356 LED bulbs

[Gary71]

I’m certainly going this route when I wire up the Beetle. Makes perfect sense.

[Disco]

ok -

so, an update from ClassicCarLEDs.co.uk

They've spent a couple of days working through the various options for lighting using LED's rather than normal lights - the below are for a 6V 1963 356B T6. -

what you can see is, actually the bulbs are pretty cheap! ( except the headlights ) and if they do ( as I suspect ) provide an a/ plug and play solution and b/ a much brighter light, then its a bit of a result!



Postage in the UK is free of charge.

Headlamps P45T or H4 White £74.99 or £69.99 per pair
Front and Rear Indicators BA15S 21w Warm White or Amber £9.00 each - the warm white is the brightest behind amber lenses
Flasher Relay 3 Pin plus earth £12.99 each
Front Sidelights BA9S 5w White or Warm White £3.00 each
Instrument Lights BA7S White, Blue or Green £3.20 for white £4.50 for blue or green
Interior Festoon 38mm White or Warm White £3.99 each
Stop Tail BAY15D 21/5w Red £9.00 each
Number Plate BA15S 5w White or Warm White £4.49 each
Reverse BA15S 21w White or Warm White £9.00 each


so hopefully this will be of some use to people.

All the best,

Disco..

p.s - no affiliation to the organisation.

[oldtimer]

Good work Disco - well done !

I had to replace instrument lights in a 1980 Ferrari 308GTS , standard issue are barely visible - you cannot see what speed , what revs , what water / oil temp etc at night ! They were all 12 v tungsten but I had to use a US supplier for replacement LEDs .

OEM 356 instrument lights ( and headlamps ! ) are of a similar nature

[mycar]

Good work Mr Disco.

I have to go away for a little time but I'll be having a word with ClassicCarLEDs on my return.

I had a bit of a look on the internet for a 6v LED light suitable for use as a 3rd brake light and so far have only found this...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6v-6-Volt-Cl ... 1438.l2649

.... but haven't had the chance to measure and see ifin it will sit neatly under the engine lid grille. As to where a 3rd brakelight should be wired, the only info I'd read up until now was from this site....

https://thirdbrakelight.blogspot.co.uk

Their hookup requires the tortuous routing of wires forward through the car to the master brake cylinder switch when I hoped the same effect could be achieved by simply splicing into a rear brake light supply ?

No doubt all will become clear in time.

[Kneeslider]

I bought a kit from there and have fitted it to my car. I went for the two small lights that fit behind my twin grilles. I can confirm that the kit won't work if you just hook it up to the 6v feed at the existing brake light, even though this is easily accessable and straightforward to do. I guess that the LEDs are very voltage sensitive so need the direct feed from the brake light switch.

My project to fit the high level LED brake lights has stalled somewhat as I have been moving house in December, and my workshop is still in no fit state for work on the car.

While thinking about LEDs, I have fitted a couple of the small instrument bulbs, as it was impossible to see the combo guage at night, or see the blue high beam indicator at all. I bought mine here.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/led_bulbs_fo ... 2749.l2754

So far so good. The high beam indicator is now excellent, but the combo guage lighting is still a little poor, but better than it was.

[marc500]

Here's mine





Sits neatly under the grill. Pretty much invisible until 'bang' I'm attempting a stooooooop.

The LED was found on ebay. Was pretty hard to find a 6volt one (I think it was for a motorbike) and think it was £30. But it works really well, lights up the whole grill at night it's that bright and sort of looks cool too. I was very nervous about the people seeing my brake lights and had had two close calls with people nearly running into me before I rigged it up...

This was the led I bought:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6v-6-Volt-Cl ... 1438.l2649

It easily fitted under the rear grill and is discrete.

I ran a wire forward to the switch on top of the brake master cylinder, which was easy.

[Disco]

While thinking about LEDs, I have fitted a couple of the small instrument bulbs, as it was impossible to see the combo guage at night, or see the blue high beam indicator at all. I bought mine here.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/led_bulbs_fo ... 2749.l2754

.

looks like the same company the one mentioned above - just the ebay shop front.

So in anticipation of LED lighting working, a couple of weeks ago, I purchased a couple of bulbs from these chaps to see if it would work:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

the arrived in the post ( from China, bizarely enough ) this evening and i've fitted them - I have to say they work a treat. REALLY bright. ! They only fit in the tail light - rather than the indicator light - think it is to do with the shape of the LED bit - with a bit of fettling I'm sure that I could get it to work. - the little tester has spurred me on. I'll buy a set from the ClassicCarLEDs.co.uk and post some before and after pictures.!



