Electrical: LEDs in 1934 Studebaker President tail lights

[grobb284]

Installing LEDs in tail lights. I know with red plastic lenses you need to purchase red LEDs. With the dark red glass lenses of the 1934, is this still true, or should a brilliant white be purchased?

Would like to see some photos if possible of your tail lights from the thirties with description of the LEDs you purchased.

[nvonada]

So I went down this road back in 2005 and it ended in defeat. You can see the sad tale here:

http://stude.vonadatech.com/wp/led-taillights/

There are 3 problems. First is the 6V positive ground. Back then I had to make my own, I think you can buy them now. Second problem is most LED tailights are directional and at least for my 41 it was the wrong direction. Most cars the light socket "points" at the lens. On my care it is straight up and down (90 degrees to the lens) so the light is going the wrong direction. Making this worse is the lack of a reflector behind the bulb to direct the light. The third problem is the lens itself. The taillight lens is a fresnel lens focused right where the filaments of the light bulb are. In other words the lens expects the light to come from a very concentrated point. Any light not coming from that spot gets directed anywhere but out the back of the car.

All of these can probably be overcome at the cost of modifications to the car. I keep planning on just putting a suction-cup mounted third brakelight in the back window like this one:

https://watsons-streetworks.com/product/brakelighter-6-volt-led-3rd-brake-light/

I have not done that yet so no report on how it works.

Nathan

[sweetolbob]

Gene

Based on what Nathan said above you might try a couple of these from Superbrightleds. They appear to be mainly rear focused and for the price you could try a couple of styles, wattages and colors although I'd pick the highest wattage/lumen as one option.

If you need a different base style, noodle around on their sight. This is my go to site for automobile LED's

https://www.superbrightleds.com/sear...lt+bulbs+1154/

Bob

[Skip Lackie]

Agree with the above posts. I bought some 6v, positive ground LEDs for my 54 pickup. But (presumably) for the reasons that Nathan mentioned, there was no discernible difference in the brightness of the tail lamps. This was just based on an eyeball test of one tail lamp with the original bulb and the other with the LED -- not very scientific, but the human eyeball is what is going to see the tail lamps. NAPA sells some 12v LEDs that are designed for tail lamps and are focused to the rear -- but I don't think they make them for 6 volts.

[Commander Eddie]

Here is my experience. I found 12 volt bayonet socket white LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com worked "brilliantly" in my '61 Champ truck. The red LEDs where not necessary. I purchased similar 6 volt LEDs for my '55 President but they did not work. I suspect it is because the car was converted to 8 volt by a previous owner and that 2 volt difference caused the problem. I plan on running the wiring for the tail lights through a converter that is already installed on the car to run a 6 volt electric fuel pump. The converter is a simple electronics board that allows me to connect voltage sensitive electrical components and dial in the correct voltage. It only cost a few dollars and is really slick.

[259Champ]

I will second Commander Eddie . I had to put stop lights in a 27 Nash and I got the bulbx and sockets from Super bright leds and they worked great . I have used them in dash lamps in olds cars where the instrument lights are not too bright . Great upgrade .

[62champ]

I put LEDs in the rear of my Champ and am happy with how much brighter they are. As far as direction goes, there are many different bulb arrangements - so if you need light going back and in another direction (light up license plate or something else), they can provide something for that. My only pet-peeve is that I wish they would design one that would mimic how original bulbs ramp up the light and then down again - instant light just looks too modern to me...

[grobb284]

I have found a source for more modern and brighter LEDs , with correct polarity for positive ground, as well as being 6 volt. My dilemma is I have not utilized these with the dark red glass lens. 259Champ as well as others with 20's and 30's cars, did you find white or red LEDs to be most satisfactory? Or did you not try both?

[259Champ]

I have used both red and white . One nice thing about the LEDs is that they give off so much more light than incandescent bulbs . There are several higher lumen options in each type of bulb style . In my Champ I used white bulbs in the rear and amber in the front . The red lenses do the job . I used red in the Nash and those worked great too . The tech line at superbright is very helpful and will help you get what you are needing .