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I don't know when the last time someone brought this up but I'm getting ready to get my 1939 Super 8 ready for the road. Right now it has the regular 6 volt incandescent bulbs (like the original) but I'm looking to use the new LED bulbs that are brighter and use less electricity. Anyone have any good luck with certain companies or brands of bulbs? Or is there something new out there that's even better than LED's?

Steve

We purchased many brands of LED' and tried them in numerous Packard taillights 35-56. While they are bright they appear bright in a straight line behind the car, a bit to the side they are dimmer. As they give little benefit and some detriment we decided not to sell them. In a big taillight like a '56 they are very poor.

The best thin to make your taillights more visible is to line the shell with aluminum foil. The amount of electricity saved with LED's is negligible.

To effectively use LED's the entire assembly and lens must be specifically designed for them, ,look at them on new cars in traffic

In addition to Fred's comments the other option is Halogen. I don't know if there are any direct fit halogen bulbs for the older bayonet sockets but the bulbs are brighter -- and also run hotter. Sockets could probably be changed to a modern halogen version to use modern bulbs but the extra heat could be detrimental to the lens or enclosure.

Excellent grounds to the point of soldering on an extra wire to the light sockets and a clean connection on the sheetmetal to make the ground instead of relying on the original connections via mounting bolts and pot metal housings will go a long way toward making the original incandescent bulbs brighter. Having good clean wire terminal connections are also a given.

If you are interested in checking out Halogens, do a search to find some of the vendors. One or two mention base types on their offerings. For your original bulb base type you can go to Don's Bulbshttp://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/t.pl and enter your bulb number in the search field. On the page that comes up select a USA version to get all the base specs.

FredKanter Quote:

Fred, you can certainly do whatever evaluation you want and sell whatever you deem appropriate. BUT LED tech has come a long way in a very short time. I will have nothing but LEDs in my Panther including headlights and tail lights. The tail lights available in LED now are 180 in design, so I expect them to be super in my Panther (1956 Clipper/Exec tail lights). When I get to that point, I'll take some pictures at night compared them to my incandescent 1955 Patrician and you guys can judge for yourselves.

Craig

Good point, we did the evaluation about 3 years ago. The LED's we tested were the "second generation"?? type with multiple led's pointing in all directions. Will buy the latest and test again. When we tested a '56 Senior we found the LED did not light up the entire lens like the incandescent did, they only made a bright point of light.

I go along with the grounding issue. When I first got my 38 coupe the tail lights were dim. The previous owner even put two bulbs in the housing. After some testing I ran an extra ground wire to the socket and WOW what a difference. I also added a LED light bar to the top of my license plate to act as a third brake light.

Can you provide details and photos of the LED third tail light? Thanks

What dallas said.

this is what a new, universal wiring harness and 12v got me. normal bulbs were used. headlights are E-code. on my universal wiring harness, there is a wire for a third brake light....didn't use it though.

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I had to fit a two filament bulb in the tail lights when I installed turn signals on the 115C. This involved a new brackets, sockets, and of course bulbs. I also sprayed the inside of the housings a bright aluminum. All the new parts, with good grounds and painted housing interiors resulted in a big improvement in the tail and brake lights.

(o[]o)