For All Old Guys Who Drive Their Vintage Cars

I should add that directionality of LED's is also important. For the LED festoons I tried, the LED's were positioned flat inside the cylindrical bulb, so those bulbs had some rotational directionality in comparison to the stock incandescent bulbs. Directionality is less likely to be an issue for something like taillights, but in general, it's a good idea to look carefully at the layout of the LED lights because the layout is an indicator of how each LED bulb type will distribute the light.

 

Peter,

I can't find the receipt from Superbrightled's. I'm sure I just bought the "dual" filament red LED one. Parking and brake light in one bulb.

Bill
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

the colored LED are designed to be used with a clear lens... brightness / intensity of LED is affected / distorted by using the same color LED as lens causing visibility issues... I use the colored LED with clear lens or use 'white" LED with colored lens without issues...

 

Thanks for sharing Bill.

I would generally agree with this, but the one time I used a "white" led bulb behind a very frosted 50 year old lens, the blue really really came through and nothing has looked more wrong in a vintage car. I really expected the aged frosted lens to tame the color, but it didn't at all. Unless I could find a 2700k white brake light LED bulb, I'd be a bit concerned about the LED brake light color looking wrong. It may be that the red lens would tame the blueness from the white LED better than my frosted white lens, but the red bulb seems safer in my mind, even if it's technically not ideal to use a colored bulb behind a colored lens (especially since it's working in Bill's car).

 

I see this is a very old thread and was wondering if there was any new information the group would like to add.
I have a 72 Daytona that I would like to brighten up the instruments in the evening and thought about adding these LEDs but wanna make sure to get one that will actually fit and brighten things up.
I would appreciate anyone throwing some light (no pun intended) on the subject.
Best
Portenos

 

Incandescent bulbs get dimmer as they age. Replace with new and clean the rheostat with CAIG Deoxit.

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/signal_bulbs/signal_bulbs.html