My wife was following me to the storage garage where we keep the coupe. She asked if there was anything I could do to make make the taillights brighter or crisper than they were. The rear parking lights and the signals are "muddled" together. The front lights are better. The lights are 6 volt. I now if I really want to fix it, upgrade to 12 volt. I upgraded the signal bulbs from 1158 to 1154HP. The bayonet pin styles are different (1154 are offset style), but fit in the holders Had to make sure the brighter/fatter element lit with the signals, by clocking in the holder. The 1154HP bulbs are still a 6 volt, but they put out 50cp/14cp vs 1158's 21cp/3cp. Next, took the taillight housings apart and clean the lenses. I also made sure the grounds and contacts were clean. The thing I found interesting was the back of the housing was open to the fender. The back of the taillight was the fender, not a reflector on a 1947 Plymouth. Being a dark colored car that could not but helping things. After reading about the front parking light and the white painted housings, I thought it might help in the rear. I painted the area inside the gasket marks white. Everything was put back together and my wife followed me and said it was a lot better. So, maybe some white paint in the housings might help some 6 volt lights problems. It worked for me!
Good job, I also thought that silver would be a better color for reflection, but if so why does the manufactures use white? I used white in mine cuz that was what was there before and some new repops were white inside.
Good find, little bit of time and thought and you got a performance improvement from that system. That's Hot Rodding. I used to pull the trunk harnesses out of GM 70-80's cars in the junkyard, use them to repair 60's cars. Could often find same bulb holder to fit the tailight with a better bulb, don't recall all the bulb types anymore.
What about white metallic? Would that be better than plain white? I painted my t/l housings white and it was a better reflection but often wondered about the metallic white.............
There's been side by side comparisons made and posted on the HAMB before. Flat white won out for the inside of the reflector bucket. I don't know why, but it does.
probably because it reflects light in all directions evenly, not in one specific direction like gloss does.
We closed our label business a couple of years ago. I snagged a roll of gloss foil label material. Almost like a chrome finish. I used it in every old tail light I have. There are a lot of places on the net that sell the same material in various sized circles.
On a somewhat related matter, paint the insides of your instrument housing a very light blue color. Makes the gauges look good at night.
decades ago, "mechanix illustrated" had a "tips" column. one suggestion was using a reflector from christmas lights.
I have white painted tail light reflectors in my cars. The last one I did had a bright stainless reflector in it already, I did one side in white and left the other side in stainless just to check, the white is brighter. I know it's counter-intuitive but white is better than silver, it works great.
I learned the white paint thing years ago and have suggested it on here in the past several times. The shiny foil should work just as a shiny reflector does in a headlight but dull silver or a flat aluminum tends to absorb light rather than reflect it from my experience. If the lights aren't sealed all the best It helps to just take the lenses off an clean them and wipe out the reflector once in a while.
12 volt lights are not any brighter than 6 volt lights. 6 volts run double the amps as twelve volts and the bulb itself is designed for the same output of light in a given application. Good grounds are a must with 6 volt, and no voltage drop, after that you should get the same results with the same candle power bulbs. Glad you fixed it with the white paint, that is a good idea.
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