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LED Tail lights

HEMI-ITIS

HEMI-ITIS

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Does anyone on the site make led tail lights? I would like to do the tail and front directionals on my 63 Belvedere??
 
Do replacement LED bulbs not count? Are you looking for something different?
 
Qbrozen said:
Do replacement LED bulbs not count? Are you looking for something different?
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Is there anything required for switching to led`s ? any tranformers or adapters ? Would be neat to have bright back up lights too .
 
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Yup, just a simple bulb change. Lots of places sell them, even local auto parts shops.
 
I had a friend that made them from scratch,starting with a board and installed light by light with each light being a "dot"
He passed in his sleep:(.
When they 1st came out and the glass part was rather large,it did not fit into the housing though the hole in the back of the tail light housing.
 
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We sell a kit that uses Sylvania LED bulbs and comes with a heavy duty LED flasher unit. I've got the kit in my '64 Polara and '64 Fury. Kit includes tail/brake light bulbs (2 or 4 depending on car), reverse lights, and front parking light bulbs. The Sylvania bulbs are of much better quality than some of the cheaper chinese ones you can find on eBay or amazon.

https://modern-nostalgia.com/shop?olsPage=products/complete-led-lighting-kit

I can email you a video of the lights in operation on my car, if you want to see how bright they are!
 
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Here are some pics of them illuminated; it looks little more dramatic because it's dark out, but they seriously are pretty bright even with the lower voltage these older cars run. This pics were with the engine off, so just straight battery voltage. I did clean up and repaint the inside of the light housings with a bright silver, too. (These are the brake lights).
image1-2.jpeg
IMG_5030.JPG
 
Thanks!! I would think with LED bulbs the the reflection in the housing doesn't matter........
 
HEMI-ITIS said:
Thanks!! I would think with LED bulbs the the reflection in the housing doesn't matter........
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Every little bit helps with these old cars. On the Polara, there is about a 1 volt drop just in the old wiring harness from battery voltage. The brightness of LED bulbs doesn't drop off with lower voltage like an incandescent, but the more you can do to help the better. I always try to clean up the housings and bulb sockets on all my old stuff to make the lights as bright as possible; it scares me because most people on the road today are conditioned to see big, bright brake lights (usually along with a 3rd). The lights on the Polara are relatively tiny. Before I did the LED conversion, I think sometimes people mistook the brake lights for tail lights and didn't slam on their brakes until the last minute... For cars that are drivers and not concours show cars, I definitely think LED lighting is the way to go!
 
if you need the turn signals to work you will need a special flasher to make that happen. they don't put enough load on a factory flasher to make it work. almost every bulb in my 64 330 is a led and i love them.
 
64HEMI330SEDAN said:
if you need the turn signals to work you will need a special flasher to make that happen. they don't put enough load on a factory flasher to make it work. almost every bulb in my 64 330 is a led and i love them.
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Got some pictures of your *** lit up??:rolleyes:
When John{RIP} was going to do mine,he was going to use a board,shape it to fit the housing then install the little led dots one by one.
 
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ModernNostalgia said:
Here are some pics of them illuminated; it looks little more dramatic because it's dark out, but they seriously are pretty bright even with the lower voltage these older cars run. This pics were with the engine off, so just straight battery voltage. I did clean up and repaint the inside of the light housings with a bright silver, too. (These are the brake lights).
View attachment 601871View attachment 601872
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These are single bulbs that fit the 1157 socket?That looks good!
 
HEMI-ITIS said:
These are single bulbs that fit the 1157 socket?That looks good!
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Yep! Our kit uses red-colored LED 1157's for the tail/brake lights (if you use white, the lights look pink or orange...), white 1157's for the front turn signal/marker lights, and 1156's for the reverse lights. And, the kit includes the proper flasher unit. You could install our entire kit in about 20 minutes. For a '63 Plymouth, the kit is $79.99... which is less than if you bought all the same quality bulbs and flasher retail.
 
HEMI-ITIS said:
Me likey.On of the front directional sockets is hurtin and it's part of the housing.
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Yeah, the front sockets are always in bad shape. I was debating about trying to get the '63 and '64 housings reproduced (which wouldn't be an easy or cheap project) because people are always looking for good ones, especially on '63's. I probably can't swing that any time soon... What I've done in the past on "driver" cars is to remove the factory socket, which as you said is permanently crimped into the housing, and then make the hole the right size for a good quality aftermarket socket. With a little well-placed JB weld to hold the socket and prevent water from getting in, plus some silver paint, you've got a nice socket again. Done well, at first glance its hard to tell it's not factory, but obviously that route doesn't work for everyone.
 
ModernNostalgia said:
Yeah, the front sockets are always in bad shape. I was debating about trying to get the '63 and '64 housings reproduced (which wouldn't be an easy or cheap project) because people are always looking for good ones, especially on '63's. I probably can't swing that any time soon... What I've done in the past on "driver" cars is to remove the factory socket, which as you said is permanently crimped into the housing, and then make the hole the right size for a good quality aftermarket socket. With a little well-placed JB weld to hold the socket and prevent water from getting in, plus some silver paint, you've got a nice socket again. Done well, at first glance its hard to tell it's not factory, but obviously that route doesn't work for everyone.
Click to expand...
Ron francis makes a. Nice bolt in socket. I used them on my 64 330. But they aren't cheap.
 
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