TAIL LIGHTS

[Enos]

My 6v tail lights are not very bright. I am always worried about being rear ended.

Am considering changing to either halogen or led.

Which would be brighter..halogen or led (+/-) 32 leds.

Thanks for all replies.

Enos

[Jim Bollman]

Big variation with LED brightness between brands. I pulled a set of 6 volt LEDs that were about break even with the standard bulbs and put in Halogen a little more than a year ago. Halogens were noticeably brighter.

I have seen other LED bulbs that seemed brighter but I couldn't do a side by side. My LED s were not the cheap ones you see sometimes, they were from SuperBrightLED.

This car has new wiring and restored, white inside taillight housings. You might see a bigger difference with old wiring since the LED would not draw as much current, so would not have the voltage drops caused by less than perfect connectors. The Halogens draw about the same current as standard bulbs so they would have the same voltage drop problem.

[Chris Coon]

I have yet to see LED replacement bulbs that I thought were brighter than halogen. But the LED's will draw less current.

[Dave Mellor NJ]

The halogen looks more authentic if that matters to you. The LED is a pattern of small bright lights as seen commonly on the rice rockets.

[Guest Joe G]

Another thing you could try is to paint the inside of your taillight housings silver - it makes a huge difference.

Hope this helps...

[28 Chrysler]

Halogen lights are brighter, but beware, they put out more heat and in a small tail light they can have a shorter life.

[Dave Mellor NJ]

Another thing to consider is that the LEDs aremade on a right angle,like a droplight in a half-cage reflector or a flashbulb.I had a friend who tried to put them in a 51 studey.He had to change the socket and the light was up higher inside the taillight. In short, it looked ridiculous and he changed back.

[George Rohrbach]

For more information about LEDs, both 6 and 12 volt for our antique cars, check out my webpage:

6 Volt and 12 volt LED Positive or Negative Ground Auto Replacement Bulbs

For those of you that are skeptical about their use, if you purchase them and are not happy for any reason, I will be glad to provide a full refund.

Studebaker 20's,30's And 40's HIGHSPEED MOTORS, Your local Studebaker Dealer of THE 20's,30's And 40's

[rwoods]

i see a lot of talk about painting the inside of tailights for more light,silver or white were mentioned,is one brighter than the other?

[Jon37]

Just for fun, you might try cleaning off the contacts in the socket (and on the bulb), then running a new wire from the nearest terminal (feeding the light) back to the battery, to see if the light is any brighter when you bypass all that old wiring and switches. The wire can just lay on the ground, you are not trying to re-wire the car, just test it.

Simultaneously, you might try running a ground wire from the light socket to a good ground point on the frame (or, back to the battery terminal). Connect, then disconnect the new "helper" hot wire from the socket, just to see if there is any noticeable improvement in brightness. If not, nothing lost. If so....well, you know what needs to be done.

Never hurts to ground taillight sockets, because they ground to the housing and often that's rusty.

One other suggestion. If your taillight lens happens to be round you might find a reflector (like, from a large flashlight) that could fit in the housing around the lamp. Punch a hole in the center so that the reflector can simply fit around (and be held by) the socket. I did this years ago and it really helped the brightness in my 6v taillight.

[Jim Bollman]

My tail lights and parking lights were white originally is why I made mine white. I have also put tinfoil in the back of other taillights to gain higher output.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

White inside is better than nothing, silver or "Bumper-Chrome" spray is most reflective, almost like a mirrored reflector.

I'm a big fan of the LED hi-mount thrid brake-light, such as the one sold under the name "Brakeliter", available from Model A Ford suppliers, among others.

I put one in my '28 Ford, and it is a HUGE asset !!! It is a strip of red LEDs in a black plastic housing, about 10 " long by 3/4" high, by 1/2" thick ,and secures to the rear window either with suction-cups or double-stick dots (both are supplied). The unit is "split" into two halves,

Left and Right, and has four wires ( two "hot", two "ground" ), so it can be wired to function in several ways: full stop only, left & right turn only, or Left & Right Turn & Stop, if your vehicle is equipped with a "seven-wire" turn-signal system.

Mine is set-up as "full stop".

I will be installing one in my '41 DeSoto, and a buddy wants them for his '51 & '55 Hudsons.

Great suggestion from Jon 37 about running jumpers to check the efficiency of your original "hot" and ground connections to the lights (all lighting - Headlight, parking, stop & tail).

My '41 De Soto is kind of crusty, after spending it's 69 years in Northeast PA; I had chronic issuse with dim lights / blown fuse, until I replaced the #22 bell wire used by a previous owner, and ran ground jumpers from the all lighting points to good grounds on the chassis.

Got brighter lights and no blown fuses for over ten years / 25,000 miles.

The high-mount LED brake light really does get the attention of modern (distracted) drivers...

[TexRiv_63]

I had problems on my 28 Pierce with dim taillights and blown fuses so I took apart the taillight assembly. The reflectors were either silver or nickel plated and polished up pretty well. Turned out all the wiring inside the lamp assembly was original, the insulation had disintegrated creating shorts. I replaced it all with teflon coated wire plus cleaned up all connections and put in new bulbs. Now all lights are much brighter and work correctly. Unfortunately when you are dealing with lamps that are only about 2 1/2 inches diameter they still are hard to see especially in sunlight. I have mounted one of those orange triangle "Slow Moving Vehicle" signs on my rear tire carrier and am also considering the Brakelighter for both of my cars.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Two other thoughts:

1) Most pre-1948 cars have glass lenses in the rear lights... the red lenses do not transmit light the same way as plastic lenses, where the whole lens media tends to glow.

2) rear lighting on pre-War cars tends to be pretty small, and placed low on the body - difficult to see unless you're looking for them.... and believe me, modern drivers are not focused on figuring-out your 70+ year-old rear lighting !

One of the better old cars I have, in terms of rear safety lighting, is my '48 Chrysler New Yorker - in that era MoPars had a brake light on the trunk lid - the '46-'48 Chrylers had a plastic stop-light lens that was about 10 inches long by 1.5" high and mounted high enough on the trunk lid not to be obscured by the hood of a tailgating follower.

I still vote for the LED striplight, mounted high-enough to be "in the face" of modern drivers...

For a while, I considered getting a pair of "Unity" fog-lights, putting red sealed beams in them, and mounting them on the rear bumper for stoplights... ( "Can you see me NOW ?" )