Got an old car? repro lights? If they're dim, you can brighten them up with this quick, easy and simple hack. It does involve cakes which can't be a bad thing.
Geez we did this in the early 60’s with aluminum foil we took from our mothers kitchen cabinets. They really made the red clear aftermarket lenses look great. Now we have halogen bulbs and multi-LED’s
Spray paint the insides of the housings WHITE....best way to gain extra brightness. Believe me this works best. Mitch
White spray paint does indeed work the best of anything I have tried. Some say satin rather than real glossy. I've done it on my 48 with the not quite kosher tail lights that use side marker lenses for lenses and on my 71 GMC after I got pulled over for dim tail lights by a state patrol officer. I just used the Ace Hardware paint what ever you got anti rust white.
White paint is better for reflecting light in a tail light. I had a pair of normal chrome lights on a 47 Chevy which could hardly be seen , I painted one white and then compared it to the stock one (which was slightly rusty but cleaned up), and it was a vast improvement. The hardest part is getting the mouth breathers behind you to take notice of them.
WHITE! https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-refurbishing-swap-meet-tailights.18275/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tail-light-reflectors-white-or-silver.64606/
I'll have to give the white paint method a go next time. The big downside would be that cakes are not involved. It's a tough one.
Thanks for the tip @Mart. I recently noticed the ‘38/39 Ford tail lights on my Model A are hardly noticeable during the day. I’ll try your method and maybe some white paint and see what I end up with. I thought about LED bulbs, but would like to avoid that if I can. John
^^^^^^ Assuming you're running 12v system, grab a pair of 2057 bulbs from your local Harley shop. If you have plastic lenses, don't sit still holding your foot on the brake more than 15 - 20 seconds ...
Check the voltage drop, thing about incandescent bulbs is just a small voltage reduction causes light output to drop off a cliff. Set your voltmeter to lowest scale. Might need some contortions to do it, but place one probe on the battery negative post and the other on the socket base. Turn lights on. Anything more than a tenth of a volt or two is Too Much. Then do the same on the + POS side. It's a long run to the back of a car, and there are lots of corroded connectors or grounds in between. "Splices" are common too, these are always bad by now.
cp = Candle Power, right? Just want to be clear on what's being described, also avoid other icky stuff.
Well, that was quite a transformation. The color of the lights when they are off changed a bit as you can see from the first photo, but when on they are very much brighter than before (second photo one white, one black as received, third photo both painted white). Thanks again for the simple, yet effective tip. The color when off might have been less of a change if I had not painted the rim under the lens. John
I used a Honda 3rd brake light mounted at rear roll shoulder height that has LED bright light making good contact at eye level from behind. ALL 1932 tail lights are notorious for being too dim, even using LED bulbs with foil.
Had an uncle that put a turn signal flasher in the brake light circuit so when he hit the brakes the lights flashed like a 4 way. Probably illegal but might wake up the texters.
Ron Francis sells Brite Lights that are about 3x brighter than the standard 1156/1157,etc. Mine did fine with plastic taillight lenses,too. (Before I switched to glass lens '51 Pontiacs.) Y'all don't want to be using LEDs in a hot rod!
I did the white paint thing on my '57 Chevy and the difference is dramatic. I would suggest it to all. I need to remember to do the ones in my car trailer before I use it again, those housings are black plastic and the lights are nearly invisible during the day.
I've been painting the inside of my tail lights white for years, it was a tip Deuce Roadster posted back in 2004. Remember dark colors absorb light and light colors reflect light, thus a brighter tail light and brake light. HRP
The only problem I see with flashing brake lamps is that in traffic, if another driver can't see BOTH lamps ahead of him/her, they might assume that you're going to make a turn or change lanes ahead of them. A third, high mounted stop lamp would seem to do a better, if non-traditional, job.
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