Re: LED replacement bulbs

[Bruce Dorsi]

Some of my friends have installed them, with mixed results.

In some cases, they don't look any brighter than the 1157's, while in others they appear brighter.

Their intensity diminishes as the viewing angle moves away from being "dead-on."  .......I think the style of tailight lens/housing, and mounting angle, greatly affects the end result.

Their biggest virtues seems to be the decreased amp draw, lack of heat, and their expected life.

[SKR8PN]

Some of my friends have installed them, with mixed results.

In some cases, they don't look any brighter than the 1157's, while in others they appear brighter.

Their intensity diminishes as the viewing angle moves away from being "dead-on."  .......I think the style of tailight lens/housing, and mounting angle, greatly affects the end result.

Their biggest virtues seems to be the decreased amp draw, lack of heat, and their expected life.

I agree with Bruce on every point. I installed them in 1938 Dodge pass car housings with stock lenses and the seem to work very well. Very bright when you are looking straight on,but about the same as a regular 1157 when you get off to the side a bit. Didn't seem to make any difference with or without a reflector.  I like them.

[rooster]

I have been wanting to get a third brake light for the coupe, the kind that mounts flush and molded in the body. With the digital being so directional and when a bulb burns up not being able to replace it ( I think) Im ging to stick with the regular bulbs. There are cheap and depenable! Might even be able to find something in the junk yard to work.

[autocol]

the incandescent bulb will be a thing of the past pretty soon.



that's my obtuse way of answering your question.  

[40cpe]

I too agree with Bruce on each count, but will add my experience. I bought the board type replacements from Lambert Enterprises and he advised when installing them to make sure that they point directly back, not at an upward or side angle. The '40 ford lites are mountd on slanted fenders so I modified my housings to install larger than normal boards and made provisions to mount the boards so they look straight back, not slanted upwards like the lense. This route costs more and is heaps more trouble but does get more light to the rear on these cars that have small lights anyway. As an aside, they draw so few amps that the cruise control cannot get a ground.  A relay will take care of it.

[HOTROD30]

I'll just add what I have used and what I did for the taillights.  I have used 1157 bulbs, 2157 bulbs and LED bulbs.  I was using the LED bulbs in my roadster with the 39-40 ford taillights when a State Trooper pulled me over to look at the car and advised me to due something to make the tail lights brighter.
I bought the reproduction taillights with the halogen retrofit from Juliano's.  The buckets are made of metal and the leanses are glass.  The taillights fit right in the frenched in holes.  The bulb for the running light is a #89 super brite bulb and the turn-stop is a halogen bulb.  That fixed the problem.  I had to also put a stop light relay in because the halogen bulb draws a lot and most pressure stop light switches can't handle the load.
I suggest using taillights that have metal buckets instead of plastic buckets because of the heat those bulbs put out.

If I remember right, the LED 1157 replacement bulbs cost $35 for two and the taillights from Juliano's cost $90 for the pair (complete light assemblies and bulbs).

[enjenjo]

There is a reason the LED bulbs don't work good in standard tail lights. Back about 15 years ago, they started making LED tail lights for trucks. To meet FMVS standards, they had to use 60 LEDs in each tail light. Now, the new LED truck tail lights have 9 LEDs, and still meet the standards. The difference? They had to redesign the lens. A typical Fresnel lens does not work good with multiple light sources, the situation we have with LED replacement bulbs. The solution they used on the truck tail lights was a mini fresnel lens over each LED. You may have noticed some of the new cars are using a similar lens, it kind of looks like a red hot waffle iron at night. If you can figure out how to incorporate this type of lens in your tail lights, it will help a bunch.