LED Parking and Tail Lights

[gbullman]

I’m considering changing my Parking and Brake / Tail lights to LEDs. I have a 66 with amber parking lights.

Has anyone done red LEDs for the tail lights and amber for the parking lights?

I’m thinking this combo will be more visible than white LEDs in those lenses which I think would make them a little washed out.

I’m trying to make the car more visible during the day so would run with parking lights on. I have had more people pull out in front of me with this car than any other I have driven and thinking brighter running lights will help other drivers notice my car.

[66vairguy]

I’m considering changing my Parking and Brake / Tail lights to LEDs. I have a 66 with amber parking lights.

Has anyone done red LEDs for the tail lights and amber for the parking lights?

I’m thinking this combo will be more visible than white LEDs in those lenses which I think would make them a little washed out.

I’m trying to make the car more visible during the day so would run with parking lights on. I have had more people pull out in front of me with this car than any other I have driven and thinking brighter running lights will help other drivers notice my car.

The "brightness" values of lamps is complicated. Brightness values can be the total illumination, or the illumination from only one point of observation. It's all online to figure out what a bulbs "values" mean. Anyway ----- Most bulb values are based on the intensity, NOT the color. So a white lamps light goes through a colored (let's say RED) lens and only the RED light in the WHITE spectrum goes through the lens. Most of the other light ends up as heat. Put another way --- if a RED LED brightness is only 50% of the WHITE LED, but most of the WHITE spectrum light is blocked by the RED lens, then actually the RED LED is brighter than the white LED viewed via the lens. This is a "guesstimate" example as you not all RED is the same, but you get the idea. Only a test setup gives accurate numbers. The other issues is the original old lens turn dark, the newer lens tend to look more PINK since they sometimes are lacking in RED pigment. The RED LED solves the pinkish issue with new lens.

The other issue is the LED chip orientation. Most lamp housings were designed for a small omni directional point of bright light, not LED chips spread out over a cylinder. So reflection patterns can be odd. Now some of the newer LED bulbs (more expensive) are using small single and bright LED chips that send out light more like the old filament incandescent bulbs. This NEW tech is a result of the newer LED headlamp technology, BUT it requires refined power supplies and well designed heat sinking - $$$$$. So economically speaking the older multichip bulbs spread out are still popular. I've used the older bulbs for years and one thing that helps is painting the bulb reflective housing with a hi-temp FLAT white paint to avoid sharp reflection points. While metallic mirrors are great single plane reflection surfaces - white reflects ALL the light with minimal loss and spreads it out for a more even illumination.

A fellow in Arizona makes up the "Corvair Euro" style clear front turn lenses (goes by Azdave on the CCF). He warns the plastic isn't as good as original, but I keep my cars garaged and it's been five years and the lenses are still good. I painted the sockets with hi-temp white paint to make the clear lenses look more even and run amber (more yellow) LED bulbs and the combination is brighter than the Corvair orange lens with incandescent bulbs. Hope this helps.

[Scott H]

I've done it. I used switchback LED's for the front since my car came with clear parking lenses. So my parking lights are white, and my turn signals light up amber. I will be wiring them up to be on anytime the car is on but I have yet to do that. But yes LED will be much brighter. I also replaced the old lighting on my dads '62 Monza convertible, I mention that because his front lenses are amber.
These are what I bought for my dads car. Amazon link - (fronts) https://a.co/d/cb2kOkh (rear) - https://a.co/d/bt0zAcX
If you just do the front turn signals in LED you shouldn't need a new flasher.
BUT if you do all the turn signal bulbs in LED then you'll need this as well. Amazon link - https://a.co/d/inFzrBo

[66vairguy]

One issue I found was if you replace the instrument cluster indicator lamps with LED (front and rear were already LED) the two prong electronic won't work well.

[acarlson]

I recently did this update on my '65 Corsa. I installed JDM Astar LEDs.

White - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XTBX27C/

Amber - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NQWSF5G/

Red - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PZ8Q7RS

You will need a flasher for the LEDs. I used a CEC flasher: https://www.amazon.com/CEC-Industries-E ... B00JXLH7CG

Also, I first removed the rear stop and backup light housings, cleaned them up and painted them with high temp bright white paint. It helps with the light reflection.

Alec

[m37aswell]

In my 1965 Corvair I put the retro LED 1157 bulbs out back in the taillights, looks good to me. The major improvement was putting the little retro LED lights in the instrument cluster, nice bright white light but not harsh, looks great. Much better than the little stock incandescent lights. I think the blinkers flash somewhat faster but not bad at all.

[doug6423]

I bought plug and play rear LED for my 65.
I plan to buy the front amber next.
Contact: corvairleds@gmail.com
His name is Ricardo and I am very happy with his product.
They light up great and plug right into the existing plug for the regular bulb.

[gbullman]

Thank you all for the info! You have opened my eyes to other points that I wasn’t considering.

acarlson,
That is kind of the direction I was expecting to go, including potentially the white paint. Could you possibly post some daytime pictures with the lights on so I can see how visible that solution is.

doug6423,
When you say plug in play does that mean the bulbs create enough load on the original flasher so that an LED compatible flasher isn’t needed?

