1969 bug LED bulb conversion?

[Mr.Duncan]

[Bob Brugge]

[TX-73]

If I'm using 12v strip SMD LED (those little square looking led lights) I like the 5050 or 5730 SMD sizing. I'd recommend either for the speedometer. Those numbers are the size of the led chips 5050 means 5.0mm by 5.0mm and so forth. 5050 are readily available almost anywhere.

One of my garages is lit only by 5050 led strip lighting using step down transformer and two 50w 110v COB LED's. For my bug I also added white COB led under the sills as door open courtesy lights and blue COB led when running lights or headlights are activated. Lots of applications for these type of lights!
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
Click to view image

[ashman40]

[vintagecarleds]

Let me know if you have any questions about our headlight products.

As for brake lights, I highly recommend these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1CRoPHe0fU

Paired nicely with this:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2140061
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www.vintagecarleds.com
[email protected]
713-853-9644

[TX-73]

Mine's a 73 so I know the exterior lights are different, but I agree that modern tech LED is much better than even just a couple years ago.
I used COB LED's for interior footwell lighting, all exterior lights are LED, and headlight LED's came from Thomas at vintagecarleds.com
All are an improvement, very bright, I would never change back. You do have to research and use the right bulb for the application though.
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My 1973 Standard Beetle Build SOLD
Click to view image

[Bashr52]

LED headlights are well worth the $$. Tom at vintagecarled can hook you up.

[Meiang]

I would like to disgree with the statement that modern LEDS do not give out light that is equivalent to incandecent bulbs. Maybe 8 years ago they didnt but now they do. I fitted the following to my car and they more than match incandecent bulbs.
Note the red bulbs are the wrong ones as I couldnt find the correct fitment.

[tunes]

[Joel]

Here ya go,
I'll have to get another pic of it in action with the face and glass back on.

Important to use SMD style so they still dim normally with the rheostat.

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Quick little bug, you got a Porsche motor in that?
1974 Germanlook 1303 2.5 Suba-Beetle

[scrivyscriv]

Joel post a photo of your speedo! I've been thinking about led strip lighting mine but haven't done it yet.
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Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[Aussiebug]

[volksbooty]

[jfly]

I got these and love them!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1569726
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1973 Super Beetle, aka BUGLY, Daily Driver

SOLD:
1968 VW Beetle, Daily Driver, #68flybug

Photos: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=jfly

[Gerrelt]

This is all not entirely true. There are LED's now that have wider spread. You can buy these LEDs, which have a 180 degree projection angle:

To be precise, these are 8 mm 1200 mcd (1.2 times a candle light) 3500K nm LEDs with 180 degree projection angle.
These LED's have a nice "yellow-ish" light, and spread the light around, just like a normal light bulb.

I have used them in my speedo, and you really cannot tell the difference with normal bulbs:

There is only one drawback, and that is that these LEDs are not dimmable. So the dashboard light dimmer is a bit useless now. The LEDs can be dimmed, but they go to black pretty fast when using the dimmer.

Read the full story here: http://www.gerrelt.nl/section-modifications/modifications-led.html?start=1
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[CarlIseminger]

Except for the dome light, I don't think it is worth the hassle of changing to LEDs in our bugs. I did the LED in the dash lights and since they are directional, they only lit the one spot in the speedo. I had to change them back again. And unless your use reverse polarity leds, they won't work in the oil, gen and turn signal lights.

My son is a deputy sherriff and he says that he sometimes has to stop people who have switched out their bulbs for leds in their tail lights because they don't do the side illumination very well. LEDs are directional, and even if you have them "around" the sides, they still only point straight out, so they leave "dead" spots. This is rather unsafe.

And even if they do say they put out the same amount of light, because an incandesant bulb puts it out all over, it is perceived as brighter than the led that only puts it straight out.
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1969 VW Beetle Convertible

[Joel]

The speedos use BA7S LEDs BUT I would not recommend them in a speedo,
I've tried them and they have the same problem of not diffusing the light enough and VW speedos rely on that they make the fuel gauge bright as hell and the rest almost unreadable.
What I did was put an LED strip in there instead.
You can buy lengths of it from ebay cheap in all colours,
I do a lot of night driving and found plenty of other places to use it also.

As well as in the speedo I put some in my glovebox and under the dash

For the dome light you just need a festoon style LEDs, from memory they are 42mm long.

I get the SMD style as they dim properly, I've got a delay feature so it stays on for 15 secs after the door is shut then fades out.
Normal LEDs cant handle doing that.

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Quick little bug, you got a Porsche motor in that?
1974 Germanlook 1303 2.5 Suba-Beetle

[Aussiebug]

Hi Shameless.

I have some LED bulbs in my Aussie Jackaroo (Isuzu Trouper/Monterey).

But as Joel says the light from them is not as general, and even though mine are supposed to give off about the same lumens, they don't. I have two complete sets of tail light assemblies on this car and have converted one set to LEDs and left the others as normal bulbs. I can see the difference at night when looking at the car - the LEDs are just not as bright, and are slightly less visible from the sides, even though they have sideways pointing LEDs in the bulbs.

Converting the blinker bulbs to LEDs will usually result in a rapid blink as the LEDs don't use enough power for the heat blinker element to get hot enough to blink at normal speeds. That's part of the reason I have not converted all my rear lights to LEDs.

Another issue for you, especially since you say you are converting to an alternator. If you do that, leave the Gen/Alt light in the dash as a normal incandescent, because the alternator needs the current through that light to start producing power, and the LEDs use so little current the Alt might not start charging the battery at all. This is not a problem if you leave the generator on though - it doesn't need the current through the Gen/Alt light to start making power.
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Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.vw-resource.com

[Shamc006]

[Joel]

I still run leds in my dome light, glovebox, license plate light, speedo and running lights,
got them off ebay.
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Quick little bug, you got a Porsche motor in that?
1974 Germanlook 1303 2.5 Suba-Beetle