Anybody usin' the newer style bright LED bulbs to replace 1157 for tail/brake lights? The tower design looks interestin' but, do they work OK? Thanks,Smokey
'Cause Smokey's a hip dude ! Does this mean you're getting close to roadworthy , Smokey ?? You & the warden need some road time in a hotrod !
LED bulbs are directional. You must place them so that they shine straight back. Some old cars don't have tail lights that allow this. I found that 1157 BRITE BULBS work better.
be traditional and adjust the light socket ... or be traditional and get rear ended .. then again bright tail lights are not traditional .. shit i just argued with myself.
Who won? Bright bulbs are more traditonal thn LED's. I drive our 1941 Ford at night a lot. A friend has a 1939 and another a 1940 Ford. My bright bulbs in the 41 are much brighter and visable. The 39 and 40 1157 bulbs look like a couple of tiny reflectors at night and are not visible from a few car lengths. We travel only 10-15 miles sometimes home from our local cruise. But it is a four lane divided 65 MPH highway with snowbirds, older farts than me, and drunks. The brighter the tail lights the better.
2357 bulbs have a brighter stop/turn filament and work well as a replacement for 1157 bulbs. For the best and brightest taillamps, paint the inside of the housing gloss white, clean and scrub the inside AND outside of the lenses, make sure the housing/socket is well-grounded, use a 2357 bulb and put on your sunglasses while testing after doing this so you don't fry your retinas! After decades and a few hundred or so hotrod events the one thing I always noticed was how poorly the taillamps on so many cars were lit. Glass lenses, plastic lenses, didn't matter much. Read the above procedure as a hint in some rod mag over 30 years ago and have done this on every old car I've had since then.
I put "Ugly Bulbs" in wifes 50 Chevy after complaints from others they couldn't see our lights. No more complaint's. Didn't care for the available plastic LED assemblies and the housing is too small for LEDs on a circuit board style.
I tried the LED bulbs in the '39 teardrops on my '32 Roadster and didn't like the effect at all. They just appeared like a small dot and weren't discernibly brighter than regular 1157's when viewed through glass lenses. Went with the 1157 "Brite Bulbs" from Ron Francis and they work much better. The round globes of these disperse the light in a much wider spectrum and are brighter than regular 1157's. Guess it's something in the construction of the filaments.
I had 1157 that i was using in my Model A with 48/49 buick roadmaster tail lights and the bulbs are very close to the lense and they actually melted my lense. Sucked because they were new old stock. So i switched to those led things because they don't put out any heat.Do the Ron Francis 1157 brite lights put out any heat?
make up sex was great thanks for asking !! haha .. so whats the diffrence 1157 and the ron francis ones ??
I use Jamstrait LED bulbs in all my cars - I have found them to be the best both in output and the range of different options - I value my sheet metal and life. Halogen bulbs put out way too much heat and will melt plastic lenses. Paint your light cans or reflectors white - works much better than silver or chrome. Be aware of the angle of your tail lights as directionality can be a problem. I also run magnetic reflective strips from Julianos at night time.... www.jamstrait.com www.julianos.com/magna_flector.html
There is really not a standard answer to this question. It depends HIGHLY on the shape, the size, the depth, etc of the housing. It also depends on whether the original car was really intended to have significant light going backwards into the housing to reflect forward. Further the angle of the lens and housing will change everything as LED's are only bright from a narrow angle. I think they look REALLY good in the tail of my buddies 66 Bronco with a small flat housing that points straight back. They often look terrible in the back of a fat fender car with the housing sitting on the slanted fender. Another big concern is whether the conventional bulb is intended to provide SIDE view light from a projected lens style. You will find an LED will provide minimum light there, though there are some style bulbs that are designed to minimize that problem. Another thing to note is to use only RED led bulbs as they will be quite a bit brighter than CLEAR bulbs. There is some light wave science on that issue that doesn't make a lot of sense at first glance, but it is a fact. I too use a 2357 bulb which is a brighter standard filament, but lesser lifespan bulb. It works amazing well, but I have thought about using some individual LED bulbs to supplement in strategic areas within the housing. I think the idea of having a combination might be a possible way to add some significant lighting without losing the beautiful glow of our older lens styles.
MORE info--Please....what style of lights/buckets/pocket depth away from lenses.. i've made a lot of LED lights.
