do LED taillights look too "streetroddish"?

None of my cars have LED lights, they are all at least 20 years old, I drive in Houston traffic, yet haven't been in a rear end collision in over 15 years.

 

Whos going to know in the day time at a car show ? If you feel safer and it ,keep,s someone from hitting you in the rear ect,do what you feel is best. I realy dout someone who sees your brake lites in the day time will run you down to tell ya "Ya look to street roddish" IT,s your money in your car,protect it.............YG

 

Or, try this, go to NAPA and ask for a #3496 bulb, it is a replacement Mercedes bulb and is 3/48 candlepower versus a #1157 which is 3/32 cp or a #2057 which is 2/32 cp. These bulbs are great for a little more light without looking odd thru some lens. The LED replacement bulbs are out there as a direct fit, but again, some it looks a little "SHEEP RODDER"

 

And Richard D, does that mean you are exempt from being rear ended again? The world is full of these "It hasn't happened to me in years" guys who use this as justification.

I value my old sheet metal a lot and I value my life and continued health even more, so I do take measures to improve - like seat belts, radial tires, disc brakes, LED tail lights, halogen headlights - makes me untraditional? - so bite me!

If the technology had been around when these cars were new, it would have been used. It's called progress....

 

If you are looking hard enough to see that there are LEDs behind a red glass lens when the brakes aren't applied you are looking too damn hard.

 

I run LEDs on my 39 Ford. Would rather be safe and bright than crashed and cool.. John

 

I fitted LED's after several rearend near misses, morons with camera phones in my trunk attempting to take pictures so i fitted these 39 teardrop ones.

http://www.cool-leds.com/pages/737510/index.htm


seems to have worked ........

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I will second this. Same reason I have a third brake light. Does it look traditional, no way. But I want the idiots behind me to have every chance to stop before they crunch me. If you want to stay traditional a bit but be brighter, Ron Francis makes "Brite Bulbs" that fit standard 1156/57 sockets and are a lot brighter but, supposedly, won't generate enough heat to affect plastic lenses. I have used them-no problems so far and they are about 3x brighter I'd say.

 

Yes, LED lights are lame.

 

LED=ghey

 

I want bright, don't care what is behind the lens! But, we have covered this before, painting the inside of your housings WHITE is even brighter than a factory silvered reflector. Good ground,white paint and a bright bulb. The Sedan is getting LEDs, but you wont know it

 

yes, they do indeed look streetroddish, but that being said, I use em on the 46 chevy truck, factory looking light housing with led and looks stock but bright as hell and streetroddish, but it gets their attention in the way I want! they stay installed!

 

I've been behind some of the late model cars at the stop light, the lights are TOO bright, like hurts your eyes, makes me want to rear end them on purpose(not really) bright, I find it almost as annoying as the super bright headlights.

 

I had some of the LEDs that replace a bulb and they weren't very satisfactory. I put 1057's back in and they were better, but not by much. I went online and found some universal LED's that were very small rectangles. I installed them on under the rear of the car facing out. They are so small that you really don't even see them. But when they are lit, they REALLY show up. They are about 3/4" by 2".

'

 

Unfortunately, "success" rarely teaches us anything. We learn through failures. A guy who smokes a cigerette every time he gasses up his car and never created an explosion does not prove the practice safe but one explosion proves it unsafe. This whole thing about useing out dated and less safe (didn't say UNsafe, just LESS safe) technology in the interest of looking cool reminds me of a documentary I saw about 25 years ago. It was about a young man, perhaps 20 that ALWAYS wore his sunglasses because they looked "cool". He also never wore a helmet on his Harley because IT also, didn't look cool. The producers were interviewing his family at his bedside in the hospital were he was suffering severe brain damage and could not speak, feed himself, or walk and had no control of his bowels so he had to wear diapers and be changed by an adult. The doctors said there was zero chance of improvement. Apparently, he was riding his 'cycle through a park at night and drove straight into a tree. It was suspected that, with his sunglasses on, he just didn't see it. We've all heard people claim that drum brakes are just as good as disk, bias ply tires handle just as well as radial, filiments are just as bright as LED, mech brakes are just as good as hydraulic and so on. Of course it's all rubbish, if that stuff was just as good, it never would have been replaced. Don't get me wrong, I'm not preaching. I too am torn between the performance of new vs the romance of old. I struggle with it daily as I LIKE the old ways. At the end of the day, we all have to decide what we are willing to risk to be "cool". Some go through life with narry an incident, some get killed and others, like the young man in the documentary I saw, pay a worse penalty than death (IMO). Whatever someone chooses to do, I hope it works out for them.

