LED tail lights

[fordsbyjay]

For safety reasons I have been looking for some LED tear drop tail lights. After searching for several days I finally found that a company called United Pacific makes the majority if the tail lights that every company calls their own so I just figured I would share the info. in case anyone else was looking.

http://www.uapac.com/ant/

pdf catalog http://www.uapac.com/ant/antfiles/ledfile01.pdf

As far as I know Summit Racing is the only one that calls them by their brand name. Every other company I looked at doesn't say the manufacturer. Prices are usually pretty close but occasionally some companies are way out there.

 

[railroad]

My T also has the 39 tear drop rear lights. I changed to LED to improve the rear visibility. My original lens were glass with blue dots. One of the problems being the lens were very dark and hurt the brightness. I bought the Speedway kit thinking I could just put my lense over the LED lamp. Best I recall the lamp and lense were fused together. Not wanting to loose the blue dots, I went with the LED substitute bulb. It improved, but I think the full grid LED lens does a better job. They have a very good selection. Something you might want to consider are strobe effect interupters. They pulse the brake light at inial application then go solid. Some are programable for pattern and some are fixed. A lot of cycle riders use them to wake up trailing vehicles. I need to save their site for future use. Thanks,

 

[fordsbyjay]

Speedway has some that have Rapid Fire. When you first press the brakes it strobes for the first 1/2 second. I liked the idea but they are very proud of them. Street Rod Headquarters has the same ones they claim to assy in their factory.

http://www.streetrodhq.com/detail/15949/Ford_Led_Tail_Light_Tear_Drop_3839_Ford_Flush_Rear.html

Here is an add on controller to do it as well.
http://www.shiny-hiney.com/rapidfire.html

Getting rear ended in my bucket is not something I ever want to experience. I seen the Rapid Fire ones once and they really get your attention. I looked at a lot of LED tail lights at CTC and I think the ones I bought will suffice.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/upd-ftl383903/media/images

 

[guilld]

Just purchased a strobe for brake lights off ebay. I plan to use them on the third brake lights on a truck I just purchased. On the 32 I have 41 chevy led and they show up well. I also have a 3rd brake light in the rear window that blinks. However it does not show up as well due to window tint. Tucked up under the fuel tank I have a set of Harley bullet turns double element that just come on when brakes applied they show up great. I have seen the strobes on tanker trucks and they really get your attention.

 

[fordsbyjay]

Alright here is what I did. I bought the above lights from Summit Racing last night.

LED lights UPD-FTL383903 $35.95 x 2
Gasket UPD-FTL3839-1 $1.95 x 2
LED Flasher UPD-90650 $8.95 x 1

total cost=$84.75 + tax

For the universal signal light switch you need a 3 prong flasher and the one I bought above is a 2 prong flasher so I will have to get the right one when I go back to Ohio. Regardless Summit has a smoking price for the flashers compared to what I seen everyone else charges.

Here is a side by side comparison. The left is the original one. It looks to have glass lens with a stainless housing. The LED light is polycarbonite with a die cast housing. The fit on the die cast housing is very tight compared to the stainless unit but to be honest I have had this car 5 years and just noticed today how sloppy the fit was so...

And the back of the assemblies.

Here is a side by side comparison in the middle of the afternoon.

And a close up comparison.

Now all these pictures are just with the tail lights on. The brake lights are blinding. I am going to get a picture at night to see how that looks.

 

[TbucketMike]

Great post fordsbyjay!

 

[fordsbyjay]

I forgot to note that the LED light came with an 1157 bulb type end and I replaced it with the weatherpack connection. If you already had a metal type housing it would be a bolt in affair.

I would also like to note that you could use just the LED light assy in the stainless frame but I just didn't like how the fit was but it would have worked easily.

I took some pics last night and I will post them up when I get a chance.

 

[fordsbyjay]

tail lights

brake lights

 

[TbucketMike]

That's a huge difference!! I'm going to pick up that set of led tail lights from Summit. Even with the LED tail lights I'm still going to try and put in an LED third brake light for added visibility.

 

[fordsbyjay]

The same company makes some license plate frames with LED lights in them. If you plate is centered that could be a an easy way to bolt on an LED third light. I never looked to see if they had a brake light version.

 

[TbucketMike]

Found this one at Honest Charlie's. Looks like a nice piece and the price isn't to bad.

http://www.honestcharley.com/hot-rod-parts/brakes/license-frame-with-3rd-brk-lgt.html