OK, Seeing IS Believing, so I'm going to show folks my immediate state of vehicle lighting on Gertrude, the 1968 ragtop Newport. She sports incandescent, cheap, and high grade LED lamps. I suspect you can mostly discern right away What's What, but I'll tell you too, to remove Doubt....
First, the tails. These are Philips Ultinon 1157 reds. NICE eh? Rest assured, I'm too lazy to bother wiping the oil and dust from my lenses either. WYSIWYG here.
Now, let's see how the reverse lights look. I admit some cheap arseery here, as I bought these Sylvania 1156 bulbs at Sprawlmart this past Spring:
They light up the target area well enough. We'll look at the sidemarkers now, as I've a nice, instructive contrast here:
That's the passenger side, from the rear. Note the photonic BLAST that front amber marker pumps, even through 54 yr old acrylic lens. THAT, Good Moparians, is what the Superbright BA9 bayonet base bulbs do. I wasn't kidding when I stated that these pump as much light as 1157s, which, up front, as an odd pair with one last incandescent on the right, and a Philips on the left. I've got a little wiring to still replace up there, and will as soon as more pressing issues get resolved.
OK, THIS is how the sidemarkers do when seen from the front. Those reds I'm running tonight came from Bezos, and are DIRT CHEAP. I scored a 20 bag for $10, and you all can see the contrast between what these do, as opposed to the SuperBright ware. I HAVE the Superbright RED BA9 bulbs now too, but haven't yet installed them. Again, little things like suspension, and God-willing, a newly rebuilt 400 will come first, though if it cools down nicely here, maybe I'll take the 2 minutes to replace the 50 cent bulbs from Amazon then.....
Now for the front, running lights:
Now, WHICH bulbs produce the MOST and BEST light? From your left to right we have, Superbright sidemarker, GE incandescent amber bulb, Philips Ultinon amber bulb, then Superbright sidemarker again. I think the Philips produces the cleanest light, but not much of it here, unlike the tails. Again, I DO have an issue with both of the turn signals up front, some of it coming from the worn out switch. I need to replace it, as my horn remains dead until I do. I grounded the relay wire for a test toot, and it does fine when the steering wheel is off.
Let's look inside a bit now:
Theres my dash, in all its blazing glory. A couple of the wedge bulbs behind the speedo are now 194 LEDs, as are the turn signals, but most of the stuff behind the old template remains incandescent, for the moment. Now for a closer look at some stuff...
HERE is an eclectic farrago of stuff! One incandescent, a TINY little bulb soldered to its leads inserted into a tiny little rubber grommet, illuminates the voltage gauge. It does this well, and has for a few years, as I took these out of Mathilda, as a few of you may recall. The oil pressure gauge is illuminated from a green LED strip obtained from a local electronics shop. Stewart Warner made MANY of their gauges to be placed in gauge arrays lit by bulbs BEHIND THE ARRAY, with light leaking through glass at the bottom of the gauge. My Elders will confirm this, but I type also for today's youth. The coolant temp gauge on the right uses one of the cheap 194 LED bulbs encased in acrylic that I got from Bezos.
I used a spare blue BA9 bayonet base bulb for the ignition key. I first bought a few of these from SuperBright to illuminate my ashtrays in Mathilda. Note that my ashtray, just to the right of the key, is yet lit by the factory original Edison bulb. I'll replace both ashtray lights along with the rest of the remaining incandescents as time permits.... I LIKE deep blue for SOME accessories. Different colors helps the brain quickly discriminate data. Use this fact.
The map light is a cheap eBay white LED tower bulb, as are the courtesy lights in the back seat. The vendor advertises a "complete set" for mid 1960s Mopar C body cars. SINO-****!!!! DON'T buy anything that isn't a recognized DOT approved BRAND NAME on eBay. These 3 courtesy lights are the ONLY THING OF USE I GOT OUT OF THAT PACK OF BOTTOM QUALITY CRAP! The rest of it was just generic 1157 white tower bublbs which were OK at Walmart 8 yrs ago. These tongsters deal out of San Francisco. AVOID THEM. At least I didn't waste much $ on them. Get what you pay for....
You can see clearly the shameful state my 2 Little Spawn leave the back seat in for Daddy to pick up by the blight of these admittedly powerful, but woefully cheap bulbs.
Well, I tried to video the turn signal blinking for you all, and Google might yet upload it, but its getting late now. I hope these pictures provide enough concrete samples of the current state of automotive LED illumination for retrofitting our cars. This car came with all brass base white 1157 GE or NAPA bublbs and old GE headlamps, which I'm yet running. As you can see from the one remaining GE in the front running lights, they did alright, but SUCKED CURRENT HARD. Voltage came up a solid volt as I've replaced what I've replaced. I'm sure when I finish the job, I'll get another half a volt if not more for the electrical system. Half a volt when running no more than 12-14 signifies.
This is Gerald Morris, throwing a little Light on a subject near and dear to him from his earliest childhood. Both of my little ones are FASCINATED by electric lights, just as I was, and am.