperate for a running light

[mike42]

I found a site called LEDlights.com I think. It had 6v for $8.99 each in four colors. I'm going to give they a try but it asked which base I wanted. 1057 or 1056 ! I have no clue which one. They are for negative ground which my car is. I'll buy he red ones.

Mike

[donh]

I have them on both of my Model A's. People behind can see me. That's the most important part. Mine are the circuit board type. I have not tried the replacement bulb LED.
Don

[Ross F-1]

Even 6v filament bulbs should be quite bright, IF the wiring is good, both supply and ground. If your lights are dim with both filaments and LED's, I'd be looking at the wiring all the way from front to back. Run a separate ground wire from both bulb sockets all the way up to something substantial that is directly grounded. As a test, pull one light open and connect a temporary wire from the (+) terminal on the battery to the case of the socket, see if it brightens. Do the same on the hot side.

[41panelmark]

I use 6v LED's in 4 of the rear assemblies and higher candle power lamps in to fixtures on my panel, helps a lot and they are as bright as a UPS truck set up.

[mike42]

Bige386......

I'll let you know how the 6 volt bulbs work next week. I ordered them yesterday and they will be here by next weekend.

Mike

[Steves46]

Originally Posted by bige386

Thanks for the reply I can't believe 142 people read this thread and only 1 reply. I think you are one that told me about the super bright light bulbs that I bought. They seem to work ok at night but during the day time I have been told more than once that people behind me can not see my brake lights. Don't they make an LED light with a band of leds to illuminate the entire light socket instead of just the center glow ? I looked around the web but didn't find anything.
Well Professor thanks again for your reply.

Even if you have bright lights, the small tail lights that most of our cars have still make it challenging to clearly see. To supplement this, I bought a 6 volt LED center brake light from J & L Enterprices. http://www.jandlenterprise.com/products/products.htm
It really works great and can be wired in to your turn signals if you are using them. Steve

[bige386]

I think this light bar would be the way to go. Put it right in the back window and wire it in. As long as its nice and bright.
Thanks I think Ill look in to this.

[OLD...BILL]

Originally Posted by mike42

Bige386......

I'll let you know how the 6 volt bulbs work next week. I ordered them yesterday and they will be here by next weekend.

Mike

Hey Mike; You have a grounding problem, if all the lights you have tried and there still week, it's a POOR GROUND, start with a good wire #12 strand, fix it at the point where the positive battery ground is bolted to the body/frame,or engine, close to the starter, I hope.( not on the battery its self ) now run the new wire to the base of the tail light bulb base, you need to get this "bulb base " clean and where you can solder the new wire to it....If you haft to take the tail light fixture, off and apart, and get it "media blasted" to get it clean and rust free, do it , and ready to solder, for this last bit, get some soft "test lead" wire, much easier to work with in close areas, to wrap the bulb base and solder it, then connect to the new #12 strand and SOLDER ......You can bolt this new wire to the fender at the tail light fixture, and fender to body, also along the frame as you go along with it. BOLT it ,,,,,you will re-establish some original grounds that have been lost over the years.. it's called resistance comes with old age ..... sorry this is so long, you get an OLD electrain started, and there's no off switch .....OLD....BILL

[mike42]

Hey Old Bill......

I had a couple guys here tell me almost the same thing and sure enough it worked and worked well. One other thing I found is that one tail light bulb was a 12v 1057 and I replaced it with a 6v 1054 and things got even brighter ! I'm going to try the 6v LED's to see if I get a brighter stop light.

I'll let you know by next weekend.

Thx.....Mike

[35topdown]

Being so tight that I squeek, I didn't want to spend big bucks for a LED light bulb. So, I made my own. I'm changing the car to 12V neg gnd, but the same setup can be made for 6V pos gnd just by changing the value of the resistors. I took a regular 1157 bulb and carefully wiggled the bulb out of the socket. This left 2 small wires sticking out of the socket that I soldered a couple of inches of small wire to, as well as one soldered to the socket for a ground. A water bottle cap was drilled out so it would fit tightly over the 1157 socket and was used for the mold. Some quick setting poly was poured into the socket and mold (the cream colored stuff in the picture). Epoxy should work just as well. This gave me something to mount the plexiglass plate on. I drilled 2 patterns on the plexiglass - one for the stop light circuit and one for the parking light circuit. Then stuck an LED in each hole and wired up the 2 cuircits. I used http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz to show the resistor values for my voltage and the best way to wire the number of LED's that I used. Total cost was about $2.00. LED's are easy to work with. Just pay attention to polarity and resistor values.

Richard

[mike42]

Just got my UPS package with LED's from web site called Chevys from the 40's of all things. Will put in tomorrow. We're in a hell of a storm here right now !

Later.....Mike

[Old Henry]

35topdown, nice job. Old Chuck up the street did the same thing for his '47 12 volt negative ground. He's a sign guy so knew all about the electronics to make that sort of thing.