Disco

[mycar]

I fitted some LED indicator/brake/side bulbs today, at last.

Available from Roger Bray the indicator bulbs are amber and the combined brake/sidelight bulbs are red so no washing out of the lenses. About £18 each so not cheap but first impressions are good.

I had already fitted an electronic flasher unit hoping that it might make the lazy filament bulbs flash a little more smartly... which it didn't, but now these LEDSs flash much better and they're nicely brighter.

[POR68]

I went the full route as an experiment, but also to preserve the generator and regulator and for safety. My car is still 6V. LED flashers all round and the double contact brake/running lights on the back. Electronic flasher unit for 6V was a cheap plug in. Even a nice LED reversing light with some extra oomph. Then I did the dash lights with small LEDs.

I had found that in the bright Australian sun several people following told me that they could not easily see the weak incandescent bulbs that were there previously. So LEDs were essential on the brakes and indicators. Dangerous situation otherwise.

The headlights were rather pathetic and even with updated bulbs were very dull. I was able to source here for less than $100, 6V LED headlight replacements which fitted the existing buckets. Less current draw, and they are well cooled. In fact they are amazingly bright and better than some of the new cars on the road. So far so good and outlay has been very modest.

[Ashley James]

Interesting to hear of your success with LEDs. I was going to use them for the dashboard, but definitely will for headlights now I know they work well with a 6 Volt system. I have Quartz Halogen, which were better but still dodgy. I’ve got used to the amazing lights on the 718.

[POR68]

Honestly Ashley, with the LED bulbs in the head lamps - on 6V - they are brighter than the lights on my Boxster. I can now drive at night with complete confidence, rather than trying to see in the gloom. There are also dimmable LEDs around for dash lights that need that function. I found some of my LEDs in motor cycle parts sources (e.g., BA15S and BA15D and the dash ones). Depending on the nature of the headlight buckets that you have and the original bulb fitting base there are a few small adapters for the H4 LED base (a couple of dollars each)



One LED and one incandescent (non-direct angle, in the day time)

[url=https://postimg.cc/9zTZg2RM][img]h ... .jpg[/img][/url]

I even found some high intensity LEDS that would fit the Marchal fog lamps

[pauldvern]

I have all LED bulbs on my car from http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com, apart from the headlights which I am about to fit after losing them in my house move. All of the bulbs are coloured to match the lenses so do not wash anything out. The tail lights came with defusers fitted which I ended up removing because they actually made the light more directional. The indicators needed an electronic flasher. So I'll have to see if the headlights fit OK without any mods but at the moment my LED sidelight are brighter than my headlights!


Paul

[Winston Teague]

One should be aware that there are snags too. LED bulbs can take so little current that they are extremely susceptible to problems when bulb holders and bulb bases become tarnished or dirty. They can also 'find' enough power to flicker or glow even when not turned on. The LED specific flasher relays are, quite frankly a bundle of trouble, and we have tried a number of models and sources. The least unreliable system is to use conventional electronic relays, one for each direction. Once you have enthusiastically bought (often at quite a high price) and installed them in clean well earthed bulbholders, you really should go out in convoy with a follower to check real world functionality, especially at the rear. I cannot stress enough how important this is. You also should follow your own car in the dark to satisfy that all is well.
My personal view is that a 5w incandescent bulb is brighter than a '5w equivalent' LED bulb, the latter just uses a lot less power.
That said, i am getting somewhere with product testing on my 6v Austin Seven, but i am on setup number 3! (individual 21w single filament LED bulbs for tail lights and brake lights ie. 4 rear lamps). This, however has the ability to re configure the rear lights, a 356 is less flexible. Keep the updates coming.
W

[POR68]

" ... bulb holders and bulb bases become tarnished or dirty". True Winston. You must clean these carefully and replace any that are worn in their capacity to hold and earth the bulbs correctly or the internal springs don't maintain sufficient contact. I stripped my rear bulb holders as they were really past it for any sort of bulb. I bought inexpensive 'pig tails' (double and single) and soldered them in place of the originals in the light base. I have had no problems with the new electronic flasher unit and the head lamp LEDS were identified after my colleague tested over 10 different 6V models. The ones chosen were a standout.

[BD55]

Are there any updates on LED headlight bulb availability or any feed back
Merry Christmas to all 356er's