I need advice on how to light this hood ornament

Has anyone tried to light up a 1949 Chevy hood ornament? If so I need help in finding a 6 volt light bulb and socket that is small enough to fit in the chrome base and still put out enough light to make it worth the effort. There is plenty of room to run the wire between the hood half's. And there is about 1/4-3/8 of an inch of room under the front part of the base. I spent the morning looking on line for some modern technology like LED's or something smaller than just a #51 6 volt bulb. I'm afraid that a 6 volt #51 just won't put out enough light.

 

I would drill 3 little holes on the very back edge and put 3
white LED's pointing forward.
Compact, and lots of light output
That would be my thought anyways.

 

At night I'd think it would have enough light. Do you have that hood orn. on a truck? Looks good.

Regards,

Cosmo49

 

Take it to pep boys and look in there rice burner section for an led that will fit. That will probably be your fastest and cheapest option.

 

I second the L.E.D.. They come in different illuminations, and they use hardly any amps or volts....

 

Wow I never thought the 49 Fleetline looked like a truck but I guess in a close up of the hood it kind of does.

 

Go with an LED, they are very small and light up like a mother....

 

How bright do you want it to be?,,Rudolph bright or landing light bright?

Seriously,a small LED light like the street rod parts catalogs have that they use for turn signal indicators should work great. HRP

 

The back edge of the red plastic is only .25 inch tall and 1.75 inch wide with the part that is .25 inch tall only 1 inch wide. Do they really make LED that damn small. Aren't LEDs directional? If so they would need to be facing forward to work?

 

Are you talking about a replacement for a 1157 bulb? If so, that would be way to large in overall size.

 

Go to radio shack,they have the small bright leds in 12v & 6v. Real compact and bright. Don't look on the shelf,they keep them in the drawer cabinets.

 

Speaking for someone else is dangerous, but I think he meant the dash indicators for turn signals that are small.I don't know if they come in white though,and the red ones probably won't be bright enough through the red lens.

I don't know if a 12V LED will work on 6V,but they will work on 9V (I've used a 9V transistor battery to test LEDS)

I'd try Radio Shack for some white LEDS, they have lots of different sizes and voltages.

 

send it to me . ill figure it out .

 

Interesting hood ornament. Not sure if thats a rocket ship or a torpedo or a ... well never mind. Try the led thing in a dark room, maybe hot glue them here and there and see that you get the effect you want, while looking thru the opposite side. Some of the machines I use at work use led's remotely and plastic rods to put the light where they want it. I'm reminded of some early corvettes using then high tech, but today really primitive fiber optics at the ends of light bulbs for some indicators.

 

I had forgot about fiber optics....you could use a remote light box with one of those...hmmm....

Can fiber optics be made to spread the light at the end in more than straight out?

 

No,check out photo of the 3 leds,,these are available from Parr Automotive.
Smallest is 3/16 th. HRP



http://www.parrautomotive.com/index...ategory_id=-1/home_id=-1/mode=prod/prd503.htm

 

The smallest one looks great but will it work off of 6 volt?

 

I remember back in the late '50s it was the thing to do. pert sure there were laws pased in iowa on the subject (also blue dots). digging tru a junk yard one day and i found a hood ornament drilled for a lite!!

on that subject your lite will be red.....any state any where a red lite on the front is illegal

 

I ordered some leds that were the same size as the pic hrp posted (the small ones) pulled the little plastic housing off and hot glued it in. they are smaller then a pencil eraser with the housing on.

 

Check out your local hobby shop. They make all sizes of LED's that guys run in rc cars and planes. I have seen an LED strip that was adhesive backed that could probably be stuck to the base facing up and light it up well.

 

Forward facing red light, you rebel you!

 

i think missouri has similar laws concerning red lights in front, but do they enforce them? its the same here with blue dots, but who gets stopped for them? a lot of pontiacs had amber lighted ornaments. probably no problem with that. but another way to light up that ornament might be with fiber-optics.

 

The ones in a LED trailer type licence plate light or any third brake light situation are about 1/8th in diameter, should be room to drill 3 little holes in the back edge as you described.
point them forward.
We will want pictures of the finished product.

 

it should just wont be as bright, hell they work with a 9v battery or a AA

 

A lot of the trucks I worked on lit the whole dash with one bulb and fiber optics.

 

Well if that's true, that ****s. Iv'e heard the same thing about blue dots but nobody seems to get bothered here in Indiana for them. I could always just run it to a separate switch or maybe off the fog light switch.

 

Definitely illegal to have any red lights on the front.

I'd be tempted to do it anyway and just be selective about when to have it lit. (add a switch)

 

OK, looks like another one of my great ideas is really another one of my really bad ideas. I sure don't need to give the cops any more reasons to pull me over at night in that car.

So now all I need to do is make a mold from the original and cast a clear or yellow plastic insert for the chrome base. Like I don't have a dozen other things the cars needs that are more important.

 

you betcha they do... they enforce the "no vehicle shall have red illumination and/or red reflective device on a forward facing surface" WAY more than they enforce bluedot tail light laws...

 

If you really want a lit hood ornament, you might consider replacing the original with an aftermarket unit or one from a different vehicle. GM had others that were a similar design, but used colors other than red. I seem to remember my '48 Chevy used white plastic.