 

i hate those things. my vision gets flashed out if i look at them more than a few seconds. should be banned! same for the blue-white headlights.

 

Thanks for the link on the AMERICAN MADE Led lights. The housings are stainless and not Speedy Bill plastic. i'll take safety anyday over the " LOOK".

 

to street rod for me

 

I had JUST gotten my '34 3W finished and on the road. Went into town to fill the tank, and on the way back home got PLOWED in the rear by some woman in a Chrysler van...didn't see my '39 teardrops when I signaled to turn...

 

Ewwwww..gross


If you paint the inside of your tail light buckets white, and put bright 1157 bulbs in there at 12 volts..no reason for someone to say.."i didnt see you"..

there will always be those idiots that plow into someone , than say.." I didnt see you" or your lights..is a cop out and bullshit..fucking pay attention your driving a 2 ton life ender.

the LED's dont guarentee brake pedal application..

I have seen cars and semi trailers with those LED's in them get rear ended too..
also..you need to use your rear view mirror every time you stop..and be sure the jackhole behind you is stopping too..some rear enders can be avoided with hard application of the Go pedal and good driving skills

 

I put the Technostalgia LED's in my 40. My buddy who follows me quite a bit says it's the best improvement I've made to my car! On 40's, the light sits at an angle with the bulb burried down in a hole. I started with "bright bulbs" and painted the inside of the buckets silver. they were OK. Then, I did the halogen conversion on them. Better yet, but still hard to see in the daylight. Finally I put the LEDs in. They move the light right up under the the lense, where it shows up the best. Unless you really look hard at them it the daylight, or know 40's well, they look like regular lights.

 

Well said..... I always drive with a backout plan and emegency procedure in mind..... Assume every one else on the road is an idiot and you will live long & incident free.

For the record.... I go with the Bulb look.

 

When painting the inside of the housings, put some glass beads in the paint to enhance reflection.

 

so how many LED Naysayers have a SBC in there ride?.......Most of these cars have nearly no tail lights to speak of.

Most people today aren't used to seeing 1.25 x 2.5" 6 volt brake lights. Why risk it? Sacrifice comfort or reliability for performance sound and style,......that's what hot rodding is all about....Not Tail light bulbs...

I agree the embedded LED lenses look street rod garbage but the LED replacement bulbs are just fine.

Unless its dark and the LED lights are turned on there on you wouldn't know the difference. Ironically most motorists would say the original lights could be off or on and they wouldn't know the difference until they saw your rare one of a kind ride wrapped around there front bumper.

 

Over-the-counter LED taillights sure look inappropriate, be it a 40's style hot rod or just a 60's vintage pony car. It's not their increased brightness and operational lifespan which I don't like, but their sudden, flashy flash when they come on. That just doesn't look right.
Incandescent bulbs light up smoothly, light emitting diods don't.

However, that can be fixed with a proper control circuit. Problem is, no such circuit is being mass produced and/ or readily available, you'd pretty much had to fab one up yourself.
LED's characteristic curve is quite narrow, but it's feasible within that range to make LEDs look like regular incandescent bulbs somehow.

Still, depending on their angle of radiation, LED's tend to emit a quite directional beam, making taillights look dim when you're looking at them from any other angle but right behind your car. That'd be another turndown.

That having said, I run incandescent bulbs on all my cars, reflector housings fogged flat white with cheap aerosol paint.... mostly because I am not that good in etching circuits and shit.

 

If that little LED light will help stop a rear-end collision to my 40 PU that's what I'll use. I'm running 41 Stude taillights, the stock bulbs just are not bright enough!

 

Here is a link to a tech piece I did a few years back. In it you will find Digger Daves data on why you should paint them WHITE inside.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18275&highlight=white+lights

 

SBC was around in '55, LEDs, no.
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Say what - are you serious???

 

but the thread was a question about a 34 ford with 37 tail lights......most 55+ cars have 12 volt decent sized tail lights....that's a different discussion IMO