6 volt directional bulb

J

jerrytocci

Senior Member
What is the brightest 6 volt bulb I can buy. My lights look good in the garage but not good in the Florida sun 20211102_160557.jpg
 
That's not my experience. I wanted the brightest lights available for my turn signals and i am back to 21W incandescent lights. Don't forget that it's not only about lumen but also about direction of light.



Since i have an alternator, the extra current draw is not a problem for me.
 
I was going to suggest LEDs [board type not replacement]or the highest candle power incandescents you can find.
 
Change the amber lens to red, it will make a difference in brightness when in sunlight.
 
Paint the inside of the light bucket with appliance white paint, I did a test by cleaning and shining the inside of tea cup lights, then silver paint, and then appliance white. The white was much brighter to your eyes ! LED’s lights are directional, incandescent bulbs through the light every which way and that’s why the white paint works
 
I hope your turn signals are wired to use the brake light bulb as the turn signal. If they aren't wired that way the brake light will wash out the turn signal.

Charlie Stephens
 
Big hammer said:
Paint the inside of the light bucket with appliance white paint, I did a test by cleaning and shining the inside of tea cup lights, then silver paint, and then appliance white. The white was much brighter to your eyes ! LED’s lights are directional, incandescent bulbs through the light every which way and that’s why the white paint works
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Big Hammer....really good tip. Thanks
 
Charlie Stephens said:
I hope your turn signals are wired to use the brake light bulb as the turn signal. If they aren't wired that way the brake light will wash out the turn signal.

Charlie Stephens
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Using the brake light as the turn signal was banned here back in the mid 1950s. When they introduced it on one of their cars, GM was met with condemnation by buyers. Bad move!
When I have been driving in the US I found the system there very confusing. It also depends on when you glance at a car whether the brake lights are on or one is out of action. Here, turn signals front and back must be amber in colour leaving no room for confusion.
Back to the OP. I was going to suggest LEDs but I understand the problem of directionality. Maybe you paint the inside of the light white and face the LED globe backwards so that the light going through the lens appears to come from the whole of the body. I know a guy who did that with his brake light shining on the pale coloured back of hi scar. The whole back glowed red - an interesting but maybe not legal idea.
 
Synchro909 said:
Using the brake light as the turn signal was banned here back in the mid 1950s. When they introduced it on one of their cars, GM was met with condemnation by buyers. Bad move!
When I have been driving in the US I found the system there very confusing. It also depends on when you glance at a car whether the brake lights are on or one is out of action. Here, turn signals front and back must be amber in colour leaving no room for confusion.
Back to the OP. I was going to suggest LEDs but I understand the problem of directionality. Maybe you paint the inside of the light white and face the LED globe backwards so that the light going through the lens appears to come from the whole of the body. I know a guy who did that with his brake light shining on the pale coloured back of hi scar. The whole back glowed red - an interesting but maybe not legal idea.
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I was assuming you were going to place an extra bulb inside of the existing taillight. Now it sounds like you are going to have a separate bucket for the turn signal with an amber lens, am I correct?

Charlie Stephens
 
Charlie Stephens said:
I was assuming you were going to place an extra bulb inside of the existing taillight. Now it sounds like you are going to have a separate bucket for the turn signal with an amber lens, am I correct?

Charlie Stephens
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The amber lenses are built into the tail lights on modern cars but on our Model As, we all have a separate light for the indicators, usually from a Japanese motor cycle. A few use the Harley Davidson ones but I think they are too small, likewise the ones that go between the bumpers.
Our Model A tail lights have an all red lens. https://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/product.htm?pid=976617&cat=41728 Brake lights are to be red, not yellow - that's for turn signals.
 
If the directional signal unit being used is designed to use older style incandescent lamps the flasher typically used will be of the thermal type. This flasher is an electro-mechanical device that uses a coil and a bi-metal strip to alternately power the lamps. Conventional incandescent lamps consume a large amount of power (wattage) which the flasher is designed to handle. Replacing the incandescent lamps with LED's will cause the flasher to not work. This is caused by the large difference in power consumption for these 2 types of lamps. Incandescent lamps consume more watts than LED's, i.e. watts vs. milliwatts. In order to use the older style turn signal unit with LED's requires adding a resistor to the circuit as a way of compensating for the differences in power consumption. I would recommend buying a turn signal that is compatible with LED's.
All the lights on my "A" are LED's including the headlights. I am using a standard original 6volt generator that has more than enough output to power all my lights without dimming at idle.
 
On some of the LED circuits I've looked at recently, the resistors are placed in parallel with only the rear lamps. One end of the resistor is on the power lead to the rear tail lamp and the other end goes to the common ground plane. They are a pretty big resistor at 6 to 8 Ohms 50 Watts. According to current draw checks during function of these systems, the current draw is still a lot less than the current draw of the old standard incandescent type bulbs so the car's system will still benefit from using LEDs.
 
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