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I bought a couple of the 1154-style (6 Volt Positive Ground), $20 bulbs from Flip-Flop LED.

http://www.flipflopled.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=1154&product_id=492

They came in a couple of days, no problem with the service. The guy told me to pop the rear cover off to increase the light to the rear. I did that. Still not nearly as much light as the standard incandescent bulb. Just an FYI.

I was hoping to get more light because the tail lights on these things aren't super big or super bright, especially compared with what drivers are used to these days, and given the fact that the lens is old and hence not as translucent as brand new.

Has anyone had experience clarifying old red lenses?

There are halogen 1154 bulbs that are brighter. You can take your tail light off, take it apart and clean it. At this late date they often have dust inside. The intermediate fresnel lense is often dirty. I also have better luck with painting the inside reflecting surface gloss white instead of chrome. Lastly the lense itself can polished on a buffing wheel. Use VERY light pressure and keep it moving

One of the biggest culprits in dim lights is poor grounds. The socket connects to pot metal which in turn connects to body metal which may or may not have a good connection to the battery ground because that is connected to the engine instead of the frame and body. Bolts, tubing and moving linkages provide the connection to the body No solid wire connection anywhere for the tail lights so rust or corrosion at any of the connecting points can really do a job and cause high resistance.

I am not familiar with those particular lights but several have converted to LEDs. The general consensus is they do seem to be brighter at a straight on look from a distance but when looking at any close angles can appear to be considerably dimmer. Another of the issues with LEDs is the turn signals may not work. Sometimes a resistor is needed to get the resistance up in the range the thermal flashers can use and other times, the thermal flasher has to be changed out to electronic.

We experimented with all types of newer technology and found exactly what is reported above. We concluded not to sell them as they would be less safe than original bulbs.

Note that old bulbs lose up to 50% of candlepower with age so I would try some brand new bulbs. I would keep a good set of spares around as well given that bulbs are disappearing from the scene. The GE incandescent plant (the old Ohio Packard site) has ceased operations.

As well, compare the voltage at the back of the car to battery terminal voltage (using a cheap voltmeter). If the battery shows 6.25 volts and the available voltage at the lights is only 5.75 then that requires some attention.

You can also fashion reflectors out of shiny foil which is better than silver paint. The foil can be glued into place.

If everything tests okay then the system needs to be load tested. That requires some experience in fabricating devices to mate with the light sockets. The light switch is a plain old contact switch and load bearing so moving to relays would go a long way toward restoring as new performance.

I never had buyers for this kind of stuff because the expense is high, but for a do it yourself case it will provide results.

The most common sale I made was substituting the 6 volt Volkswagen headlight relay as the driver for the starter solenoid to relieve the starter button from carrying a load. Those buttons wear out and become unreliable.

You may want to add a rear window light as well