jdmleggy97 Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 Still into my resto mod “if you can call it that” build on my 91 RS Loyale. I’ve always been a fan of improved lighting technology. Not only for a cleaner more presentable look. But safety as well. My goal is to update what I can in a tasteful manner. Ive swapped over to the shorty front bumper and started with having custom led front turn signals made by a buddy of mine! This is just the beginning 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steptoe Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) I have just been reminded why I don't still have an EA82 L Series! My GLTA remains the most fun, comfortable car I have had - but the headlights on high beam were woeful yellowy light things and worse when I fitted a blue style bulb. The newer style bulb really needed to be dark to get better light. Low light conditions the low beam did SFA. Near misses by people pulling out of stops and give ways increased as if they did not see me at all Then I read a rather technical explanation back then as to the dangers present with changing headlight bulb colours - none of which I can recall , too scientific for me at the time. LED conversions to simpler single or quad lights of the EA81 for me any day. No more near misses Someone once ground a flat round into EA82 headlight lense and ran projector bulb style lighting for great improvement. Nice work on the indicator lights by the way. Reminds me of how difficult the originals have been after decades of service, finding screw clips Ben over tightened so won't release screw, bulbs rusted into their sockets ..years of abuse they just keep on keeping on Edited March 20, 2019 by Steptoe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carfreak85 Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 Please read this before upgrading your forward lighting: Thinking of converting your halogen headlamps to HID or LED? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 16 hours ago, carfreak85 said: Please read this before upgrading your forward lighting: Thinking of converting your halogen headlamps to HID or LED? Fantastic article about HIDs. Pretty "awesome" how it's full of assumption that LEDs are exactly the same, even though they aren't. Kind of discredits the entire article..... We've done this before, and I'm not going to get into it again. I'm anal about headlights, and have used LED retrofits with fantastic results. They can work wonderfully. I will concede that if the bulb isn't made correctly, it won't work right, and because it is a bit different, it's possible that results will vary with different lenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carfreak85 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 I'll start off by saying I have no problem with HID or LED. They are brighter than incandescent bulbs, can be more reliable. When someone does a true retrofit of OEM-designed parts into a different lamp housing, like Turbone did on his RX, they can reap massive increases in night vision. The flip side is, of course, the cheap "plug 'n' play" HID/LED blubs that people mistakenly believe improve their forward lighting (Spoiler alert: they do not). True retrofits are not the point of contention here. If you are taking the entire LED (or HID) assembly and swapping it into a different housing, I can get behind that. I'm currently working on a RX350 bi-xenon HID retrofit into JDM STI bugeye headlamps. However, if you believe that just slapping a LED bulb into any old lamp housing is somehow better, you're kidding yourself. The only assumption between HIDs and LEDs in the article I posted is that they both have different sources of light compared to an incandescent bulb. The SHAPE of the light source has more to do with beam pattern than just about any other factor. Incandescent bulbs have a straight, line shaped light source that is brighter at the ends of the line "____", HIDs have an arc shaped light source that is brightest in the middle " ) ", while LEDs are s single point of light "." There is more surface area in the light source of an incandescent filament and thus the reflectors must be designed with this in mind. When a plug 'n' play LED blub is slapped into that same lamp housing, the reflector doesn't magically rearrange itself to optimize the physical light emitting characteristics of the LED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) 43 minutes ago, carfreak85 said: The only assumption between HIDs and LEDs in the article I posted is that they both have different sources of light compared to an incandescent bulb. The SHAPE of the light source has more to do with beam pattern than just about any other factor. Incandescent bulbs have a straight, line shaped light source that is brighter at the ends of the line "____", HIDs have an arc shaped light source that is brightest in the middle " ) ", while LEDs are s single point of light "." I couldn't have said it better myself. LEDs have a smaller output point than a halogen filament, whereas HID is a larger point. Completely different challenges, and the findings with one source are irrelevant to the other. Thanks for backing me up. Edited March 21, 2019 by Numbchux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carfreak85 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) ...and the point the author was making, which you are choosing to overlook, is that because BOTH LED and HID light sources are drastically different than that of an incandescent filament, they are BOTH unsuitable as a plug and play bulb. LEDs are not "exactly" like HIDs, but they ARE wrong for an incandescent lamp housing for the "exact" same reasons. Also, HIDs are not a "point" of light, the shape of their output is an arc, with glowing electrodes. Edited March 21, 2019 by carfreak85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carfreak85 Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 On 3/11/2019 at 7:39 PM, jdmleggy97 said: Ive swapped over to the shorty front bumper and started with having custom led front turn signals made by a buddy of mine! Any updates on the turn signals or additional photos of the finished product? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdmleggy97 Posted August 20, 2019 Author Share Posted August 20, 2019 Signals came out great! Once I setup image hosting I’ll post up better pictures 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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