I thought I would show something simple we can all relate to. I was ready for this one, I shot these pics 3 weeks ago just to post em for tech week . This was a fun Friday Evening job. I rate it a 1 sixpac duration! I started with a scrungy pair of the lesser utilized 1940 Chevy Tailights. Ratty pigtails and worn reflectors all for the price of $5! Bear with me, I have 9 pics to post. The beginning.
Here is the parts you can find at your local parts house, I use Carquest, they have a picture book for us dummies to match old socket parts.
I turned down some bolts on the lathe to replace the studs. You can see the jamnuts to hold the bolt in the lathe so as not to bung up the threads.
The back of the buckets get painted flat black.........its what was on the shelf! Mask the inside of the socket off, I stuffed them with papertowl. You will electrical gremlins if you dont! Now, the clincher. paint the inside of the bucket WHITE! One of the magazines did a test on different paint colors a few years back white worked best. I have tried it on several cars/trailors, they were right!
Insert new bulbs and you are done! Look at the reflection of the flash in the freshly painted light at the left vs the lead photo in my first post!? Notice the brightness????
Overall, I think I spent less than $10 to have a safer car. These lights are going in my Touring soon.
That is an awesome tech post. I've done the same thing many times but never thought to post it. I'm going to try the white though as I've always used silver but white seems to make more sense.
I dunno why the 40 chevy light isn't used more often....until I went looking for a pair. Can't find a pair here. Those will look great in the lower panel of your tub,,,
Nicely done. Interesting to see the simple "tech" pages come out, especially for the "NEW" rodders to learn. Thank you!!!
Didnt touch the glass, the white makes that much difference. And Rocky, the lights are mounted 2/3rds the way up each rear 1/4
.........for old, plastic lenses.........check out a craft store and pick up a rattle can of red, transparent "stained glass" paint. Clean the lense and hit it with a couple light coats of this stuff and they loo brand new!!
The CarQuest Wire and Cable guide Carries these ID #s Form #CQWB-99 OR Weatherly Index:502,544 if you dont have a Carquest handy.
Tman... the white paint looks really good, but just to let you know, I've used the spray 'chrome' color (not 'silver') and I think it works the best..!! Just like a 'new car' reflector... but I'll bet over the white, it would be even better..!!! Good tech... Thanks..!! -Snacks.....
Hey cool, a dummy proof tech, that gets you points from me anyways. I learned something to boot - I wouldn't have guessed that the paint color would affect things so much. Thanks...
I cant find the article that refers to paint colors. But I believe that the white works better do to more Titanium Dioxide in the mix ie: more reflectability.
[ QUOTE ] I cant find the article that refers to paint colors. But I believe that the white works better do to more Titanium Dioxide in the mix ie: more reflectability. [/ QUOTE ] Did an experiment with the same tail light socket painted various colors inside. I set the repo tail light assembly on a temporary bracket with a very sensitive light meter set about three feet away from the tail light. (assembled with lens in place) With all of the shop lights OFF, I took measurements after changing the inside bucket colors. First measurement was with the original BLACK that the new assembly came with. Then repainted it SILVER. Then spray can CHROME. And finally BRIGHT WHITE. BLACK was the base line. SILVER resulted in a 20 % improvement CHROME resulted in a 20 % improvement. WHITE resulted in a 60 % improvement. WHITE from my experience is THE BEST! A word of caution, LED replacement bulbs used with the STOCK lenses REDUCED the BRIGHTNESS. (stock or original early lenses were not designed to work with LED's)
Another tip I would like to add... Sometimes the bulb sockets get badly corroded. New replacement sockets are also avaiable. (NAPA, CARQUEST, etc.) When replacing the sockets, get the kind that have a GROUND TAB on the side. (there are types that "snap" into the existing tail lamp housing hole) With new "tougher" paints and powder coatings it is sometime hard to get a GOOD GROUND at the socket. Using the replacement sockets WITH a GROUND tab (it's actually part of the socket) a ground wire can be attached and run to a good ground point. This will insure brighter (or as bright as possible) lights and sometimes eliminate the "wierd" things that happens to tail lights. I run grounds to EVERYTHING electrical, collect the grounds together, and run them to the ground post on the battery. Doing it this way saves having to scrape paint away from various normal ground points and stops the risk of rust or corrosion at these points.
good tech post man! your touring is going to be bitchin when its done. i like seeing lesser used parts, ya know. i had to make the lenses for my dodge. i used 49 ford taillights flipped 90 degrees, and made plastic lenses fo it. man, that was nerve racking! thanks for the post Trent. trey
Dave, good point. I had to blast the sockets on my 54 after painting them due to bad contacts. For these lights, the sockets get no paint inside and the threads will get cleaned off before installation.
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