Some of you purists may cringe at this but after numerous close calls with people almost hitting me I replaced my original tail lights with LED's. Since one of the crossbars was broken I also purchased new tail lights housings (442 style) and lenses. My digital camera and the electronics in the LED's weren't compatible so the pics aren't that great but in person they are stunning. The tail lights appear more spotty then they really are. I purchased the LED's from Technostalgia http://cool-leds.com/index.htm. They don't make a kit for a 1966 Cutlass but after talking to Todd we used the kit for a 1969 Chevelle and it worked fine. I just had to add some vacuum line to the ends of the LED boards to insulate and cushion them because the Olds housing is arched much more than the Chevelle. Technostalgia uses a technology they call 'Rapid Fire' which causes the lights to rapidly blink when in turn signal or brake mode for greater visibility.

Enjoy,
George

 

Good idea. Somethings should be done for safty. It's like putting disc brakes on a drum brake car.
Larry

 

Great idea. Who can argue with safety?
I have been looking at these recently. Looks like you got a nice light pattern.
Are the LEDs white (looks like it)?
I read at some forums they should be the color of the lens to show up the brightest......

 

Yes they are white and very bright. Those pics don't do it justice because of the problems I mentioned above but they are striking when seen in person. When they do that rapid flash thing you'd have to be blind to not see them. Other kits I looked at were in the $200+ range and these were only $79 so it was money well spent I think. I was so paranoid about getting rear-ended I was even considering a third brake light but now that they flash and are very bright I can keep the car looking relatively stock with added safety. If anyone else is considering this upgrade just ask Todd to email you his LED board sheet. It lists all the ones they make as well as the dimensions. Mine are for the 1969 Chevelle and were the biggest he had but that tail light housing is huge. I'm sure they make something that will fit should you have a different year. You might have to modify things a bit like I did with the vacuum hose for the ends but it should be easy.

 

I'd love to see them at night.

White LED's usually give off Pinkish tail light effects = bad.
But yours don't look pink in the daylight. Either way LED tail lights = way brighter and MUCH more visible.

I have them on my Hayabusa, my Dyna wide glide, my custom Z28 tail lights as well I made. '
They're so bright red , the camera can't even capture it.
DSC02048.jpgLEDBrakeLightsCamaro.jpg

 

I'll try and take a picture at night to see the difference. Mine don't look pink at all so I'm happy with that. My lenses are brand new also and are very red so that helped. I was just happy they didn't look spotty with all the individual LED's showing up. I think that's just a function of keeping the LED board back away from the lens. I think I can get around the camera issue by trying a different setting.
Aceshigh were you at Sturbridge? I thought I saw a car similar to yours there. I do like the green on that along with the 18's.

 

Nah i am in the Chitown burbs. no idea where Sturbridge is.

Another thing u should know is u might have issues mixing LEDs with incandesents with your flasher. I replaced all my turn signal bulbs with LEDs and used a heavy duty electronic flasher from Autozone.

 

Took some pics at night.

 

Waaaaaay better. I'm sure you're happy with it. I know I am with mine.

Anything to make your investment more visible at night is a good thing.

 

White LEDs do make look a pink color when they are behind a red lens.

Orange/red LEDs are the best to use! If you break open any tail light from a car that have LEDs & power them up you will see they are bright orange

 

Those lights look good.

I recently put LED's in the third brake light in the rear window of my Delta, just had to cut a metal plate, and drill the holes.

 

I recently had my 50 watt halogen 1157 tail light bulbs fail (X3) so I remove the four bulbs from the '68 and just had 3 amber bulbs handy and one clear 1157 and put them in and the tail lights were brighter than the one clear incandescent bulb ???

 

Well, good luck getting a response. I have emailed them twice and left a phone message and have not heard back.

 

Maybe they are on vacation for the end of the summer. I'm sure he'll get back to you.

 

Anybody used these?
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...sp=%2F1157.htm

 

Buddy of mine bought a bunch of 194 type bulbs for his dash from them. Simply astounding the light they give off. Was the 194 type with the metal barrel up top with two tiny pinholes for light. Crazy bright. I don't really see them in any of those pics so maybe a different company. Regardless they put out serious light.

These are the ones I'm talking about http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2X-Wh...Q5fAccessories.

 

First time posting on the site, but I took your advice on this thread and bought the LEDs for an xmas present for a 66 Cutlass...we ended up not liking the alignment of the lenses as they fit through the factory lamp hole, so I drilled a hold that the stud fit through and cut some steel spacers that positioned them perfect in front of the lenses. Huge difference in the quality of light coming out. I'm really happy with them, thanks for the initial research.

 

I just did my 69 tail lights they will sell you just the panels for $30 each and you just need a 6/32 machine screw for mounting and the vacume tube worked for me also (Thanks for the tip ) the LED's are white in appearance but when energized light up red ... so they do look red through the red tail lenses very happy with mine Thanks "Triple dueces" .....

PS sorry guys had to figure out how to put pictures up again haven't been here in a while ...

 

That's cool looking. I wonder if another layer of red lens would diffuse the light out enough to eliminate the "spotty" LED's.

 

Looks good!!!! You have me sold..

 

I cant see your pictures, is it just me?

 

Finally got the pics up in the right format...

 

I think the camera might make it look more spotty, in person they look great very happy with the results, and that "rapid fire" bliknking when I brake or use turn signal is great also.
I was also able to stick with the stock flasher because I run incandescent bulbs for front turn signals.

 

This is a good idea. It's neccessary to do something for safty.I purchased several LED tail light bulbs from sencart.com. I think they're in good quality.SAFE.

 

If you have the proper reflector under the lens, you'll never see the individuals.

 

Noted. Thanks man!

 

Nice look!

 

TripDeuces and Lalo442 you both have great looking led tail lights. What size vacuum hose did you all use? Also did you secure them to the boards or just slide them on the ends? I have the 69 chevelle leds also and I'm trying to mount them in some 71 cutlass housings. What other challenges did you all have?

 

I'm not sure what size vacuum hose I used. 1/8 inch will work as long as it has a thick wall to it for the cushion. Mine are just slid over the ends. I didn't think it would go anywhere. You should know I also had my LED boards fail. At least 5-6 leds failed on each board but Technostalgia replaced them and said he had never had this happen to a set before. Just my bad luck I suppose. Other then the gauge of the wire used in the kit I didn't have any troubles other than the above. The gauge is small when going from the standard gauge wire used in the car to the LED boards. When I get to that part in the restoration I'm going to be using 'Weatherpack' connectors this time and solder everything.

 

I have changed all my exterior and most of the interior bulbs with this company and have been very satisfied with them.They are expensive, about $25 apiece.I used 4 1156s and 8 1157 all red except 2 amber for the front turning signal. I used the brightest ones they had and got lucky that they fit inside the housing with room to spare.Just use the same color as the lens and you wont go wrong with these LED bulbs.I like that they put out no heat.Burned my fingers for the last time.!lol

 

They match your sig pic now, awesome!

 

Don't remember the size of vacume tubing but any size shoukd work just slit it with a razor blade and slid over the ends if your mounting screw is snug you shouldn't habe any trouble still working great have since upgraded to HID headlights also wil, try to put up pics
http://youtu.be/clGK97J_aYA