Jewelery and Makeup

The first one.

Yeah, that deep blue needs a little bling to balance the color, so the first or second one - I like those LED headlights.  Bonus points for having parking light halos around the LED headlights.

So that's West Coast Bruce and East Coast Gordon.  Let's see what the rest of the World thinks!

Number One.

I understand the desire for better, brighter lights...but, in my opinion, the draw to these cars for me is the “old ness” of them for lack of a better term.

On a completely different note, my youngest (22 years old) has been trying to convince me that my 1957 Chevrolet Suburban is in need of LED lights both inside and out .

He’s wrong.

Here you go.

Less is more.

When I drive my Speedster at night - or even in the day, really - I am glad I have LED tail and brake lights.  The extra brightness helps somewhat.

Yes, my car is supposed to look old, but I also want to get old - at least more so than what I am.  Our lights, and our cars, are small as it is.  Why be happy with dim ones?

How about nice chrome fog lights on front?

A vote for number 1 from the North Coast

You are already drawing outside the lines with a widebody so do what you want. The car stopped pretending when the flared fenders showed up.

Another vote for number 1, from the Gulf Coast.

I prefer a more original look.  Not in an effort to impersonate an original car, but for the nostalgia.

I didn't realize that you had darkened the chrome. I'd go with the original chrome, but loose the plate brackets, shorten or get rid of the nerf bars, and leave the original looking lights.

But it's not my car. You do You.

While I like #1 if you're going to blacken the chrome bits do the door handles, engine grill, mirrors, etc. In for a penny in for a pound.

@Carlos G posted:

But it's not my car. You do You.

Exactly. Who cares what everyone else thinks.

Oh-Oh,..... here we go, and it's only been a few days of ownership! This is what makes this hobby so much fun. Lots of input from fellow owners. I say make  yourself happy  first, we'll support you, whatever you choose. This site is already making this a great winter for those of us who aren't driving.

For what it's worth, I couldn't see anything with the OE headlights. They were too dim and going LED was one of the better purchases I have made.

@Chris MacDonald posted:

For what it's worth, I couldn't see anything with the OE headlights. They were too dim and going LED was one of the better purchases I have made.

EMPI makes a super-cheap H4 kit, which comes with bulbs, but I put Siverstars in and now I can actually see where I'm going. LED is fantastic, but H4 is worlds better than a sealed beam. I think I was less than $50 into mine, but now it looks like $70 is the freight to get to this setup.

It may be the best money I spent on the car along the way.

I think I have the EMPI H4 lights, that's what Greg sent me. I put in some LED H4 bulbs, and honestly I can't remember where I got them, maybe Amazon. They are pretty bright, almost as good as the Xenon lights that were in my Audi. The bulbs I got have a flexible braided metal heat sink on the back that I splayed out behind the bulb, so no fans.

The current draw is very low. Every single bulb on the entire car is LED, which to me is a forward-looking proposition. Theoretically, none of them should ever burn out, at least in my lifetime.

I'm not a fan of "halo" headlights on a car such as a 356 or a Spyder, too modern of a look.

I feel the same Danny, Halo, is ok on BMWs, or maybe italian cars

You can also get the Hella H4 Vision Plus lights with the City Light feature.  It's an extra socket at bottom with a small bulb.  In Germany, you don't use bright headlights in cities since there is street lighting and these lights are used to not disturb residents.  They are used there for parking along the narrow streets too at night. In US they can be used for daytime running lights or even turn signals.  The precision glass lenses are flat but are designed to act as a fog light where on low so you can read signs and when on high you get more of a driving spot light effect. They say 75% more light with std H4 bulbs - you can swap higher wattage or LED in (but may have to cut back of headlight bucket out a bit). These are not US DOT approved but are European approved.

Here's a reasonable copy of the for $44/pr.

https://www.busdepot.com/hq6014

They also have $35/pair (plus bulbs)

https://www.busdepot.com/nl910ch4/

The Hellas are available for $79/pair

Danny wrote: "Theoretically, none of them (LED light bulbs) should ever burn out, at least in my lifetime."

