<VV> FC LED Taillight Retro

Mon Jul 21 20:00:03 EDT 2008

Wow, now I know why the repro LED lighs cost so much. Great work, Joel.

Speaking of repro LED lights, did you know that the classic '50 Pontiac
tailight fits a late Corvair and probably the earlies as well?  That is what
is on the "Lo-vair" that I posted from the Goodguys event in Columbus.

 http://community.webshots.com/album/564093132nPzkcQ

 In the vendor area at the same event I saw several suppliers of this light
in LED form. If only someone made one with a clear lens for the backup
lights.

Marc Sheridan

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 7:57 AM, Western Canada CORSA <
westerncanadacorsa at shaw.ca> wrote:

> I just finished a little project I've been wanted to do for several years
> now (4&1/2 to be precise) and it's at a point where I'm pretty sure the
> major bridges have been crossed, and I want to share.
>
> This all started with the idea of doing four '66 backup lights using LEDs
> for brake&tail, signal and backup under one lens.  I found a nice gent
> named
> George at the local computer club who was generous enough to help out
> answering questions and making suggestions that got me pointed in the right
> direction.  But a new job came up and things got busy for the next few
> years.  During this time "da boyz" (Shawn & Mike) here in Victoria had
> figured out how to cast the FC taillights in clear; which got me thinking
> LEDs would be a perfect way to get backups in an FC without bolting on what
> usually comes out as a pretty ugly but functional answer to backup lights
> in
> an FC. (IMO)
>
> Now I should preface this by saying that I know next to nothing about
> things
> electrical.  But I was lucky enough to grow up with a Dad that worked for
> Bell, and a Grandfather that was jack of all trades and master of most of
> them to boot.  But keep in mind as you read this that I have no background
> in this stuff, so maybe it'll inspire you to try something like this on
> your
> 'vair as well.
>
> Here's the project in abreiviated form.
>
> Oh yeah, I should also add that it's 4:30am on the Pacific coast as I type
> this.  I'm just too reved up to get to sleep, but perhaps not cognent
> enough
> to write concisely, so you'll have to forgive me if things come out kinda
> garbled.
>
> The first thing I did when I decided to get back on this project was do
> some
> more poking around the net, and found a forum not unlike Virtual Vairs or
> the Corvair Centre, but dedicated to LED "retros".  "Yes", there is a whole
> community of folks that are fanatical about retrofitting any and all
> lighting in the cars with LEDs.  Some of the work they do is amazing.
> www.hidplanet.com/forums
>
> After doing my reading on the forum I figured I'd do a little "proof of
> concept" and used a perf board to mount 6 white 100mA LEDs up in place of
> my
> stock inandecent dome light.
> Keep in mind when you look at some of these pics that the camera ramps down
> the light levels to make a balanced exposure.  Anyway, here's the dome
> light
> in action
> http://tinyurl.com/5kpnje
>
> Lots more reading on the HID Planet forum, and I decided I'd go the route
> of
> using a Pulse Width Modulator (sounds like something out of Star Trek,
> doesn't it?)  What a PWM does is keep the voltage to the LED's at a
> constant
> level, but will flicker them on and off so fast that they appear dimmer to
> the human eye.  This is ideal if you're doing something like a 'vair
> taillight that has to be one level of brightness for your running/marker
> lights, and another altogether for braking/signalling.
>
> So far so good.  I have proven to myself that I can correctly wire up LEDs
> to make them work, and I've soldered together my PWM, and it works too.
>
> The next step was to design a Printed Circuit Board(PCB) to hold all the
> LEDs.  I could have done a larger version of the dome light using perf
> board, but there isn't a whole lot of room to work with under the FC
> taillight lens, and I figured I'd get a little more space using a PCB.
>
> So I designed my PCB using a freeware program off the net and came up with
> something that looked like this. The yellow denotes the silkscreen "top"
> layer, the red is the bottom copper layer"
> http://tinyurl.com/5aksya
>
> Now I had to transfer that desgn over to the copper boards.  Which was done
> by printing the positive image onto glossy colour paper using an inkjet.
>  It
> is then ironed onto the board, which transfers the toner to the copper,
> creating a mask.  It looks like this
> http://tinyurl.com/6avgzp
>
> The next step is to give the board a bath in an etching acid which eats
> away
> all the unmasked copper, leaving you with this
> http://tinyurl.com/55cjv2
>
> Then begins the drilling and the soldering.  When you're done, it looks
> like
> this
> http://tinyurl.com/6ysgvo
>
> If you're lucky and you've put all the pieces in properly, it works like
> this
> http://tinyurl.com/5cwbmo
>
> Remember, the camera is REALLY cranking down the light levels on that pic.
> This one gives you a slightly better idea for just how much brighter they
> are than stock
> http://tinyurl.com/5csnas
> <
> http://photos-873.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/196/68/528580873/n528
> 580873_1523567_5478.jpg>
>
> There are still more hurdles to cross.  The boards have to get mounted in
> the stock taillight buckets and get wired up, including how to do a backup
> switch to bring on the new b/u LEDs (remember it's an FC, no provision in
> my
> '61 tranny for a B/U switch).  AND, if I feel really ambitious, I just
> might
> extend those LEDs across to where Deluxe reflectors go.  How cool would
> that
> be?!<grin>
>
> Anyway, it's closing in on 5:00am and now I think I'm tired enough that I
> can get to sleep.
>
> Regards,
> Joel
>  _______________________________________________
>