Backdraft LED Conversion Kits

[BDR 699]

Jay, thanks.

Good to know about the flashers!

[Gunner]

Thanks for the courtesy of an acknowledgement. I do occasionally shoot off my, er, fingers without being entirely correct but I did spend some time on this a couple of years ago. (I wouldn't want to be challenging Patrick for the title of CC KnowItAll, as I hold the title so many other places. )

I did a lot of experimenting a couple of years back trying to brighten up my poor, dim '68 Mustang taillights, since I don't want to get rear-ended once I get it back on the road. I looked at fabbing my own panels (I do have a great deal of electronics fab, prototyping and production experience), and then hit on the idea of using a bracket to hold three fat LED bulbs in the housing. My goal was to come up with something vastly better than original, without heating problems from several high-brightness incandescents, and ideally without permanently modifying major original components like the reflector bowl. The LED bulbs were new then and I acquired several samples while evaluating their qualities.

In general, the bulbs have gotten better in the last few years, with more options in light-radiating style and brightness, still with almost no heat generation.

Sometimes a custom panel is all that will work. I'm still thinking about bringing a kit to market for Mustangs. But LED bulbs have gotten so good and offer fit for almost every need... they're worth checking out before getting into the custom stuff.

[Toddh03]

Resurrecting an old thread:

I just purchased a one owner BDR RT4, build # 2172 with 921 miles. I had to buy a rear running light/brake lights socket assembly from iconic because the bulb had melted the element housing. I don't want that happening again to any of the other light sockets nor this new one I just bought, so with that said I noticed within this thread you all were talking about some 3 watt and 4 watt SBLed bulbs that was purchased by Cashburn (Vintage Motorsports) and the 3 watt seemed brighter than the 4 watt bulbs. Could someone kindly share with me a link to these bulbs? I want to make sure what I purchase will in fact fit/work in these factory sockets for all of my lights, including the blinkers, I also want to make sure the blinker led's will actually flash correctly without me having to install any additional inline resistors etc.

Thanks in advance as I am a first time Cobra owner, been over a half century dream that has finally come true to own a Cobra. I'm extremely hands on and very mechanically inclined. I love tinkering with old school muscle cars so this BDR is going to be perfect for me.

Thanks,
Todd

[Toddh03]

I had hoped that someone over the past couple days would have replied and helped me with the correct 1156 & 1157 LED bulbs for my new Backdraft Cobra but perhaps no one has read he above posted yet.

Could someone please share with me the correct LED bulbs to order so the LED's will actually blink correctly and the 1157 LED's will also fit my running light / brake lights housing assembly.

I have read where alot of the 1156 & 1157 LED's won't properly fit the Backdraft running lights housing assembly, so there has to be a certain bulb/brand that everyone is using and that's what I need help with....knowing which ones to order, please!

Thanks in advance,
Todd

[kanuck]

Is there really more room in there new "Big And Tall" cars or is that just marketing?

[6t8stang]

Originally Posted by Toddh03

I had hoped that someone over the past couple days would have replied and helped me with the correct 1156 & 1157 LED bulbs for my new Backdraft Cobra but perhaps no one has read he above posted yet.

Could someone please share with me the correct LED bulbs to order so the LED's will actually blink correctly and the 1157 LED's will also fit my running light / brake lights housing assembly.

I have read where alot of the 1156 & 1157 LED's won't properly fit the Backdraft running lights housing assembly, so there has to be a certain bulb/brand that everyone is using and that's what I need help with....knowing which ones to order, please!

Thanks in advance,
Todd

You’ll find many things with these cars need to be modified in some way to work as you desire. This is an old thread and it’s been way too long since I retrofitted mine with LEDs. Find some that are close to the size to fit in the housing. Solder the wiring if needed. Add a resistor if needed.

[eschaider]

Todd, you'll probably find more 'eyes' over at talkcobra.com that will be able to respond to your how to question.

[Toddh03]

Ed I'm on talk cobra, the above post was an older post from me prior to finding www.talkcobra.com, thanks my friend.

[Cashburn]

You can search amazon for led 1157, 1157A, and 1156 and get all the options you need. Read the descriptions and find a set with the resistors built in. Nice part of amazon if you don't like them or they don't fit etc. you send them back.