-
Conversion to LED Curb Lights
If you have
the early 70s Chevy Cargo Lights and hate the limited brilliance that come from
them or their high current use, here’s a cheap LED upgrade.I removed
the light fixtures to determine the best approach to adding an LED panel
light. I bought 20 of the panel lights
shown from a Chinese seller on eBay for about $25. My intent was to install 2 in each light that
is mounted close to the ground and 3 panels in the lights mounted above the
tires. Due to their brilliance, I opted
for just one on the lower lights and 2 on the upper lights.The first
challenge was how to mount the panels. Ultimately,
I decided to mount them in the lens supported solely on the pressure applied to
them by putting them between 2 strips of foam that was purchased from Home
Depot. Although I’m confident this will
last, my fall back plan would be to use a silicone adhesive on the corners of the
LED panels while still using the foam.The next
challenge was how to wire them to the coach.
These panels come supplied with 3 bulb attachments, but none that will
work in these fixtures. I first
attempted to use blade connectors and connect them directly to the connector
used to support the lamp carrier in the fixture. I abandoned this as it didn’t support the
connector and put the connections too close to the door panels. I decided to just solder the LED panel wires
to the lamp-carrying fixture. Doing it
this way allows me to revert to standard bulbs if I choose to do so.These panels
are brighter than expected and are the bluish color. For this application, the color is fine. The panel lights did live up to typical expected
Chinese quality, but they were cheap, so that should be expected. Many of them had the red and black wires
backwards. That was no big deal, as I
needed longer wires anyway. Some had
components that weren’t soldered as they should have been, but still worked,
and a couple didn’t work.My initial
feeling is this project gave me the results I was looking for.
-
3 Replies
-
Nice job Gil…
-
Nicely done!
I like it!
JIM
-
nice work Gil. My CC uses the festoon bulbs in them so I bought LED’s with the festoon base, only thing is they are not as bright as I would like so I’ll try some like you used.
My next question is, has anyone come across the gaskets that were originally used. LMC Truck.com has plenty of light housings but their gaskets are a thin sim hard plastic and don’t fill in the curvature on the lamp base when used on our flat cargo doors.
Log in to reply.