Looking For LED lights for my 68 Barracuda

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68'barracuda

68'barracuda

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Suggestions, may be driving it back and fourth to school and in the dark, need LED replacements for headlight, tail, turn signal and dome??? Thanks
 
TrailBeast said:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/
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Not if you're smart and want to reduce your likelihood of getting hit in traffic instead of increasing it; nothing that site sells will work safely and effectively in your car's safety (exterior) lights. It's fine if you want to play with their stuff in the interior lamps, because those aren't safety-related.

Instead, clean the front park/turn and rear brake/tail/turn lamp lenses in hot soapy water. If the reflectors are at all dull or peeling, stuff wads of masking tape in the bulb holes (or remove the sockets if they're the removable type), clean the reflectors with alcohol, then spray them with readily available "chrome" spray paint, which is practically ideal for the task.

Then put these in the brake/tail lights, and these in the back-up lights.

You will need to swap in this turn signal flasher (2-prong like original, direct swap)

These recommendations are very specific because they are the only legitimate LED retrofit bulbs. There's a mountain of garbage on the market, too, so use only these specific LED bulbs. There are not yet any safe LED retrofits for the front park/turn lamps. More info here.
 
Those tail lights work really well. Thanks to Dan I can drive at night or in the rain and stand a chance against today's drivers.
 
LED headlights? So far every one I've seen is a complete joke. And they are all extremely ugly. Just get some good brand name halogen bulbs.
 
slantsixdan said:
Not if you're smart and want to reduce your likelihood of getting hit in traffic instead of increasing it; nothing that site sells will work safely and effectively in your car's safety (exterior) lights.
Click to expand...

Not right out of the package they won't, but mine are heavily modified and doubled up and are without doubt WAY more visible from all angles than OEM.
But we have been down this road before. :D

For right out of the package replacements use Dan's suggestion.
 
69_340_GTS said:
LED headlights? So far every one I've seen is a complete joke. And they are all extremely ugly. Just get some good brand name halogen bulbs.
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At $500.00 for a set I ain't laughing. :)

The relay kit and the Halogens work just fine.
 
68 model Barracuda has very little red lens area on the rear. A reflective strip was often added to the trunk lid between the 2 rear lamps. Seemed a minimal effort. Anything is improvement. A high mount 3rd brake lamp fixture will save the tail.
 
RedFish said:
A high mount 3rd brake lamp fixture will save the tail.
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Yup. A good one, mounted as high as possible (top of the backglass is better than bottom of the backglass, but bottom of the backglass is better than nothing). See here and here for new ones. If you adapt one from a wrecking yard, pay careful attention to the angle -- the lamp, when installed, needs to be looking straight rearward, not up or down.

And hook it up correctly, so it goes solid-red when you step on the brake. There are all kinds of gadgets that blink/flash/"pulse" the central brake light, with baseless claims that they improve safety. In fact they do the opposite, so steer clear of 'em.
 
…and another thing: many of our cars' turn signals are invisible from a side view, but that's not hard to fix so the front side markers (on all '68 and '70-up cars) do double-duty as side markers and side turn signal flashers. See here for info. This is a very good safety improvement; your turn signals become visible to the side (cars in the next lane, bicyclists, pedestrians) instead of just front- or rear-on. It is also fully road-legal.

There are two methods described at the link. With one-wire side marker lights ('68) the logic module method is the way to go. With two-wire side marker lights ('70-up) you can use either of the two methods. If you want the side markers always to flash in phase with the front and rear indicators, use the module method. If you don't want to buy a module and don't mind the side markers flashing in opposite-phase with the front/rear blinkers when your headlamps are on, use the cross-feed method (no module required, just a couple of wire connectors). Either way is legal throughout North America; elsewhere in the world, international rules do not permit opposite-phase flashing because it's considered potentially confusing to an observer who can see both the front and the side flashers at the same time.

(You can also use the module method to convert your fender-top turn signal repeaters to combination marker/repeaters)
 
The few logic modules I have owned all failed after a couple years. So I learned...
Buy wire needed to make the added lamps work as they should without a module. In the case of 3rd brake lamp, Find the white wire coming away from the brake lamp switch and tap it. Don't cut the wire! Shade tree method of twist and tape means risk of loosing all brake lamps. A scotch lock tap requires breaking the wire casing only. Add a white wire from there routed along left side with factory wiring going to the added fixture.
 
