Brake lights are twice as bright

[MikeWooldridge]

I had to replace my brake light switch today, and while I was working on that, I decided to make my brake lights twice as bright.

I removed the assembly, disconnected the back-up light wire and taped them to prevent a short, and tucked the wire away safely. Then I removed the bulb and painted it red with stained glass red. Of course, you could even paint the clear lense with red, but this way it still looks original.

While they were drying, I bridged the contact from the brake light bulb to the pin on the back-up light.

Placed the painted bulb in the socket, re-assembled the cluster and am very happy with the results, as you can see in the pictures.

After all, how much good do back-up lights help. I'd rather have twice the illumination upon stopping in front of someone.

You can hardly tell the bulb is red.

[BillWilliams]

That is significant!

[dyelightning]

that is nice, where did you get the paint at?

[MikeWooldridge]

that is nice, where did you get the paint at?

It's Krylon stained glass color #9020 red in a 6 ounce spray can, available at Michaels or Hobby Lobby or maybe any hobby store. They also have an amber color, good for bringing back the "newness" to faded turn signals. I put two coats of the red on before it was dark enough. Too bad they don't make (or I couldn't find) a red bulb to use.

[beammmer]

my brake lights are so intermittent it would be nice to have redundency along with the third brake light.

Don

[Napes]

The back up light is not so you can see where you're backing up, but rather so others will you know you're about to back up. Say, for example, when you backing out of a parking space in a crowded parking lot.

Bob Napier

[MikeWooldridge]

The back up light is not so you can see where you're backing up, but rather so others will you know you're about to back up. Say, for example, when you backing out of a parking space in a crowded parking lot.

Bob Napier

Yeah, I guess some people would stop while you back up so they could get your parking spot. LOL I think I'll hook up a back-up alarm to the wires so they can hear me.

[Napes]

The back up light is not so you can see where you're backing up, but rather so others will you know you're about to back up. Say, for example, when you backing out of a parking space in a crowded parking lot.

Bob Napier

Yeah, I guess some people would stop while you back up so they could get your parking spot. LOL I think I'll hook up a back-up alarm to the wires so they can hear me.

Maybe a 120db siren so the guy can hear it over his dual-400 amp stereo system.

Bob Napier

[dubois]

that is brilliant! a very bright idea! No pun intended. I am going to do that too, thanks for sharing!

[brianstj]

Make sure your fuses and wiring can handle the additional load - otherwise you will have no brake lights at all.

[02for2]

You need to wait until our 'Roundie' LED prototype is finished - about a month.

4X brighter than stock incandescents w/ 1/10th the current draw.

Cheers!

[MikeWooldridge]

Make sure your fuses and wiring can handle the additional load - otherwise you will have no brake lights at all.

Not a problem. Kept them on for over 5 minutes...no burning of the lenses or warm wires. That was a concern for me also.

I originally had the "back off" warning (blinks 3 times - then steady) like used on some motorcycles, but disconnected that because it wouldn't handle 4 bulbs.

[kbken62]

You need to wait until our 'Roundie' LED prototype is finished - about a month.

4X brighter than stock incandescents w/ 1/10th the current draw.

Cheers!

Any update on the prototypes. I think the proper LED would be useful, as over time all the lenses I see seem to have some burned plastic.

[02for2]

...Any update on the prototypes. I think the proper LED would be useful, as over time all the lenses I see seem to have some burned plastic.

That is one of the primary reasons we took the project on. When I got my '02, both reflectors were melted - one all the way through! I have since bought 2 new reflectors from Mobile Tradition (Square tail) but I see now that the right side is now NLA. I didn't want to see my nice shiny new reflectors go the same way, so started thinking about making up some proper LEDs.

Other advantages were 1/10th the power consumption of the incandescants, 4X brighter, longer life (essentially 'lifetime'), and much quicker 'light-up' time to alert a trailing car (given normal reaction times, at 60 MPH, a trailing car will be on the brakes 7 feet sooner).

I'm installing our square tail prototype this week for beta testing and confirming the installation instructions. We hope to have the roundie prototype ready by late May to introduce at the local viintage car show I help organize up here. If you read my post about the Alabama Grand Prix, you'd see that I even spoke with Bobby Rahal about them and he showed keen interest despite having his Tii totally stock (right down to the 4-Spd.), said he wanted to be our first customer!

Cheers!

[kbken62]

My square light car is in the paint shop now and I'll be reassembling everything in about a month.

Put me down for a set.

thanks,

Ken