LED Taillights that work!!

[Mike Del]

Installing LED bulbs in a 289 bodied car or a 427 using the early style rectangular lenses can be a bit of a problem. The bulb holder in the assembly points the bulb upward. LED bulbs are directional beam in nature, so the bulb needs to point into the top "active portion" of the lens. Back in 1994, I made up a conversion holder to provide the proper orientation and installed a pair of 1157 style red LED bulbs from Auto Zone. These use an array of about 13 or so LEDs and work pretty well.

Now I've redesigned my conversion holder to accept a new LED assembly made by Radiantz. It uses 48 LEDs and is the brightest 1157 style bulb made, period. This thing is is like a laser! The bulb was designed for motorcycles that characteristically have small ineffective taillights. If you remember my car (Connecticut registered , #19 numbered) you probably noticed my third brake light. It was originally made to be used as a Harley tailight, and I converted it to a bottom mount so I could use it as a third brake light. It was manufactured by Radiantz and uses 42 LEDs.