Napa/Truck Lite part #LIT27270C. About $319 each. Or you can go Halogen BLH6024 for about $20 each. Brite Lite halogens by Wagner/Phillips a lot brighter and a more concentrated beam for a hell of a lot less than LED's.
 
RedFish said:
The few logic modules I have owned all failed after a couple years.
Click to expand...

That's why to buy good modules instead of shìtty ones. But it doesn't sound like you're talking about a module to add turn signal function to the side markers, it sounds like you're talking about those "logic modules" that claimed to make it easy to install a 3rd central brake light on a car with combination brake/turn signal lamps. Those were all shìtty and yep, they all failed early and often.

A scotch lock tap
Click to expand...

…is a recipe for corrosion and failure. Instead, use Posi-Taps.
 
slantsixdan said:
…and another thing: many of our cars' turn signals are invisible from a side view, but that's not hard to fix so the front side markers (on all '68 and '70-up cars) do double-duty as side markers and side turn signal flashers. See here for info. This is a very good safety improvement; your turn signals become visible to the side (cars in the next lane, bicyclists, pedestrians) instead of just front- or rear-on. It is also fully road-legal.

There are two methods described at the link. With one-wire side marker lights ('68) the logic module method is the way to go. With two-wire side marker lights ('70-up) you can use either of the two methods. If you want the side markers always to flash in phase with the front and rear indicators, use the module method. If you don't want to buy a module and don't mind the side markers flashing in opposite-phase with the front/rear blinkers when your headlamps are on, use the cross-feed method (no module required, just a couple of wire connectors). Either way is legal throughout North America; elsewhere in the world, international rules do not permit opposite-phase flashing because it's considered potentially confusing to an observer who can see both the front and the side flashers at the same time.

(You can also use the module method to convert your fender-top turn signal repeaters to combination marker/repeaters)
Click to expand...

Any creative way to turn the side marker refectors on a 69 cuda into side marker lights and still look 'kinda' factory?
 
Just run one of those stupid *** led light bars and blind yourself and everyone else into oblivion.
 
Ben Drinkin said:
Any creative way to turn the side marker refectors on a 69 cuda into side marker lights and still look 'kinda' factory?
Click to expand...

Creative with the factory reflectors would very likely lead to wet bulb sockets and blown bulbs/fuses. To do it right, one would need to cut in alternative fixtures from some other application.
 
Junk. See that other linked thread.[/QUOTE]

it's a direct replacement h6024 sealed beam, like what came in it, only a halogen sealed beam? not a POS halogen conversion.
 
Oh Hades.
I'll just post in both threads.
I got click happy.

This doesn't appear to use a pigtail like the Truck Lite.
It's just a little more.
Once the decision is made to bite the bullet, what about it?
http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/1408-sylvania-launches-zevo-led-retrofit-headlights/
I'm all about taking electrical load off the system.
Just moving it somewhere else on the car doesn't work for me.
(And not seeing it on the amp meter).
Relays plus the H4 adaption sort of adds up.
How long before the R&D is paid for till the cost comes down is my other question.
 
That "Sylvania Zevo" LED headlamp is in fact the Peterson light I linked in post № 10 of the linked thread. Sylvania buys it, private-branded, from Peterson. So does KC. Same lamp, different branding.

The Truck-Lite unit is also available in a GE box or a Philips box, too.

The cost of all of these has already come down bigtime compared to "day one", and it's still on a downward trend as cost-per-lumen comes down on the LEDs themselves.
 
As previously linked, this one in chrome or this one in black.

The others are variants including left-hand traffic (low beam light patterns are asymmetrical -- for use in countries where we drive on the right side of the road, the low beam puts most of its light along the right side of the road; in left-traffic countries the low beam shines along the left side of the road), ECE approval instead of DOT certification -- the rest of the world outside US/Canada uses ECE auto safety regulations rather than US regs. These other variants aren't readily available in North America; they can be special-ordered but they're expensive. The last two on the list you linked (on the JW Speaker website) have a built-in white LED daytime running light.
 
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