'68 Charger LED lamp conversion ('69 pics too!) Plus Halo Headlight Conversion

[cjw916]

I like the parking lamp ambers ON in the front with the side markers ON, too. My friend said his Coronet is that way, and he always wondered why mine went off when the headlights came on. I thought for a minute something was wrong with my wiring? I may do like you did and wire them with a relay to the headlights, so they light when the headlights are on, but I have to install the halo-lamps I just got from CJ Pony parts, first, to see what look I like best. I'll post pics of the halo-lamps install as soon as I get to it (they neglected to send me one set of ceramic insulating wiring looms, so I'm waiting on their arrival).

[A383Wing]

just connect the wire for the front parking lights to the terminal for the rear parking lights on the headlight switch..that way front lights will be on with headlights

[cjw916]

THAT'S why I think out-loud, so people smarter than I am can point out simpler solutions to seemingly complex problems! Here I am thinking, 'Can't cut into headlight lead because I'm going to put in a 2nd dimmer switch to interrupt the low-beams for when I want to run halo lamps only; hmmm, if I want halos & parking lamps up front, how can I do that? ? ?' Answers just fall in my lap!

Thanks A383Wing!

[cjw916]

This is how I made my halo hoops for behind my disc brakes.
I rolled some 1/2" x 1/8" steel into hoops.
Bolted them to the backside of my rotor baseplates.
Then looped waterproof strip LEDs onto the hoops and ran wiring parallel along my brake lines to the dimmer that I mounted under my dash.

[cjw916]

My new LED halo headlights came from CJ Pony Parts. I ordered 5 3/4" lamps for my '68, same as a '69 Mustang takes.
http://www.cjponyparts.com/headlight-halogen-led-halo-single-color-pair-1969/p/HLA36/
I could have saved $40, since I ordered two pairs, if I had ordered direct from Redline Lumtronix, they made the lights for CJ Pony Parts.
http://haloheadlights.co/prodheadlights/
The lights are all glass, there are 39 surface mount LEDs around the edge of the lamp (I got plain white, multi-color is also available), and they have a dust boot on the backside, along with the leads for the LEDs.
They come with ceramic connectors to isolate our 40+ year-old wiring from the heat of a halogen H4 lamp.

[cjw916]

Wired the LEDs direct to a battery and they are BRIGHT! I am definitely going to have to run them through an LED dimmer like I did my wheel hoops.
Second pic is 3 clicks up, third pic is half-way, last pic is full bright through the dimmer control.

[cjw916]

Got all four lamps out and took a peek to see how they'd look at half power, and full brightness!

[cjw916]

Standard halogen lamps off, dim & brights.

[cjw916]

Pulled the standard halogens, took out a bucket to check the fit, the tabs fit right in the stock indents, back of lamp centers cleanly inside stock bucket opening.

[cjw916]

The directions say that you 'may' have to trim your stock buckets. I DID NOT want to do this, it would be a serious pain. The rubber boots just barely do not fit, so i just pushed them thru, as there is nothing under them to get in the way, they slid right into place. I drilled a hole for the LED wire leads, installed the boot on the lamp, greased the boot and the bucket, and the lamp slipped perfectly into the bucket! Wiped off the grease, BRILLIANT!!!

[cjw916]

Got them both in & wired, and wired the LED halos to my dimmer!
First pic is halos 3 clicks up, second pic is halos half-way, third pic is dim only, fourth pic is dim + half halos.

[cjw916]

First pic is lamps on dim, halos on full bright; second pic is lamps on bright, halos on bright (this is ridiculously, intense, blindingly BRIGHT! They claim their H4 halo lamps are 50% brighter than a standard halogen, I think it's closer to 100%!!!); third pic is just the halos on bright, no lamps.

[cjw916]

Some pics as the Sun was setting.
First pic is the halos on half; second pic is the halos on half with flash; third pic is halos on half with the parking lamps lit (this is my favorite look, so far, I just think this looks wicked kickass!); fourth pic is halos on bright with the parking lamps lit. The LEDs are CRAZY bright. That's not the headlights, remember, my parking lamps go off when the headlamps are lit!

[cjw916]

Low beams with full bright LEDs almost looks like the high beams are on!
Low beams with half bright LEDs gives the best halo look.
High beams with half bright LEDs look very balanced.
High beams with full bright LEDs are INTENSELY BRIGHT!

[cjw916]

I drove the car to work this morning. Tried to evaluate the visibility vs. standard halogen bulbs. The cool white of the H4 halogen is a bit different, but the visibility is definitely better.
The first pic is the dims.
The second pic is the dims + halos full bright.
The third pic is the brights + halos.
The fourth pic is I ran a 2" strip of LED under my dash, it reflects off my dimmer switch & pedals, so I can tell how bright or dim my LEDs are, or when they are on or off.
The halos remind me of the fog lights on my Jeep SRT-8. They illuminate everything from 9-11 o'clock and 1-3 o'clock like fog lights do. The halos illuminate street signs and ditches better than the headlights do, right up until you pass them. Very cool.

[cjw916]

Some of you might be curious as to how many amps these LEDs draw.

Well, my dimmer is rated for <8Amps input @ 12Volts, or <96Watts output.
http://www.ledlightsworld.com/rf-remote-control-led-single-color-dimmer-p-138.html

The 3528 waterproof SMD (surface mount design) LED strip lighting has 30 LEDs per meter, and consumes only 2.4Watts per meter, that's 0.08Watts per LED!

The headlights have 39 SMD LEDs per lamp; so, assuming I used about 1 meter of LEDs per wheel hoop (12" x 3.14), this is 30 LEDs per wheel, 4 headlights, 4 wheels, 69 x 4 = 276 LEDs x 0.08Watts = 22.08Watts, or less than 2Amps @ 12Volts.

