I know someone on here has converted their taillights to 4" LED's and they had posted how they had done this. I am not having any luck finding the thread in the archives. My taillights look pretty bad and I just got a really good deal on 4 new LED lights and plan on trying them out in my Vette. Any help out here on how to do this?

If any of you are interested in these lights I got mine at a Flying J truckstop. They have them on sale this month for $14.99 each after a $5 mail in rebate.

 

I think that Bullshark has them.. Not sure if it's him or another forum member.. Saw the car at the last Cruise In..

Here are the tail lights that I saw on that car..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=34207

 

It's garandfan. I was in awe of them at CI, but like an idiot, i forgot to get a pic of them

 

got pics.. Will post them in a moment...

 

 

is it posible to get the lighting of an LED but with the stock look of 71 tail lights? i love the way 71 tail lights look but also love the way the LEDs light up..

 

are those legal? Don't you still need a red lens?

How's it going with the neighbor?

 

You can buy replacement LED bulbs, but sometimes you also have to get a resistor or change the signal flasher as the LED's dont draw as many amps as regular bulbs.

 

Haven't heared from the neighbor, but haven't started the Vette since the weekend.. I'm out of race gas.. Need to buy som 112 octane ASAP..

 

I have the truck lights hidden behind the stock lights. but it took some work. They do light up nice though.

 

They do make small LED lights, in fact the end is just like a 1157. Just plug them in like any other bulb.
I have had them a little over a year now.

 

do you guys know if those would work in a 81?
Ryan.

 

I don't know about Grandsports but the clear LED lights I use are DOT approved.
They turn red when lit and have proper dispersion.
I currently have red ones in. The link below shows both and how they install.



http://members.surfbest.net/danespac...ight/index.htm

 

I don't really like the look of the LED lights (much prefer stock) & the laws here means that the backup lights have to be converted to indicators. So I've put my Bubba hat on (or is it a leather bib?) & have come up with a plan. FB#1 kindly sent me some rear lights for an '81 as part of the Xmas giveaway (thanks again) & I'm going to convert the backup lights to indicators (using a yellow bulb as normal) & also as tail lights. I'm going to do this by fitting LEDs in the light unit. It's easy enough, just drill a circle of holes around the periphery of the rear of the light & fit the LEDs into them. Directional visibility may be wrong due to the mounting angle, but angled LED mounts can be fitted to point them directly back rather than inwards (think the field of view is 120* so they should be OK either way). Or, in true Bubba tradition, they could be glued in at an angle with epoxy.
The main problem I had was in getting the correct brightness. While LEDs specify the lumens(sp?) I can't find any info for a 5W tail light. There's a guy that sells LED "bulbs" for cars & bikes (www.norbsa02.freeuk.com) & the site lets slip that 9 LEDs are used for the tail & 19 for the stop light. I've had a look at his "bulbs" & they look to be King Bright LEDs (known to us as 'kin bright ). So I've just ordered 20 red ones (we use them here & they are bright compared to "normal" LEDs). I plan on using 10 for each light, wired in 2 groups of 5. I'll connect 5 LEDs in series with a resister & then wire these in parallel with another group of 5 with a resister. The forward voltage drop of each LED is 1v8, so the voltage drop across 5 LEDS will be 9v, leaving 3v "spare" from the 12v supply. The resister is to cancel this 3v so that the LEDs don't get over voltage. A King Bright LED will last for years with a supply current of 20mA & will light up bright. So the resister value will be V/I = 150ohms. Power = VxI = 3 x 20mA = 60mW so a stock resister is needed (no need for heavy duty ones). This is the plan, whether it will work or not I'll post & let you know. If it does work out then I'll get a couple of the stop/tail LEDs from the above site so I'll have 4 LED tail lights which also look stock The way I see it is that the C3 has a pair of red lights on either side, so why not use them all as tail lights. There may be some rules & regs (aren't there always) that says that a red tail light must also double up as a brke warning light if it's at a certain position/height/whatever, but a potential modification could be done in that I could check out the maximum safe current for the LEDs and work out the resister value that would give this current & mount one in parallel with the existing one. If the power from the brake light circuit is connected to the extra resister then the LEDs will get more current & glow brighter, maybe enough for a brake light (easy way to do a brake light is to fit more LEDs on a separate circuit, but my light would look like a Swiss cheese at the rear & probably shatter into a thousand pieces on the first bump. Unless it's all held together weith epoxy...... ). I can't help thinking that this is a bit ricer bling bling, but having followed C3's at night the rear lights stand out as being dim compared to modern cars and, as it took me 20 years to get mine, I don't want it rear ended by some dozy, myopic idiot who's excuse will be "sorry mate, I didn't see you".
Results, however embarassing, will be posted in due course

 

The lights that I bought (that started this thread) are full size red light that look like the clear ones that are posted up in this thread. Just a flat surface red LED light with maybe 15 total LED's in them. There are no mounting studs to work with on these as they are made for the rubber grommets like they use on trucks.

I already have the little 1157 LED style replacement bulbs like a couple of you have asked about here. Don't waste your $$ on those.

Thanks for all of your replys.

Harold

 

I bought a set of 1157 Bright White replacements from Stylin Concepts a couple of years ago and they are EXCELLENT. Very bright and fast response. I did need to use a HD Flasher as there wasn't enough load for the stock one.

 

Enad, those aren't mine... Just a pic of another forum members car, but I might consider going with those myself...

 

You're right, that's a pretty interesting look isn't it.

 

I really like the look... Especially on my blue Vette, the clear lenses would look

 

Who are Stylin' concepts and what number flasher unit did you use?