That's what I thought when I flipped all of the lights in my house to LEDs and yes, the BULB might last a lifetime but those little AC/DC converters in the lamp base or tucked into the fixture?  They poop out in 15 - 18 months, it seems, because they heat up and destroy themselves.

Honestly, they may last longer in cars, but I'm not seeing the longevity here at the house.  THAT was a big surprise, after using LEDs for decades in computers with never a failure.

@Gordon Nichols posted:

those little AC/DC converters in the lamp base or tucked into the fixture?  They poop out in 15 - 18 months, it seems, because they heat up and destroy themselves.

This statement is closer to the truth than anybody in the industry would like to admit. My house is all LED, as are most of the case lights in supermarkets now.

It's quite nearly always the drivers that are the issue. They're marginally sized for the LED array, and generally last 2- 5 years, depending on how much air they can get around them. They last longer in freezers, and can light retrofits in living spaces are the worst (because they run the hottest). Knowing that the driver is the issue, but tossing the entire (sealed) assembly is maddening.

I went out last year or so and bought a huge supply of traditional lightbulbs, as I can't stand the look of LED lights in the house.  I much prefer the soft look of traditional light bulbs.

I have LED bulbs in my car, but not in my house.

There is always an up side and a down side... think LED, Tesla, etc. Michael Schellenberg said it well when he said he did not know just how much toxic waste the E- stuff would generate and it might be the next fiasco.

Most house LED bulbs say not for enclosed fixtures.  Strange because the "glass bulb" never seems to get hot like old incandescent ones do.  I guess its that hidden converter that heats up. 

Wolfie wrote: "Most house LED bulbs say not for totally (my italics) enclosed fixtures."  I just checked and my spare bulb boxes say that, too.  Probably because those little power supplies generate enough heat to go into silicon melt-down and poop out.  Mine also say "Not intended for Emergency Exits."   Don't know what's up with that.....

Dr. @Bob: IM S6  wrote: "I went out last year or so and bought a huge supply of traditional lightbulbs, as I can't stand the look of LED lights in the house.  I much prefer the soft look of traditional light bulbs."

I may have a solution for you for when you've used up your ten year supply of incandescent bulbs.  

LEDs are typically sold with two totally different ratings noted on the package:

1.  Light output, measured in Lumens.  This can be anything from 250 lumens (pretty dim, like the headlights on an original '57 VW sedan) all the way up to 2000 Lumens (wicked bright - Don't look right at it).  

For an average table lamp, you want something around 800 lumens or so of brightness.  But that won't get you to that soft, yellow-y light you get from those circa 1830 candles you're used to burning.  For that you also need:

2.  The color hue or temperature measured in Kelvins (Don't look at me.  I didn't come up with the term.)  This refers to the color saturation of the light being emitted and typically runs the range of about 1700K (leaning past yellow towards orange as sen in "decorative" bulbs), all the way up past "wicked bright white" at 5,000K and on into the tinges of blue range at 10,000K.  (if you want wicked bright light in your shop, that's the puppy to get.)

What you want for your den's table lamps, in fact just about anywhere in your 1830's castle, is a color hue/temp of about 2,700K.  How do I know this?  Because I went through this after the "Great Generator Blow Up" and had to replace a couple of recessed lights in my kitchen and tried to match color hue with the remaining, good ones.  Now they're all 2,700 bulbs and that's what I got for the two dead bulbs in the living room, too.  They look "normal", not too white.  Stay away from "Daylight" bulbs as they'll probably be close to 5,000K.

Here's a handy-dandy chart showing the difference in hue/temp/color versus Kelvin rating, and to answer the question at the bottom of the chart, YES!  Color temperature matters one helluva lot!  You probably won't like anything higher than 4000-5000 as it'll be wicked white AND seem too bright.

3K LEDS look just like soft-white incandescents, 5K like "daylight". 6K+ when you just want to throw as much light as possible at it (shop, etc.).