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Topic: LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car) (Read 12447 times) previous topic - next topic

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #15 –
Quote from: QUICKSHIFT;465762
I defy you to swap the glove box light. I tried twice and fried two led bulbs! :punchballs:

LOL, yeah that one is a little tricky. I haven't burned any LED bulbs but blew plenty of fuses. Even when probed with a test light, that socket shorts and pops the fuse. Don't know what to do there. It's the very last bulb I have to convert.


Quote
Just two bulbs in the dash cluster?

No, four for illumination in the base cluster.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #16 –
Quote from: EricCoolCats;465764
LOL, yeah that one is a little tricky. I haven't burned any LED bulbs but blew plenty of fuses. Even when probed with a test light, that socket shorts and pops the fuse. Don't know what to do there. It's the very last bulb I have to convert.




No, four for illumination in the base cluster.

Thanks
84 COUGAR/90 HO, 1.7RRs, performer RPM,700DP, equal length shorties, stainless EXH ,T-5,Hurst pro-billet, KC clutch, 8.8/ 4.10s, line-lok, bla ,bla, bla.
71 COMET/289,351w heads, 12.5 TRWs, 750DP, Liberty TL, 9"/6.00s, 11.9x @112 , bla,bla,bla.

Never shoot your mouth off, unless your brain is loaded! ....I may get older, but I'll never grow up!....If you're not laughing, you're not living!  :laughing:

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #17 –
Looks really nice Eric.

That console lamp is so white and bright instead of that tired yellowish look and those taillights and marker lights just look amazing. The more I look, the more you are convincing me to re-think this. ;)
1985 Mercury Cougar XR-7 - 5-speed 
One of 1,246 built

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #18 –
Yeah, the console light is an amazing difference. I got an eBay bulb (57) for that. In real life, it's still a bit yellow-ish but that's the nature of that light cover anyhow.

I found a photo of the heater panel with the original bulb:


 
 
Compared to the LED bulb version:




The old bulb showed the heater side color as more of a red...with the LED, it's more pinkish. That's due to the 6000K light range I'm sure but it's something to consider for an '83-84 car. Haven't tried the 1985-88 manual panel yet.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #19 –
I did this conversion to all of my interior bulbs last year ... big difference.  I can get in the car at night and with the door courtesy lights, roof light, and floor lights, everything is lit up.  I still need to go through the process of converting the exterior ones though.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #20 –
What turn signal flasher did you end up using when you changed over to LEDs?
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #21 –
Have to use an electronic flasher with the ground wire. It won't work ungrounded. Fortunately there are plenty of places around the flasher to make a good, permanent ground.
Also, it seems that you can use incandescent bulbs with the electronic flasher with no penalty.

Speaking of...turn signal demo, full LED conversion:

http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/84leds/84ts.mp4

The lights aren't really that pink. Difficult to capture these on a camera but you can get the basic idea.


This is what it looks like when you have a mix of bulbs...incandescent on the left, LED on the right:

http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/84leds/84ts_old.mp4
 

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #22 –
Looks really good with the conversion. 

Have you changed the headlights over yet and if so how do you like them? 

Most of the conversions I have seen so far they didn't have the dash dimmable which is a no go for me.

And there is my second post after lurking here a while.
1988 Thunderbird TC, 5spd
Stinger 3" single exhaust, Cone Filter, Adjustable Cam Pulley, Schneider roller cam, Walbro 255 lph, AEM Wideband O2
'93 Mustang Cobra replica wheels on 235/50R17

'21 F150 Powerboost
'17 Husqvarna TX300

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #23 –
There is an LED headlamp in this photo:



 
 
And in this photo:



Difficult to tell, no?
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...but you can definitely tell here:



 
They still need aimed so I haven't gotten photos of the full headlamp set yet. I'll get those when I can. So far so good, though. This particular brand uses such a stock-looking assembly that it's practically impossible to know it's LED, even if you're right up on it.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #24 –
Quote from: EricCoolCats;465796
Have to use an electronic flasher with the ground wire. It won't work ungrounded. Fortunately there are plenty of places around the flasher to make a good, permanent ground.
Also, it seems that you can use incandescent bulbs with the electronic flasher with no penalty.

Speaking of...turn signal demo, full LED conversion:

http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/84leds/84ts.mp4

The lights aren't really that pink. Difficult to capture these on a camera but you can get the basic idea.


This is what it looks like when you have a mix of bulbs...incandescent on the left, LED on the right:

http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/84leds/84ts_old.mp4

I have Thunderchicken's old sequential turn signal box. I wonder if the LEDs would work with it.

I'm not totally fond of the LED headlamps. Too blue for my taste.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #25 –
You might get lucky with that sequential unit and just replace the flasher with the electronic one. If it were me, I'd definitely try it.

My headlights are actually bright white with a bluish hint but they don't photograph like that. I really wanted something a little yellower. In the future there might be replacement bulbs in the ~4500K range and I'll swap over to them instead, but for now these are good for my tastes.

I'd think for your situation, there would be plenty of color ranges available for those bulbs...

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #26 –
I've yet to find an LED headlamp bulb that I think is close enough to the stock light.

I've got that whole "it looks stock with the hood shut" vibe to protect ;).
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #27 –
Eric - what did you have to do as far as the wiring goes for the headlights?  I've been considering this, but I'm leery of hacking into the harness.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #28 –
The bulbs in mine were pre-wired for stock pigtails, so I needed to do nothing. Some of the aftermarket setups use an H4-style wiring style, which requires some type of adapter or harness to work in our cars. What I found is that it's buyer beware...read the descriptions to make sure they're compatible with the stock wiring and, if not, that they include an adapter harness. Most of the quality ones do, though.

LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)

Reply #29 –
So Eric, where did you get those headlights?? Those are exactly like what I've been looking for.


86' T/C 4.6L DOHC
16' Chebby Cruze 1.4L Turbo
17’ Peterbilt 389 600hp 1850ftlb Trq 18spd

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