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LED taillights and dash lights - anyone find a working solution?

J

JohnC

Veteran Member
Senior Member
Since there’s now a place for this question. I’ve looked at the OCS and seen very mixed recommendations regarding LED replacement bulbs for dash and taillights.
Can anyone recommend specific retailers and products that are plug and play and get the job done (brighter)?

I know that BLM on the OCS did some research and posted pics showing his results with various bulbs and painting the bulb housing white or silver. His pictures demonstrated that LED bulbs were significantly bright than 1157 bulbs in running mode but that when brakes were applied there was not much difference. I think others had found that with some LED bulbs there was not much differentiation between the running brightness and braking brightness. He ultimately went with a 2357 incandescent bulb which is brighter than the 1157 bulb and he thought perhaps a bit brighter than the LED, but not much to my eye.

Interested in dash lights too but haven't looked into it much and seemed to remember there being some issues with getting them to work right.
 
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I now run a Dakota Digital SS Dash which is already LED. See below on the routes I went. I'm currently running almost all LED (LED bulb replacements) except for the driving lights. Those are a bright 4000 white halogens.

When I had LED bulbs in my original Dash I went with these:
1642073309008.png

I will tell you though, they are super bright when all dash lights are replaced with these. I ran the dash light dimmer on low at all times. Had I to do it again, Id have gone with the regular LED below:
1642073477473.png

As for the tail lights, I thought about a drop in LED package like the DIGI-TAILS but didn't want to pay the price at the time (priorities). I still might one day.
1642073750159.png

So right now I'm running these:
1642074606531.png
They are much brighter than the originals and been going strong for the past 4yrs,

Do yourself a favor and at the same time of installing LEDs get the digital flasher and wire up the ground you see below.
1642074162658.png

The rest of the marker lights I run these:
1642074726760.png
 

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I put some blue LED bulbs in my dash and used the orig sockets, didn't use the in the turn signals though, I'll try to post a pic and part number later when I'm at the car, haven't done the tail lights
 
Thanks for the recommendations above. I think I had heard about the need for a dimmer. Do folks just put a rheostat in the (+) wire that connects the dash lights?
 
I put LED lights in my '69 COPO clone. Superbrite LED's had a very wide selection. It's important to look at the lumens of output. The really bright stuff was not cheap, and vice versa. That's been a few years and I can't remember the specs. The ones I bought functioned fine in every aspect. I had written it up over at OCS. I think I deleted it when some know-it-all came along and wanted to take issue with my results.
 
Does anyone know what size bulb this is? It's smaller than a 921 (way smaller) and is in a 3rd eye brake light. I have 10 of these mini bulbs in there.

IMG_20220330_081321441.jpg
 
I forgot to post a pic of my dash lights but here's what I have, 1 Blue LED for gas gauge, IIRC 2 for the speedo side (might put a 3rd) and regular bulbs for turn signals, I don't have any ext LED but been kicking the idea around, these dash bulbs are Not dimmable but I don't think they're too bright
 

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The bulb is ultra tiny and with my fat fingers I can barely grab the bulb and pull it out of the socket. It's about a 1/4 to 1/3 the size of a standard 921.
 
Well I just noticed this since I dont get in the back seat much but I highly rec using LED in the interior lights, this is from the halo bulbs that came with the light covers from SS396 GU
 

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Ouch. They do get hot. I always try to buy the warm white LED lights as they give off the look of incandescent bulbs but don't get hot and are usually brighter.
 
I’ve been redoing my dash including adding an “SS gauge” kit (fuel gauge, volts, oil pressure and coolant temp) and decided I need to think about LEDs again.
Ordered some interior LEDs and 1157 replacement LED for the front turn signals from superbrightleds.com last night. They seems to get good reviews but I have no experience. Got red ones for the idiot lights and high beams indicator on the dash. Green ones for the turn signal and there is one LED right behind the speedo that shines through a green plastic gel. Everything else is the warm white which people say looks closest to incandescent. I got the cheapest ones because I feel like too bright is more likely than not bright enough for the dash.
About 1.48 for most of the bulbs. Got some of the red ones on close out for .48 each.

Most of their most powerful bulbs in the 1157 size for taillights are about $10 per bulb for an advertised 330 lumens. Not sure about the taillights since so many say these LED replacement bulbs don’t seem that much better than upgraded incandescent.

Best thing about ordering was less than $3 shipping for more than 20 bulbs. I get sick of the traditional Chevelle parts dealers asking $1 for a pack of 2 screws but wanting to charge you $9 to ship them.
 
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I hope it’s ok to share his idea here. If not please delete and sorry. I only wish there was such an option for 67s because Digitails is too beaucoup $$$.
 
One thing I didn’t realize but that makes sense is to buy LED bulb colors that match the color is the lens. So in my case for the turn signals I bought amber 1157 replacements.

Their explanation:

Q. Which Color LEDs Should I Use?
For best results, the LED color should be the same as the lens color. If the bulb is behind a clear lens, use the appropriate color for turn and brake light functions.

When installed in a housing that has a matching colored lens, red and amber bulbs will appear brighter than white LED bulbs.

As an example: a red lens will filter out all but the red portion of light from a bulb, so if the light being emitted from the bulb is all red, none or very little light will be blocked by the lens. The light from a white LED bulb contains very little light in the red portion of the visible spectrum, so most of the light that contributes to its higher lumen value would be filtered out by a red lens. This makes the white bulb appear dimmer than the red bulb.
 
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