thelastsession Posted December 15, 2012 Author Share Posted December 15, 2012 Has anyone here ordered from superbrightled's? The reviews of their LED's and customer service were not great. Since it is such a pain to get to all of the lights I'm replacing, I don't want them to die after a few months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelastsession Posted December 29, 2012 Author Share Posted December 29, 2012 I ended up going with VLED's for the led lights. They seemed to have good reviews and good prices. The lights came in and they look good. I went with the metallic silver face gauges from whitegauges.net. I sprayed the inside of the cluster with white Krylon Fusion paint in order to better reflect the red LED's. Now that it is all done and put back together I am ready to install the lights. How do I bench test my cluster? I heard with a 9V battery but I'm not sure how to do that. I looked for a how-to with no luck. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbolt Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Has anyone here ordered from superbrightled's? The reviews of their LED's and customer service were not great. Since it is such a pain to get to all of the lights I'm replacing, I don't want them to die after a few months. I just installed two different superbrightled's on opposite ends of my dash to see what color I wanted. I ordered a 15 SMD wedge base tower in warm white and one in cool white. I have to say the warm white looks identical to the incandescent bulbs in the rest of the dash while the cool white looks more modern for lack of a better term. Yes, they are dimmable and I am pleased with the speed in which I received my order. I also replaced all 4 tail lights with LED's and they are not significantly brighter but they are brighter just the same. I have no idea about the longevity yet but will post when and if they die. To be honest I do not do much after dark driving so I will have to just do periodic checks of my dash lighting. I figured before I spent the money on all LED's for my dash I would give them a beta test, decide on the color, etc. So far I have swapped the dome light, under hood light, tail lights and two dash lights. I am actually very pleased so far and will no doubt order a glove box light and a few more warm white (P/N WLED-WWHP15-TAC) tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans '70 Z20 Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Nice talking to you CBOLT. Thanks for your insight on bulb colors. I will likely follow suit based on your advice. Curious. Did you use white or red LEDs in the tail lights. Just wondering since you said they were not much brighter. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbolt Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I went with the red tail lights based on the suggestion from the website. The red LED's I went with are the brightest ones that will work with our electrical systems. I tried the brightest ones in amber for the front and they were not compatible... they caused the turn signals to be inoperable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam (Bones) Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 they caused the turn signals to be inoperable. they have flashers to correct that, LED's don't pull enough power to operate a standard flasher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans '70 Z20 Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 I just ordered the same as CBOLT for instrument panel (WLED-HP15 TAC in warm white) experimented with cool white and warm white. I agree the warm white blends better with the color of a 70 cluster. Got the brighter Stop Light & Turn Signal bulbs also WLED 1157-A45-T (AMBER) / WLED 1157-R45-T (RED) Guess I will have to look into a flasher or resistor upgrade next week. They close at 4pm and already gone. They list the flasher and/or resistors under "General" in the following link. Monte Carlo LED replacements @ SuperBrightLEDS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbolt Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 I suppose I need to look into that.... I already have the amber bulbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallaby Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Most auto parts stores will have the flasher. You want the "electronic" flasher. The old type we are used to are a thermal type and use the load from the bulbs to heat a bi-metalic strip inside to bend and open the contact...as the strip then cools it closes the contact and begins heating up again. Flashing x-mas bulbs used the same mechanism. LED bulbs don't draw enough current to heat the strip, so this flasher doesn't work. The electronic type of flasher uses a timer circuit to pulse the output, so load from the bulbs isn't a concern. The downside? Often times the electronic flashers don't have the familiar click click sound as they work...and they flash at a constant rate regardless of load, so if you have a bulb burn out it's not like suddenly the blink rate changes to give you a clue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans '70 Z20 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Just spoke to SuperBrightLeds and they say simply to match prong configuration with your original one and it will be fine. They do have two designs that look the same but said to pay attention to labeling of prongs to choose correct one if that is the case. I will do as Wallaby suggested and look locally. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhMonte Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 I would like to convert to LED as well. (Although I'm not concerned about the ability to dim the bulbs) Does anyone know how many of each type/style of bulb needed to convert a 70 dash with idiot lights? I'd like to buy the bulbs first and do the conversion in one shot. There is a kit on eBay that has green, red and white LEDs in one nice kit. They are all 194 bulbs. eBay item number 271194720738 Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCfan Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Joe, I have only replaced the 194 type bulbs in my '70 dash cluster so far. The number of bulbs did not change when I converted from idiot lights to gauges. I needed to replace 15 bulbs so I bought a bulk pack of 20 LEDs so I would have five exact spares. I found my kit on Amazon under the following description: "Zone Tech 20x 194 168 2825 5-smd White High Power LED Car Lights Bulb" $16.99 The kit you mentioned looks interesting, especially if you want multiple colors. The LEDs I bought look identical to the white based ones shown on the far right of the collection detail photos. They have one LED on each of four sides and one on the end (as shown above). The ones with all LEDs on the end should produce more of a one-direction spot light effect and I don't know how well they would work in the dash application only because I haven't tried them. They might work great for idiot lights. BTW, I got white LEDs because the '70 dash has light green flourescent numerals and markings so the dash still has that green factory glow. You can see in the photo below how brightly the various dash lights glow (blue is high beam; red is only on momentarily during starting) in the photo below. You can dim these LEDs a bit by turning the headlight switch but just don't expect the full range of dimming you currently have with incandescent bulbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhMonte Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Thanks for the great info. I wasn't sure if I needed any BA 9 bulbs as well. I'll check out the Amazon kit today. I'm going with white bulbs for the gauges but thought the turn signal and idiot lights would stand out more with green and red bulbs respectively. The prices at Carlisle for LEDs were rediculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VE3HZZ Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Thanks for the great info. I wasn't sure if I needed any BA 9 bulbs as well. I'll check out the Amazon kit today. I'm going with white bulbs for the gauges but thought the turn signal and idiot lights would stand out more with green and red bulbs respectively. The prices at Carlisle for LEDs were rediculous. Only BA9 that is in there is the one in the glove box light (if equipped) other then that the dash are all 168 (original number which is the same as 194 style but different wattage).. On a 70 even if you put in RED or GREEN etc likely would shine GREEN with the Florescent green paint they used. I have LED's in mine as well and they are quite bright (but I paid ..well nothing..LOL) and look awesome at night time..I can SEE my gauges..LOL..just have to put them in my under dash gauges for the FULL EFFECT. The dome overhead I am working on putting in a RING OF LED to replace that one as it will also give MORE LIGHT and including ones under the DASH. Oh projects projects when will it end Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbolt Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 My AC panel light is a BA9. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDan Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 I ended up going with VLED's for the led lights. They seemed to have good reviews and good prices. The lights came in and they look good. I went with the metallic silver face gauges from whitegauges.net. I sprayed the inside of the cluster with white Krylon Fusion paint in order to better reflect the red LED's. Now that it is all done and put back together I am ready to install the lights. How do I bench test my cluster? I heard with a 9V battery but I'm not sure how to do that. I looked for a how-to with no luck. Thanks in advance. Looks nice. Do you have any pics of this installed in the car with the wood grain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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