That works. I did this on my 71 GMC after being stopped by the State Patrol "because my tail lights were too dim". No more problem. One thing I've stressed and will say again is to have someone else drive each of your rods or customs and follow it in both daylight and dark to see how others see your lights. What may seem as a really cool set of lights or location may not be visible in all or any condition (s) to those behind you.
Thanks gang for the input. I'm usin' real '40 Chevy glass lensed tail lights on the '34. I'm not usin' the "new style" '40 Chevy plastic.led copies but,a bright light that doesn't make a ton of heat and uses less juice sounds good to me. I can modify the housing to suit the best socket/bulb that is available. Duh, I should have said that in the beginnin'... More info please. Thanks again,Smokey
Hey Buddy, I'm not close but, pluggin' away at little stuff while tied up with takin' care of the warden's parents and the Daughters wedding etc. I'm not bitchin' just explainin'... Oh yea the warden is claustrophobic and can't drive stick hence the chopped top and Richmond 5 speed in the hotrod...get the idea? Take care man...
Most "drop in" LED's are not up to the job. I tried several variants in an older housing that is known to melt lenses if you replace the 1157 with a hotter running bulb like the 2357. So I had to make my own. Brightness standards do exist, and I really doubt the OEM lighting from 1965 was even meeting that. State standards here in NV NRS 484D.130 (5) require the stop & turn lamps to be visible 500 feet to the rear in "normal sunlight". I don't care what the federal standard is, the guy most likely to write me a ticket is a NHP goon. Along with that insurance companies are always looking for a way to wiggle loose from a claim. An under performing brake light is just what they want to find. So I decided to make my own to pass all the tests. Here is the scratch built light next to the OEM. 11:00 am, full sun. Brakes only. 8 feet back, and 5 feet above ground with the camera: And here we are 25 feet back, and 25 feet to the right - basically two lanes over in the driver's seat of a car: The red lens in the lower part of the housing I made from some heat resistant material, so I loaded a 2357 in it as a secondary lamp: And finally as someone pointed out, retro-Reflectors are your friend. If you pull off the road with a dead battery no light will help. I added that red ring you see in some highly reflective adhesive film, here it is next to the OEM reflector from 1965: Be very careful with so called drop-in solutions. They may be illegal, or just not bright enough to protect your ride. B.
you will need a L.E.D flasher if you make your own, or they wil not flash do to the low draw. here's some reading..i have another saved on my home computer. http://www.thediyworld.com/How-To-Make-A-12-V-LED-Light-Bulb.php i use a 4' 27 to 40 led lights from the truck stop to make mine,easy to grind down the sides to fit what ever housing i use-chuck
While LED's aren't "Traditional", I really struggled with what to get for my 46 GMC Truck, the 50 Pontiac Taillights with glass lenses and a regular bulb, or LED's. I decided that if my taillights were dim and someone hit me, it wouldn't matter how "traditional" they looked, so I went with the LED lights. I've been told by several vendors that sell them that in most cases (it does depend on the housing), the LED replacement bulbs aren't bright enough as they only direct light straight backwards and provide a very small light and almost no side lighting. It's probably a trial and error type thing.
Earlier posts here recommended painting the inside housing white. It's been said that if some glass beads are added to the white paint, that helps too.
Actually if you use a hazard flasher(heavy duty) the LEDs will operate. Hazard flasher will operate any/all bulbs that is in the circuit as they don't rely on amp draw
I assume this would be a timed flasher like the LED flashers are? Do you have an example of what you're referring to? My wiring harness has 2 flashers but they're the same relying on amp draw, and I'll be needing different flashers for my setup.
LED style bulbs can be bought in many configurations. The best I have found are the smd (surface mount diode) style. They can be found with anywhere from 15 to 120 led's installed around the circumference and on the end of the lamp. You should be able to match them to any style of reflector housing. Classic Auto Products has these in all styles of bulbs from 1156,1157,1141,1073, 3157,194 and all of the interior lighting lamps. www.classicautoproducts.com
Got mine from a local hot rod parts guy. Don't know if he still has any. I don't see any evidence on the Net that they exist any longer but there are plenty of sources for halogen 1157 bulbs now that look a little more normal. Don't know how they compare in wattage to the Uglies.
2X on this advice. White is a much better reflector than silver or bare metal. And conventional bulbs do work much better in older tail light housings because they are non-directional.
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