Converting '71 RT lights to LED

[Mr.Woolery]

As part of my resto-mod project, I've been thinking about converting the rear lights on my '71 so they use LED arrays instead of incandescent bulbs.  So today I disassembled one of the rear R/T light assemblies and went to an auto parts store.  I went to the lighting section, eyeballed for fitment, and bought a set of DOT rated combo parking/brake/turn LED trailer lights as a test.

Took 'em home, disassembled the LED assemblies and laid them onto the rear OEM lenses--and they fit like they were meant to be there. 

Another plus is that I'll be able to put an LED array behind all three lense openings of the R/T lights (in OEM form, only 2 of the three are lit), since the LED arrays are low profile enough to sandwich in between the flat portion of the rear light holder and the lens (with just a wee bit of modification).  There are even little supplemental light arrays that will fit into the little "vent" portions of the lights!   

Yeah, I know it's not OEM, but that's okay by me.  It'll be more visible and ultimately safer as a result.

[Nacho-RT74]

ok... I can't imagine how they look there, since the bulbs on 71 R/Ts at vertical, and mostly leds bulb are designed to light on horizontal.

I'm still not convinced about leds on old design housings, unless they are able to light up all around and not directionaly.

will be great if you can show the led bulbs you used 

[whitemtnelf]

Sounds like a cool idea  Please post some pics.

[FLG]

Take a look at autodynamics car.

Here is a link to the ones he did..they look awesome

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,51028.msg570914.html#msg570914

Also they make LED bulbs with light that will be multi-directional, heres just one example. This site has a ton of different bulbs for our cars. Also have the packages to fix the timing on the flashers when you convert your turn singals to LED so they flash correctly.

http://www.ledlight.com/t10-wedge-25-ultra-bright-smt-led-light.aspx

[Nacho-RT74]

the ones Autodinamics used are nice for the application because they fit straight to rear ( horizontal fit ), for a while 71 R/Ts are pointing up ( vertical fit )

[FLG]

I get your drift, would be curious to see how it looks. I know in the dash they would look great.

[Charger74]

Mr. Woolery,  please post some pictures of the assemblies as they fit in the housing and what they look like lit up.  I'm going to do the same mod to mine when the time comes and want to see how they look.

Thanks

[Mr.Woolery]

Okay, as promised here are the pics of what I have so far of the RT LED tail light conversion.  Keep in mind that this is just an "in progress" series of pics.  The bezels will be powdercoated and lenses will be cleaned up as part of the project.  The whole mod is reversible, too.  Next step will be to wire up all the arrays so they work together.






One of the LED arrays energized to show the LED pattern (parking lights):

It's hard to see in this pic, but the brake lights are VERY bright:

[Nacho-RT74]

OOOOOOOOH, ooook... thats a complete ROUND PANEL to fill all the lense area... thats a diff stuff... good idea. Dunno if I would use, but now is getting better.

NOW is when I get the ARRAY therm on this... I use to use it only on AUDIO to the speakers clusters

[Hemidog]

Looks okay, but maybe you should add some more LEDs to fill up the space between them? Might look even better. 

[Mr.Woolery]

Looks okay, but maybe you should add some more LEDs to fill up the space between them? Might look even better. 

Yeah, I'd prefer to have more individual LEDs in each array, but I couldn't find any arrays that would both fit the areas used and have more individual LEDs in them.  The only way I could make that happen would be to custom make the actual arrays and the cost/complexity of the project would skyrocket.  Keep in mind that I didn't make the LED arrays, I just bought commonly available LED assemblies (in this case, trailer light kits) and disassembled/rearranged/adapted them for this purpose.

[Nacho-RT74]

I and a friend of mine were talking EXACTLY about that.

we are clear you are working with what you have in hand, but... what about if you fit a spacer OR try to fit in to the housing, giving a gap with lense able to fit a REFRACTOR lense, like those used on 79s lebarons and some other cars ( I think it was on 79 lebarons ) that will fade the hot spots to the sides a little bit.

just an idea.

but I think YOU ARE on the right track... thats the trick of modern cars, cause leds are not able to light up all around just focused to front, and our cars are designed to get a bulb lighting up ROUND ( thats why the "reflective" housings ) An actual LED NEVER will get that kind of light, no matter how much leds you use to get a round ball. Unless we get a new LED design soon. ( not the lamp, the led itself )

Is like on audio a TWEETER... too much directional beams and Audio designers have worked FOR LIFE on get the less directional high freq speakers.

Do you though on remove socket from housing and use plugs to attach to existant harness ? custom harness ? socket adapter breaking the bulb glass and using just the socket ? last one would it be my option, solding wires to contacts, and filling the socket to protect the wires... with any kind of filler... fiberglass, silicone tube etc... would need to invent somekind of handle to be able to drive the socket once is inserted into the socket. Maybe a tube section with same socket diameter to insert it.

[Mr.Woolery]

Well, the cool thing about these LED arrays is that I'm using waterproof versions, so there's really no need to do any special sealing.  I'm keeping all the stock parts to keep mounting simple and OEM.  The harness for the lights is custom, but will terminate and plug into the OEM harness using the stock connectors.  Another cool thing about these lights is all the proper resistors should already be built-in so there shouldn't be any need to put anything else into the circuit to make them work properly with the OEM wiring harness.  In other words I don't think I'll have any problems with the turn-signal blinker relay...but we'll see.

Once the rear lights have been done, I plan to convert the front turn signals to LED, too.  I'm still on the fence regarding the side marker lights...I'm considering removing them altogether to make the car look cleaner.  If I don't remove 'em, they'll be converted to LED.

[71green go]

I think this kind of Mod only looks good on customized cars........If you have a stock appearing car then they look odd......a guy I know did same thing to an 80 Z28, looks out of place
looks like you are doing a great job though.

[Mr.Woolery]

Here's an update to the LED R/T tails...
I did basic reassembly of the tail light unit and hooked them up to see how the lights worked.  I'm very happy, because they're frickin' bright.  These LED arrays are normally used for trailer applications, and as such people usually only install two on the rear of the trailer...so they're made to be bright so two is enough.  I'll have six of them installed when all is said and done...three times the lumen output.  Here are some pics:
Reassembled unit:


With parking/running lights on:


Brake/turn lights:  It's hard to tell from this picture, but they're so bright they almost hurt your eyes to look at them...it's like looking into a flashlight.  Notice how the background is darker in his picture?  That's because the camera adjusted the aperture when the picture was taken to try to compensate for the brightness of the lights.  They may be so bright that they'll piss off motorists behind me!   


And the reverse light (also done with LEDs):


I haven't decided what I'll do with the flasher circuit--I'm considering putting in a sequential circuit that will light each of the three lights sequentially when the turn signal is activated (for extra fanciness)

[Rolling_Thunder]

add a sequential controller