Another upgrade I wanted to make is to upgrade my exterior lighting to make it more visible.  If you were to stand behind my car in the daylight and observe the tail lights you would notice that they looked fairly dim.  There was nothing wrong with them.  It’s just that the lighting on newer cars is much brighter.  That meant that people who were not used to the incandescent lights on my car may not notice them as quickly or easily in a panic stop situation.  My front turn signal/marker lights weren’t much brighter.I felt that upgraded lighting was something I wanted to do when the timing was right.

There is a gentleman named Gary on the Vintage Mustang Forums who goes by the handle gtonavy.  He has developed LED lighting for the classic Mustangs and started a company known as Vintage LEDS. Many of the forum members use his lighting and give Gary and his products nothing but rave reviews. I have been watching the forum posts and Gary’s Web site for some time now, but wasn’t ready to pay the price for his products. When Gary offered a holiday sale I decided it was time and placed an order for his sequential LED tail lights, LED front turn signal/parking lights, and LED backup lights.

Gary had all the parts in stock and shipped them to me quickly.  Once they arrived I tested each one out on my bench using a 12 volt power supply.  Other than blinding myself (these lights are really bright) everything worked fine.  I had some minor issues installing the lights in the car as some of my 50 year old sockets had some corrosion.  The tail lights were adjustable so I made sure I had them set to my liking before I put everything back together.  As an added touch, I replaced the hood mounted turn signal incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs.

Now all of my exterior lighting except for the fog lights, headlights (which I converted to H4) and license plate lighting is LED.   The lights are much more visible in the daytime and I’m satisfied with my purchase.  However I do still need to align my headlights and fog lights to make sure they are working the best that they can.  I plan to get that done once the weather starts to warm up in the Spring.