LED lighting on classic cars

[Aus78Formula]

.

[roadking77]

I think led's are great, just not on my car. Its not a dd and to me, all the old school stuff is what makes it a classic car. Change the drive train, the lights, the seats, the suspension, may as well just go buy a new mustang (of which I did for my wife, lol). Good or bad, it all adds up to the charm of an old car.

[Gene-73]

You can change the color temperature of any light source by using photographic gels, which are simply colored sheets of plastic that go over the lamp. They come in multiple colors depending on what color temperature your striving for. I've never thought about using them in a car but there's no reason why it wouldn't work. 

Before I tore my Firebird down, I had changed (only) the rear license plate light to LED and the blue-ish light really stood out from the rest of the lamps, so I know exactly what you mean. 

[Jack]

With LEDs the white/blue or what they call cool are the cheap lamps, you can get almost any color temp. you want. I think lamp upgrades are simple and nice (sorry Kerry I don't think they take away from the classic look). The gel is a good idea but they will cut down the light some to a point that they may not be affective in the dash. I'm looking to upgrade my gauge cluster because I can't see it at night, could be due to few lamps are out or poor eyesight.

[krylon_hunter]

LEDs are awesome in my opinion other than for turn signals ive seen them cause rapid blinking due to different resistance in the circuit. not personally sure if that's the case on our older cars though

[N PRGRES]

This is an interesting thread. As I get the TA road ready I am working on LED headlights. I have a classic looking glass lens but want a bright led light inside. I like seeing where I am going and it makes the car safer. Probables is I don’t know a good brand to go with.

[Casey]

They do make warm white LEDs for the interior now, which I prefer over blinding blueish white.  Actually I prefer amber lighting ala BMW which is what I did for my Firebird, here's such that inspired me:


Plus it doesn't hurt your night vision when you have to use them like any form of white light does.  As far as reputable LED brands there's always Philips and OSRAM/Sylvania, beyond that takes a lot of digging and research as to what's good and what isn't.

[Casey]

LEDs are awesome in my opinion other than for turn signals ive seen them cause rapid blinking due to different resistance in the circuit. not personally sure if that's the case on our older cars though

You need electronic flashers or relays for LED bulbs.

[Maxthe222]

Hmmm,

Well for me, I'm thinking about having LED indicator bulbs on the front, i'd like them on the back, but maybe not the front. I constantly get blindsided by them all the time when driving, and I kinda don't wanna be one of those lol.

But when it comes to interior? I'd love LED lights behind the tacho, speedo and gauges. I do a lot of night driving, and that is something I really wanna implement on my firebirds. Also on the light under the automatic console shifter, interior courtesy lights, and the trunk light. I completely agree about the blinding light vs the warm light thing, I think having that flashbang go off when you open the door isn't suited to muscle cars. I'm going to look into the "warm" style LED bulbs though.

[N PRGRES]

I have yet to see a case where a driver was hot because the headlights were too bright.....  If I can see better because I have better light than the shitty old sealed beams, that’s safer, especially as I love in the country and rural roads are very dark with lots of deer 

[Casey]

It's not a matter of brightness, it's a matter of beam pattern and glare.  Tools that throw in HID "retrofit" kits into their halogen reflector housings need to be forced to look into the sun.  LED isn't quite as bad, but even the ones that're supposed to be good have bleed out over the cutoff point.  To do it proper you need LED or HID projectors from an o.e. application, and even then getting it right in a vehicle never meant for them takes effort.  Just because you think you can see better doesn't mean that you are, and at the expense of other drivers is just irresponsible.  There are proper replacements for sealed beams, E code halogen H1 and H4 lamps from companies like Hella and Cibie.  Run on a relayed harness you'll see better than most new cars, in fact my Hella H4 with 100/80W bulbs on a relay harness puts out better light that my brother's BMW with factory D1S HID.  Of course it takes 2-3 times the wattage, but that's halogen for you.  Not only do I see better but I know I'm not being an @$$ blinding everyone with glare too.

[rkellerjr]

I think they are cool and my voltage gauge loved the new LED's and headlights. It would drop from 14 to about 11.5, 11.8, now, it barely moves when I turn stuff on...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_GmXawaARE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_GmXawaARE</a>