Improving brake lights

[IndyJimW]

Like some of you I wanted to make sure that my 1987 Avanti brake lights can be seen, here are some of my recommendations.

Remove the brake light lens and clean them and the reflectors. The lens and reflectors have a pattern on the inside that holds dirt. I used an old toothbrush with some toothpaste to clean and polish the inside of the lens.

The chrome on the insides of my tail light housings was flaking off and dirty and not a good reflective surface. I removed my housings and cleaned the insides. I taped off the exterior chrome and painted the insides of the housings first with primer and then with a chrome paint. In the picture of the housings below, before is in the rear and the front housing is after painting. The pads on the left side are for the reflector mounting. My housings have a second bulb socket in the center that was drilled at the factory

I converted over to LED bulbs for most of my interior and exterior lights years ago. I replaced my 1157 bulbs with the short red 13 LED tower bulbs that fit the original socket. The 18 LED tower bulbs were too long and hit the lens before the socket would set in the hole. I found that when compared with 1157 bulbs that the LED’s were brighter and you could see them turn on faster because they don’t have to heat a filament.

My 1987 Avanti came with 7 brake light bulbs, for those of you that want to add brake lights I have taken pictures of the different combinations.

2 LED’s

4 LED’s – 2 bulbs in standard housing

2 LED’s and 3^rd Brake light

4 LED’s and 3^rd Brake light

4 LED’s and Truck lid LED’s

2 LED’s, Truck LED’s and 3^rd brake light

4 LED’s, Trunk LED’s and 3^rd Brake light

My 3^rd Brake light housing was melted from the heat of the bulb so when I rebuilt it I changed it to a LED bulb,

LED bulbs work best when they are the same color as the lens.

I kept the 1157 amber bulbs in the front turn signals and didn’t need to replace my flasher.

Safe motoring,

Jim Wood

Edited May 31, 2015 by IndyJimW

[mfg]

Very well done presentation.....thanks!

[plwindish]

Were the #10 LED bulbs also used in the trunk(old backup light) positions and 3rd brake light also?

[IndyJimW]

Were the #10 LED bulbs also used in the trunk(old backup light) positions and 3rd brake light also?

My 1987 Avanti came with tail/brake lights in the trunk but I noticed that they were dimmer than the outer tail/brake lights. When I removed the lens I found that there is no housing inside the trunk. The black fiberglass inner and outer shells of the trunk allow the light to dissipate into the gap between them. I purchased some chrome duct tape and built myself a housing to reflect the light out the lens.

It’s been around eight years ago that I installed the LED lights so my memory was a little rusty. The lights that I used were the short 13 LED tower bulb (I have edited my original post). It has 5 rows of 2 LED’s on the sides with 3 LED’s on the top it’s about the same size as an 1157 bulb.

The heat from the 3^rd Brake light bulb had melted the socket so I purchased an 1157 socket, epoxy it into the housing and used the same 13 LED tower bulb for it as well.

LED’s have come a long way since I installed mine. At the time the reason I used a tower type bulb is that I wanted to fill the tail light housings with light so as to be seen from the sides like the original. LED’s can be directional so if all the LED’s are pointed to the rear you have to be where they are pointed to see them.

A good site to see what is available in LED’s is

https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/

Safe motoring,

Jim Wood