I need advice on how to light this hood ornament

Shame the plastic is red, otherwise a great idea, so long as it doesn't distract or reduce your vision looking forward.
The LED's will be fine - I can't recall what voltage they use, but I'm pretty sure they need less than 6V, and use a tiny transformer to be able to accept higher voltages.
Casting a new plastic cover sounds like a good answer, when you get a chance to do it.
Cheers.

 

bright red lite on the front is/ maybe illegal
oops must read all before commenting carry on

 

Put a LED in there..a 6volt bulb may put out too much heat and ruin your palstic...
The RED will not show very far to the front of your car enough to worry..Not like a red light on an emerg,vehicle.....SHEESH

 

Name it, its here.
http://www.customdynamics.com/plasma_rod_led_lights.htm

 

I heard some officers of the law don't have a sense of humor.

 

Small LEDs with a switch on the dash with the power ran off your battery , easy.

 

I live in Indy also, have had blue dots in everything, never a problem even ran purple lite lens with blue dots, never stoped. If you don't get stuiped in Indy they let it go.

 

LED gets my vote because they run cool,.. and you don't need a hot bulb under your plastic hood trim.

4TTRUK

 

Being a former Indiana police officer, it is illegal in Indiana to have any red lights that face forward. It is also illegal to have any blue light on a vehicle unless it is a police car or you are a member of a volunteer fire department.

 

OK, so my wife being an art major has the bright idea of using a yellow colored LED to make the red plastic turn orange. I went to Radio Shack today a bought a small LED to see how much it would light it up. The plastic is old and kind of cloudy so the little light did next to nothing and it's directional so you could only see it at just the right angle. Then I went over to Fry Electronics to see what they had. I found a yellow LED tape light that said it has a viewing angle of 120 degrees and can be cut to any length. I hooked it up and laid the plastic hood ornament on it and sure enough it turned it orange. Cut to length it will have 10 lights under it. I'm not 100% happy with it as it looks a little bit disco like a rope light. If I do decide to install it I will post pictures.

 

Just a suggestion- take some 1/4 wood and make a simple base for the plastic part to sit on, then you can use it to mock up where the best placement of your bulb(s) will be.

 

If the base is in good shape you could cast a new clear lense for the top. Do a search, you can find cast acrylics that are crystal clear then you could illuminate with any color leds you want.

 

I think you could get away with amber, after all, Pontiacs had that indian head in the early 50's that lit up, and parking lights and turn signals on the front are amber. But red would be a red flag to any cop that saw it. My Son's got stopped one time for having those blue lights that people were running on their windshield wiper shafts at one time.

Don

 

Any luck with it yet?


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most states its illegal to have a red light on the front. But it would look cool if you can get away with it. An LED would be the best option. If the bulb type are too big you could go with a surface mount type but I don't know if they make them for 6v. They are only about a 3/16" x 1/8" rectangle.

 

Well, everyone here saying that it is illegal to have a red light on the front, maybe he has a big ol boat and the other side is green.

 

Be sure to check it in the dark. Lots of cars had hood ornaments that lit up, Pontiac and DeSoto especially. They did not show in the day time but they did at night. Too bright and it might be distracting to the driver. They had a little bulb the size of a pencil eraser. Don't know the wattage but it wasn't very much. If you could find a Pontiac or DeSoto manual they might list the bulb sizes.