[doug6423]

Correct.
His plug end is made like the bulb so it literally plugs into the wiring harness plug end. No modifying, no adding anything extra to make them work.
Brake lights and turn signals work as they normally would, only much brighter now.

[34nineteen]

I did this mod also, and used red LED's for the rear (and painted the inside of the housing silver). The only issue is that there is not a lot of difference between the running light brightness and brake light brightness. Instead of going from dim to bright, they now go from bright to extra bright. They are a lot brighter than stock, nonetheless. No one is going to claim they couldn't see you going down the road, but they also may not realize you are braking.

I left the front bulbs as the standard incandescent. This allowed the stock flasher to be utilized.

Note: I only painted mine silver, as it seemed to be intuitive at the time. Looking back, I would have painted them white if I had known that before I painted mine silver.

[gbullman]

I recently did this update on my '65 Corsa. I installed JDM Astar LEDs.

White - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XTBX27C/

Amber - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NQWSF5G/

Red - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PZ8Q7RS

You will need a flasher for the LEDs. I used a CEC flasher: https://www.amazon.com/CEC-Industries-E ... B00JXLH7CG

Also, I first removed the rear stop and backup light housings, cleaned them up and painted them with high temp bright white paint. It helps with the light reflection.

Alec

I ended up going this route and happy with the results. I didn’t do anything with the housing for now but can always do that at some future point. In the attached photos the driver’s side has the LED bulb while the passenger side has the incandescent. In order they are;
1. Just tail lights
2. Tail lights + Brake lights
3. Just Parking lights

There is quite a bit of difference when turn signals or brake lights are added to the running lights but I will admit the running lights are quite bright.

[erco]

Nice upgrade, gbullman. More light is always better.

I have always thought the backup lights were a terrible waste, used only 1% of the time if that. One of my current projects (hell, I haven't even finished my engine yet) is all custom LED lights all around. Purists will scoff but I'm using four chromeless '65 backup lenses on my '67 (three shown below). The middle (previously backup-only) lenses will have a PCB immediately behind it with an outer ring of red LEDs (for running/brake lights) plus a white LED center for backup. Outer lights will have an outer ring of red LEDs (for running/brake lights) plus an amber LED center for turn signals. Yes, some rewiring is required.

I also like the post where a guy added Mooneyes ring lights inside his backup lights. A simple, clever upgrade. Can't recall if that was here or on Facebook.

[gbullman]

Still waiting for the salt to be completely gone from the roads around here so haven’t had the car out since changing bulbs. I’m learning these LED replacements are not necessarily as easy as I was expecting. Was showing a fellow car enthusiast how nice and bright the LEDs are when we both noticed there was no noticeable difference between the tail lights and tail lights + brake lights. Tried the same with tail lights + turn signals, sometimes noticeable, sometimes not (I did install the recommended LED compatible flasher). I cycle the light switch a couple of times and the rear light behavior seems better but still not consistently easy to tell when brakes are on or a turn signal is flashing.

I decide to try using some Super Bright LED brand like I used successfully in the dash and order 1157 equivalent red LEDs. Put them in and the tail lights are not quite as bright but still very visible and there is a noticeable difference in the turn signals (need a partner to observe the brake lights). So far looks like I’m in good shape with rear lights.

Going through running light / turn signal test and no noticeable flash for the right front with parking lights on. Decide to give Super Bright LEDs a try up front as well. Put the first one in and it is noticeably dimmer than the remaining initial LED from my post above and now the new LED is barely noticeable as flashing with the turn signal on, while the initial replacement is brighter with just parking lights and very noticeable with turn signals.

So, what the hell is going on here. For at least the Super Bright brand LEDs I see they don’t have the equivalent of separate filaments like the incandescent bulbs do. Instead all LEDs light at one intensity for running lights, a different for brake or turn signals and I believe a 3rd when both are on.

I suspect in some cases I’m getting a form of bleed through where the LEDs are illuminating at the higher brightness without power to the turn signal dot. I can imagine that a less than perfect ground is contributing to this behavior. The grounds were good enough for incandescent lights and seem more often than not to be good enough for LEDs. For the tail lights, improving the contact between the socket and housing is fairly easy, not quite sure what to do up front.

Note all of this is because I feel a need to having running lights when I’m driving my Corvair, just have had way too many people pull out in front of me when my lights are off. I’d prefer not to burn my halogen headlights that much as well as risk running my battery down when I forget to turn them off. I thought LED running lights were going to be the solution (and still feel they make the most sense) but having my doubts that they will consistently perform the way I expect them to at this point.

I’m curious what others have experienced using LED running lights.

[66vairguy]

Gbullman --- I ran into the same issue you are having when I installed LED's in the front, rear, AND the instrument cluster turn indicators.

Yes LED's do vary, but I've had good luck with the ones from Superbrite. Later when I have some time, I'll PM you on how I fixed the turn signal issue with the running lights on. It it works you can post the results. Regards.

[Fishnbob]

Just got my 66 and gonna work on the taillights today. So looks like the outside tail lens are the brake lights??

[66vairguy]

Just got my 66 and gonna work on the taillights today. So looks like the outside tail lens are the brake lights??

Yes. I got your PM and sent a reply about headlights.