Paul H Posted September 21, 2017 Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 Hi only recently been out in the Vitesse in the dark and the instrument lighting on my Vitesse is very poor - Is this normal ? if so what conversions eg LED are available Regards Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted September 21, 2017 Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 Just fitted green leds to my spitfire gauges great improvement. Use those which are a cluster of 5 (4 round the sides, 1 pointing out of the top). Got them off fleabay, 10 for £5.69, variety of colours. Also got some interior light leds from a different supplier. They only use about 1 watt, so I can leave the doors open for longer without draining the battery as quickly!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted September 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 28 minutes ago, Badwolf said: Just fitted green leds to my spitfire gauges great improvement. Use those which are a cluster of 5 (4 round the sides, 1 pointing out of the top). Got them off fleabay, 10 for £5.69, variety of colours. Also got some interior light leds from a different supplier. They only use about 1 watt, so I can leave the doors open for longer without draining the battery as quickly!! Hi Wolf - very interested in your LED upgrades , could you give me an Ebay link for the bulbs & interior light ( ive taken my bulb out just in case I drain the battery ) Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted September 21, 2017 Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 Hi Paul Current item number on for instrument light on eBay.co.uk is 292203585786 (copy and paste into eBay search), make sure you get the correct fitting, screw/bayonet and also check size as some are small bullet bulbs. The interior light on mine is a 'festoon' type eBay no. 361840968291. The interior lights run a little cooler than the 5 watt tungsten and are more blue/white than orange/white. I had one melt the plastic 'glass' some years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted September 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 29 minutes ago, Badwolf said: Hi Paul Current item number on for instrument light on eBay.co.uk is 292203585786 (copy and paste into eBay search), make sure you get the correct fitting, screw/bayonet and also check size as some are small bullet bulbs. The interior light on mine is a 'festoon' type eBay no. 361840968291. The interior lights run a little cooler than the 5 watt tungsten and are more blue/white than orange/white. I had one melt the plastic 'glass' some years ago. Many Thanks - both ordered - I too have a melted interior light cover , have you converted rear lighting to LED ? Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted September 21, 2017 Report Share Posted September 21, 2017 No, not done anything exterior yet. I have had bad results from domestic 240v led lighting. Fitted 100s of leds in various places over the past 5 years, many have failed before the rated 25,000 hours expected use. Don't trust them at the moment for exterior use on a car. Inside not as important, outside possibly very dangerous. I feel that leds have been forced on us before the technology is proved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Posted September 23, 2017 Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 I bought instrument leds from the club shop. Not as cheap as ebay buy most definitely a vast improvement. Will be looking for interior an glovebox/footwell leds as well in due course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted September 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 Just received interior light LED's though didnt realise glove compartment had a light , must investigate Will carry out some comparisons with existing bulb and report Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted September 23, 2017 Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 Paul. Are those from the link I sent you? That was quick. You should notice a substantial difference in both light and heat output. Just make sure that the heat sink fins are pointing away from the point you want to light. I found that they kept rotating when I put the glass over the top of the bulb. I am now going to try to fabricate a holder for one of the dashboard bulbs to backlight the heater controls on my spitfire with some plastic pipe. The low heat output can be really useful for confined spaces Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted September 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 3 hours ago, Badwolf said: Paul. Are those from the link I sent you? That was quick. You should notice a substantial difference in both light and heat output. Just make sure that the heat sink fins are pointing away from the point you want to light. I found that they kept rotating when I put the glass over the top of the bulb. I am now going to try to fabricate a holder for one of the dashboard bulbs to backlight the heater controls on my spitfire with some plastic pipe. The low heat output can be really useful for confined spaces Hi Wolf, yes they are the ones you recommended . Took a couple of days . I will report back on their performance Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted September 30, 2017 Report Share Posted September 30, 2017 Paul. Have you managed to try the LED bulbs yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Posted September 30, 