Tail light conversion

[Adam in Wa]

I blasted and painted a matching set of light housings. The cylinders which hold the bulbs and wires were a little loose and did not have a good electrical connection to the housing, so I tack welded them in on the inside; I added an additional ground wire to the center of the bucket so the wire would pass through the tail light bracket. I felt this was probably necessary due to the multiple layer of fresh paint on everything; I had one original 12v red bulb that still worked!, but was fairly dim, and one bulb that did not work.

I had one black out bulb that did not work and I needed another. I ordered a bulb from Midwest and told them to sell me a burnt out one because I was going to gut it. I heated up the bulbs to loosen the solder and pushed them inside. I the drilled out the bulb housing so they would clear an led bulb.

Because the bulb base no longer holds the bulb housing in place I used a stout spring to hold the bulb housing against the front bezel, which works well.

I’m not entirely pleased with being able to see the led bulb in the blackout spot. I thought about frosting the lens but I am going to utilize them as back up lights and want them bright as possible. So in this case function over appearance.

It took some searching but I found a dual element led bulb with the pins even across the base, a typical bulb with offset pins will not fit. The dual element bulb in the red bulb housing will function as a tail, brake, and turn signal.

[Adam in Wa]