This makes sense, as I only have a 5Amp fuse on the lead to my dimmer, and it has never popped. :-)

[jlatessa]

Nice job! plenty of info to work with....thanks.

Wait till I show my wife I'm not the only guy that works on the car
in his pajama bottoms.

Joe

[cjw916]

Hey, Those are House Pants. ! . ! OK, they're my PJs. Lol.   

Most of my garage pics are time-stamped between 11pm and 5am, it's the only time the wife & kids are sleeping, so that I can get anything done!

[MxRacer855]

WOW! Great job man! I absolutely love it! I've wanted to convert the lights on my '68 (interior and exterior) to LED's as well but am having some trouble finding the bulbs and ways to do it.

I see that you have Illinois plates... just out of curiosity, where do you live in Illinois? I live in Aurora (30 miles south of Chicago).

-Jeff

[cjw916]

Winthrop Harbor, 45 minutes north of downtown, near the WI border, near the big puddle (Lake Michigan).

Isn't Aurora west?

[MxRacer855]

You're right, haha... WEST of Chicago. It's been a long day. I know exactly where that is. You're right by Zion, cool! One of my best friends lives in Round Lake Beach, so I'm up there all of the time. Do you have your courtesy, dome, counsel, and dash lights converted as well?

-Jeff

[cjw916]

No, I haven't done the interior lamps, yet.

I added additional under-dash lighting, 2 per side, so the carpets are well lit at night. I just used some motorcycle push in bulb sockets, bulbs very similar to the gauge cluster bulbs, flat w/ bent-over wires at the glass base. (The bulb is just visible in the last pic, above, just above my e-brake release handle.)

I have yet to research LEDs to replace all the dash bulbs, map light & dome light. (Hint, hint, guys who have already completed this.)

Also I hafta look at my side marker lamps, to complete everything.

Christopher

[MxRacer855]

It looks amazing Christopher, honestly. I hope someone who has done an interior conversion responds with regards to LED bulb choices/part numbers. Even though I have a high output Powermaster alternator, incandescent bulbs will always be dimmer, use more power, and generate much more heat than LED's.

I would like to start with the interior lighting, but I absolutely dig the headlights. So if I purchased both sets together saving the $40 (roughly $300 I think), will they come with everything I need to install them? I as well would only want a single color, bright white.

-Jeff

[cjw916]

Yeah, everything would be included from Lumtronix, the Halo Headlights .co link that I put above earlier.

Except a dimmer control, which is only ~$15, link to LED World is also above. And of course you have to wire the LEDs, somehow, so why not go the remote key-fob route like I did? I think the halos look best between 1/2 & 2/3 their brightest setting. They throw a serious amount of light at the brightest setting. WAY to bright for a cruise night parking lot, so I think the remote dimmer is key.

Two things I left out of the install:
1) They include these little foam spacers they say to put under the lamp retaining rings; they are way too thick to use. You could use adhesive felt pads if you thought it necessary, but I just omitted any padding. They're not going to crack, they're glass, not plastic.
2) The lamps will all be low+high beams (3 prong backs). When you install them like I did, the insides will only light on bright, because I used the 2 prong stock wiring. I actually removed the top wire from the ceramic insulator & plastic adapter. I like it this way because then you have inside halos on dim, and I didn't want to tax the low beam wiring by running 4 dims. I neglected to include a pic of the insulator minus the top wire.

Oh, and for wire, I used really thin speaker wire, like 24ga, I think. It only hasta support a total of ~10Watts for the LEDs; I didn't even use wire connectors, I just stripped, twisted & shrink tubed the connections. You could use telephone wire splice crimps, that's how I did my wheel hoop LEDs, I just was out of them when I went to do the headlights & I think the shrink tube looks cleaner, anyhow.

I am hesitant to replace the instrument lighting, because I believe it runs on only 5V, and I do not know if the dimmer wheel is compatible with LEDs. So I am shying away from the cluster, for now. The courtesy lighting & dome light I would not be scared to address. They're all 12V AFAIK.

[MxRacer855]

Thank you for all of the information. I would love to see your Charger someday. I really do think it is the SICKEST car ever made! I'm definitely going to order the lights. I was really excited to see the wire routing you chose (as far as the halo's all lighting up in addition with the dims, looks amazing).

I'm going to try to find the LED's for the courtesy light/dome lights tomorrow. For some reason my front running lights are completely out along with one back one. The bulbs are fine, it's just that some of the hardware is well... 45 years old and it shows. The way I'm restoring my car is by tackling one system/area at a time. I just tackled the cooling system, so now I'm onto electrical. In addition to replacing the stereo system (cd player in glove box, Alpine setup, etc), I would like to replace all of the wiring harnesses and convert to LED's.

As far as the instrument cluster goes... it definitely is somewhat of a nightmare. I figured I would swap a tachometer with my clock and replace a few burnt bulbs while I had it mostly apart changing my heater core. I need to just send the cluster to someone to get it restored. The lighting is absolutely terrible. With the OEM dimmer cranked as high as it will go before kicking on the interior lighting, it is barely visible at best. And for some reason, my bulbs that screw into the circuit board do not light. So I figured if I got that sent away to get restored/re-calibrated with some white faces and LED's... I should be completely set. Of course I will have to swap the ones out in my vacuum gauge and stock radio as well for consistency. Right now though, I haven't done anything. I want to just figure out what I need to complete all of the wiring/lighting/stereo system and just get it. Knock it all out at once! I'll need a good night of sleep before that one though, haha. Extremely excited.

Thanks for everything Chris! Great choice.

-Jeff