Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Technical => Body/Appearance/Interior => Topic started by: Red_LX on December 29, 2006, 08:35:37 PM

Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: Red_LX on December 29, 2006, 08:35:37 PM
If so, how'd it look, got any pics?

Been thinking about doing this, since I found out how cheap LED lights can be had on ebay...and most of the bulbs in my car have been in there since I bought it (almost 4 years ago), so I am considering upgrading to full LED's (tails, high mount stop lamp, and marker lights).
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: Thunder Chicken on December 29, 2006, 09:50:06 PM
Are you talking about just installing the LED bulbs, or actually modifying the housings?

I've been working on it... for about 5 years...

Although my project is coming along very, very slowly it will look awesome when finished - the lights will sequence, of course, but I've also extensively modified the tail light housings. There will be 330 red LED's (55 in each of three round sections, on each side), and 200 white LED's for backup lights.

A preview:
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: Red_LX on December 29, 2006, 10:34:52 PM
Heh, I'm just talking about LED bulbs...doing what you're doing is above and beyond what I'm talking about.
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: Thunder Chicken on December 29, 2006, 11:57:51 PM
No fear, it's above and beyond what I'm talking about, too, hence the "stalled" status of this project :p

Most aftermarket LED bulbs do not throw a lot of light, and the light most of them do throw goes straight out. If you can, get the ones that have "rear firing" as well as front firing LED's (or 360-degree light output), so they light up the whole inside of the housing instead of just a little dot
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: tbirdscott on December 30, 2006, 12:45:43 AM
I bought some of the LED plug-in bulbe before, looked like  so I retuyrned it and just got red coloured bulbs instead, like thunder chicken said the beam of light is too concentrated.

I did put led's into a dummy light on my sprint, it was just a clear lense over a silver bucket, no lights or anything so I put 5 10cm orange leds into it and wired them to the side marker lights, want really that hard to do.

Scott

(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/turbosprunt/bcn.jpg?t=1167457425)
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: 87badbird2613 on December 30, 2006, 01:53:32 AM
this is what i got
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: xr7cat on December 30, 2006, 08:08:13 AM
Dude that is really awesome, I like it a lot!

Also if you put LED's in your turn signals they might blink faster than normal. There is an adapter out there, just can't remember the site right now.


Edit>> Found the website! http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm (http://"http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm")
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: Red_LX on December 30, 2006, 12:21:11 PM
Ah, maybe I'll just stick with regular light bulbs for now. I took my taillights apart last night so I can clean up the inside of them and seal em back up (they both got water into them every time I washed the car or it rained). It'd cost me $50 or so to get all LED's and since I don't really know how good they'd look, guess I'll pass for now...
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: xr7cat on December 30, 2006, 06:33:37 PM
If you want I can get pictures of those particular LED's in a vehicle, it is not a cat (Honda Civic). But they look pretty good!
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: 87badbird2613 on December 31, 2006, 01:35:33 AM
Quote from: xr7cat;120755
Dude that is really awesome, I like it a lot!

Also if you put LED's in your turn signals they might blink faster than normal. There is an adapter out there, just can't remember the site right now.


Edit>> Found the website! http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm (http://"http://www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm")


they are already sequential thanks to carmen!!:birdsmily:
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: xr7cat on December 31, 2006, 11:45:47 AM
no no a faster blink rate due to the LED's producing a lower load than the original flash is looking for.

unless his sequencers already take that into account or you have more line load?
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: 1BadBird on December 31, 2006, 12:24:32 PM
I had put LED bulb's in the rear of my Bird that I got from a truck stop. They were bright enough, but like everyone has said, they looked like dots (2") from a short distance. I'm going to do something different when I put the Bird back together. I might graft 87' - 88' T/C lights into it and make them sequential.
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: Thunder Chicken on December 31, 2006, 04:52:43 PM
Quote from: xr7cat;120905
no no a faster blink rate due to the LED's producing a lower load than the original flash is looking for.

unless his sequencers already take that into account or you have more line load?

The flashers included with my sequencers only require one "real" bulb per side, so as long as the front bulbs are stock you're good to go.

FWIW, if you install LED's with the stock thermal flasher the car came with it won't flash at all
Title: Anyone here put LED's in their tails/marker lights/etc?
Post by: xr7cat on January 01, 2007, 05:23:38 AM
Quote from: Thunder Chicken;120935FWIW
, if you install LED's with the stock thermal flasher the car came with it won't flash at all

Okay, I was basing my info off a of Honda... haven't tried anything on my older vehicles. :dunce:

Thanks for the info though!