wp29p4a
Forum Regular
MY 1974 se
Posts: 376
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Post by wp29p4a on Aug 29, 2021 18:32:41 GMT -5
Has anyone changed out the bulbs in their dash lights with LED bulbs? And what are your thoughts, likes and dislikes. Any before and after pictures? Any info would be appreciated. Thank You. I did the dome light and it is an amazing difference.
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wp29p4a
Forum Regular
MY 1974 se
Posts: 376
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Post by wp29p4a on Sept 22, 2021 10:21:41 GMT -5
This is what LED dash lights look like in our cars.
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Post by hanks73340 on Sept 22, 2021 18:39:31 GMT -5
I like them much better than the normal ones. I will be pulling my gauge cluster out this winter and going with the LED bulbs, since I'm rebuilding my steering column and that will be out of the way.
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wp29p4a
Forum Regular
MY 1974 se
Posts: 376
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Post by wp29p4a on Sept 22, 2021 19:55:41 GMT -5
Wait until you see how cool the stereo, heater controls and shifter look with LED lights, I will post pics as soon as I get them back in the dash. I pull the seat and steering wheel when I have to work on the dash, makes it so much easier
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Post by odzking on Sept 23, 2021 9:50:40 GMT -5
Which bulbs did you use?
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wp29p4a
Forum Regular
MY 1974 se
Posts: 376
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Post by wp29p4a on Sept 24, 2021 9:44:59 GMT -5
I found a company called superbrightleds.com. They seem to have one of the better selections of automotive bulbs, that I could find. The license plate bulb was the hard one to find. Hard to find any info on 1155 bulbs, never seen a single terminal with dual filaments before. I would guess the design would be about longer life with the second filament as a back up. Looks like the original factory installed bulb. Instead of using bulbs with blue condoms for the heater control, I used blue bulbs and love the slightly bluer look. Can't find one for the glove box as it has reverse polarity and LEDs are polarity sensitive. The only bulb in the car that puts positive to the case and negative to the bottom pin/post. The little bulb on the steering column is a challenge also. I had to use the dremmel to make little slots in the mounting pins/arms for the dash map light. They only make two types of map bulbs and neither is a drop in for our cars.
The frustrating part of the adventure was learning that our cars use several little bulbs that are identical with the exception of the wattage/brightness, the led companies don't want to make a wide variety of simular bulbs so they just combined them and didn't bother with different wattage/brightness. So I ordered all the part numbers based on what I pulled out of the car and without any discussion they just sent me generic bulbs that fit but were all the same.
Once I saw how amazing they made the dash look, the challenge of getting here was well worth the effort.
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wp29p4a
Forum Regular
MY 1974 se
Posts: 376
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Post by wp29p4a on Sept 24, 2021 9:57:35 GMT -5
So I goofed again and didn't think about taking before pictures, can any body post a couple pictures of our cluster like the pics I posted with original bulbs so we can see before and after?
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Post by 71se3834v on Sept 24, 2021 21:29:36 GMT -5
NPD sells LED instrument cluster bulbs in packages that has supposedly different brightness for the illumination, signal and controls. I say supposedly because I'm only going by what the package says and have never seen them work. If I think of it I'll take a pic of the package and try to get more info this weekend when I'm at work. I'd take a pic of my dash but I don't think it would be a fair accessment because my lights are real dim and only work when the switch reostat is in one position.
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Post by odzking on Sept 25, 2021 7:49:42 GMT -5
I found a company called superbrightleds.com. They seem to have one of the better selections of automotive bulbs, that I could find. The license plate bulb was the hard one to find. Hard to find any info on 1155 bulbs, never seen a single terminal with dual filaments before. I would guess the design would be about longer life with the second filament as a back up. Looks like the original factory installed bulb. Instead of using bulbs with blue condoms for the heater control, I used blue bulbs and love the slightly bluer look. Can't find one for the glove box as it has reverse polarity and LEDs are polarity sensitive. The only bulb in the car that puts positive to the case and negative to the bottom pin/post. The little bulb on the steering column is a challenge also. I had to use the dremmel to make little slots in the mounting pins/arms for the dash map light. They only make two types of map bulbs and neither is a drop in for our cars. The frustrating part of the adventure was learning that our cars use several little bulbs that are identical with the exception of the wattage/brightness, the led companies don't want to make a wide variety of simular bulbs so they just combined them and didn't bother with different wattage/brightness. So I ordered all the part numbers based on what I pulled out of the car and without any discussion they just sent me generic bulbs that fit but were all the same. Once I saw how amazing they made the dash look, the challenge of getting here was well worth the effort. The license bulb should be a #67 according to my book. www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/67-led-light-bulb-12-smd-led-tower-ba15s-base/3698/8009/?utm_campaign=Child+-+Organic+Shopping&utm_source=LED+Light+Bulbs+-+Universal+Finder+%3E+Miniature&utm_medium=67-CW12-G&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI47H_nJSa8wIVwAiICR1a-gbfEAQYASABEgJFpvD_BwE
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wp29p4a
Forum Regular
MY 1974 se
Posts: 376
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Post by wp29p4a on Sept 25, 2021 11:55:50 GMT -5
You are correct, the book says 67. I'm pretty sure the 1155 bulbs were simply a long life version of the 67. When I went with the website programmer's opinion of what our cars use, I got stuff that didn't fit. The bulb on top came out of the side marker lights, the one in the middle is what the site programmer thinks we need, it is way too long to fit. The one on the bottom is what I ordered the second time. I had to over ride opinions and order what fits and works. Could not find a small enough globe size to fit the license plate plastic dome that covers the bulb, had to go with this to come close to the 67/1155 size. The other weird issue I found was with the colored 194's.....The clear ones fit in every socket, the blue and amber ones I got for the ash tray light and the one for the heater controls would not fit without cracking or breaking them, I had to sand them down with emory cloth and lube them to get them to fit without breaking them. Thank God for patience and Whisky.
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