I made my own LED brake lights about five years ago for Sharkey (a '63) but didn't use surface-mount LEDs like this kit uses. Instead, I used a whole wack of regular super-bright 5mm LEDs and divided each lens into stock brake & turn signal elements. The problems I encountered were two-fold:
1) LEDs are extremely directional. I had to angle each LED so that the end result was light fired out backwards as close to horizontal as possible so that most of the light was directed into the eyes of the driver behind me. As you know, '62-67 tail light housings are angled, and this kit would appear to fit flush between the lens and the steel housing itself. Now unless each of the surface-mounted LEDs in this kit take that into consideration, the majority of the light will be directed upwards at approximately a 30 degree angle. If you've ever followed a G35 or MDX or any other vehicle that uses rather obvious individual LEDs in their tail lights, you will notice a dramatic light drop-off when you shift your line of site away from "directly behind". And if you watch the video carefully, it appears that it is shot from above the horizontal plane (if they were mounted on the car). 2) LEDs (even a lot of 'em) draw less power than standard incandescent bulbs. This means that the inclusion of a high watt resistor might be needed in order to trick the flasher relay into thinking that high draw bulbs are still present. Otherwise, the flasher might either flash too rapidly or not at all. This particular design that they are offering says that the brake lights flash rapidly for about half a second and then stay lit. It goes on to say that this is repeated each time the brakes are reapplied. I can only imagine how irritating this would be to a driver behind you in stop & go rush hour traffic! A better design is implemented here... http://www.webelectricproducts.com/products.htm ...where a timer is built into the circuit so that the brake lights won't flash again unless the brakes have been "off" for at least fifteen seconds. All that being said, I'm still extremely impressed that someone is still thinking of our cars when it comes to this sort of mod. What I'd like to see next would be a *professional* attempt at some sort of universal projector headlight assembly meant for our old fashioned round headlights. Something along the lines of how the headlights on the new Minis went from a halogen refractor set-up to today's modern projector HIDs. I've seen generic "HID kits" installed in aftermarket refractor headlights in ACVWs and they look like ass. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pieretti, Luis A Mr CIV USA FORSCOM Sent: April-08-09 1:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [vintagvw] LED Lights (UNCLASSIFIED) Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE Anyone got any experience with this product? http://www.cool-leds.com/beetle.html Luis Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 3998 (20090409) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 3998 (20090409) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 3998 (20090409) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