2017 Report Share Posted September 30, 2017 When I said glove box/footwell I meant additional. Not standard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted October 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2017 16 hours ago, Badwolf said: Paul. Have you managed to try the LED bulbs yet? Hi Wolf - yes interior light converted to LED & part completion on dashboard ie Speedo , water temp ( currenty modern version guage ) Fuel guage - found out tacho & oil pressure guage have no bulb set so need to source these but cant find them at realistic prices - Chose the blue to making existing voltmeter ( this being a modern digital guage ) Pleased with the results Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave.vitesse Posted October 1, 2017 Report Share Posted October 1, 2017 The original instrument lights were OK. The problem is the white reflective surface within the instrument is no more. The original bulbs should be 2.2 watts. You can either open up the instrument and clean the inner wall then spray the surface with reflective paint. Or as above fit LED's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted October 1, 2017 Report Share Posted October 1, 2017 Paul - Looks good. I have just made a small 'light box' to go over the plastic center of the heater control indicator, at the back of the middle dash-board. I am hoping this will turn it into a 'light pipe' to illuminate the control position indicator when viewed from the front. I found a spare bulb holder in my bits boxes and just have to solder the bullet connectors on to supply power from one of the adjacent dials to finish it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted October 4, 2017 Report Share Posted October 4, 2017 Heater control lighting looks really good, but needs extending to cover the three points where the clear plastic with the lettering on fits through the dash. While I had the center section of the dash out it suddenly occurred to me that the main beam bulb may be the same as the general gauge illumination so I checked and it is. My main beam indicator is notoriously poor at night, never mind in daylight with the top down, so I put in a white led. Literally brilliant so the others are getting replaced as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Paul H. Just spotted bulb holders on fleabay, item no. 272875732303. May be useful to you. Just extended the lightbox at the back of my heater controls, looks really good now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted October 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 2 hours ago, Badwolf said: Paul H. Just spotted bulb holders on fleabay, item no. 272875732303. May be useful to you. Just extended the lightbox at the back of my heater controls, looks really good now. Hi Wolf - thanks for the link - recently purchased a spare dash with all instruments so now have enough holders to complete the LED conversion - Would like to see a pic of your Lightbox set up Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Paul H. Will post full instructions and pictures at a later date as I have only just put the dash-board back together .. again. Roughly, the light-box is made from an 11" length of 25mm aluminium 'U' extrusion with the ends blanked off with pieces of angle to form a box with two sides missing. The ends and two other small brackets are riveted on the the big piece and holes drilled in each end for the bulb holders. The whole assembly is then pushed up against the length of the plastic heater control insert and screwed onto the wooden dash with short screws. Push the bulb holders in with the LED bulbs, tap into a dashboard light pos and neg wires with bullet connectors and put everything back together. Mine looks like this: I'll never get a job as a Blue Peter presenter!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahebron Posted December 9, 2017 Report Share Posted December 9, 2017 On 9/22/2017 at 2:42 AM, Badwolf said: No, not done anything exterior yet. I have had bad results from domestic 240v led lighting. Fitted 100s of leds in various places over the past 5 years, many have failed before the rated 25,000 hours expected use. Don't trust them at the moment for exterior use on a car. Inside not as important, outside possibly very dangerous. I feel that leds have been forced on us before the technology is proved Hi Badwolf You will probably find the LED itself is ok but the electronics built into it have failed. I know it doesnt help but it is often the case. A lot of the cheaper domestic mains voltage LED replacements have bad light frequency and colour rendition (green or magenta shift) Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted December 9, 2017 Report Share Posted December 9, 2017 Hi Adrian. Thanks for that. Yes I am aware of many of the shortfalls of LED lamps. The worst one being that on the original cheap Chinese imports, the electronics have a rather alarming tendency to explode unexpectedly!! Add to that the rather short life-span before they dim and die. The modern ones do appear to be more reliable now, but having bought several hundred of there over the past 4 years, I now buy them locally rather than on the inter-net. It is easier to take them back and wave a receipt at someone, even if they turn out to be a little more expensive. I don't know if the electronics on the 12v versions are more reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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