LED Instrument Panel Lighting

[swithland]

Went to change a bulb in the instrument panel the other day and found that the leathery bulb holder had broken....not bad after 61 years of service I suppose.. however I was unable to locate an exact replacement, so went online and bought some LED technology that works really well.....see these pics of before and after.

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[LouiseM]

That looks really good

[bmcecosse]

HK seems to be THE place for LED lighting - hardly a week goes past without me buying another LED bulb at ridiculously low cost (and free post) on ebay , from HK. They take a while to arrive - but each and every one has been a good buy and working well!

[swithland]

Hi all. These LED's came from Shenzhen through Ebay and were here in Hong Kong the very next day by courier. I think If was ordering them again, I would order those with the Silicone coating as they will probably last longer with the high humidity we have here.

Right now, Im searching for a long shaft clock mechanism to fit inside the passenger side clock as I the one that I fitted a few years ago to replace the old mechanical movement blocks the back face of the clock and prevents installing a light source to make the clock glow in the dark. If I can get a quartz clock with a longer shaft, then I can install some led's inside the clock as well

Will keep you posted !!

[alexmcguffie]

Looks very good! I use similar LEDs for a F1 application. One recommendation learnt from experience though would be to paint over them with electrical conformal coat (clear varnish in effect, used for electrical insulating purposes). It will reduce the effects of any possible damp and condensation.

[twincamman]

I've never seen a 'dual scale' speedo for early cars before. Where did it come from?

[beero]

HK seems to be THE place for LED lighting - hardly a week goes past without me buying another LED bulb at ridiculously low cost (and free post) on ebay , from HK. They take a while to arrive - but each and every one has been a good buy and working well!

Well, well, Roy you do surprise me! I got the impression from previous LED threads that you were anti- led......
Happy New Year!

[bmcecosse]

Hahahahaha - I'm 'anti' LED on a Minor (because I just don't see the point) - but my house is steadily switching to LED throughout! I'm saving the world......or so they tell me ... Happy New Year to you beero - and indeed to all on this excellent Forum.

[swithland]

Looks very good! I use similar LEDs for a F1 application. One recommendation learnt from experience though would be to paint over them with electrical conformal coat (clear varnish in effect, used for electrical insulating purposes). It will reduce the effects of any possible damp and condensation.

That sounds like a very good idea, thanks for the tip.

[swithland]

I've never seen a 'dual scale' speedo for early cars before. Where did it come from?

The 'dual scale' was a DIY job. In Hong Kong, by law all cars must have the KPH markings as the road signs are in KPH. So what I did was use photoshop to produce a KPH dial which I then printed on to clear printing plastic using my colour laser printer making sure that I matched the colours to the same as the MPH dial. I also tried to copy the style of font. Then I cut out the design into a circle and glued it with superglue onto the back of the glass clock cover. Pic attached below. I wanted the dial to look as authentic as possible. However, even though it reads correctly against the MPH labels, the worm drive in the gearbox does not match the speedo, and the speedo shows the car as going slower than it really is......the engine / box are 1098. So since the car rebuild, it has done probably closer to 4,000 miles. That is something that I want to get fixed this summer when I ship the car over to Italy for a summer drive up through Europe. [frame][/frame]

[lambrettalad]

This is the forum to meet some very very clever people,and the old moggies make the world a little smaller and smarter

[bmcecosse]

Well done - amazing what people can do when they turn their hand to it!

[hanvyj]

Brilliant solution there, works really well. The LEDs look good too. I'm a big fan of LEDs, but not with moggies usually as they don't have that wonderful warm glow of incandescent. Clinical blue/white doesn't really suit the utilitarian 50/60s hardware...

However, the tint of those works really well. Are they yellow LEDs?

[bmcecosse]

Probably 'warm white' - not quite as efficient as 'cool white' LEDs - but much better in my domestic use!

[swithland]

Yes, these are warm white. The Warm White looks the same as an incandescent bulb although it is not quite as bright.....but I made up for that in the number of LED's fitted. The problem with regular white light LED's is the artificial brightness and whiteness of the light which makes the light look cold and unwelcoming.

[mike.perry]

Any chance of producing a few kph dials?
LED lights would be useful in my quartz replica clock
Another project is to fit my matching mechanical rev counter

[swithland]

Ive been searching through my artwork files for the dial art, but cant find it !! I may have a copy on my back up drive so will search through that. If I can find it then I can easily print off some more and post them.

[Declan_Burns]

[quote="swithland"]
.... However, even though it reads correctly against the MPH labels, the worm drive in the gearbox does not match the speedo, and the speedo shows the car as going slower than it really is......the engine / box are 1098. So since the car rebuild, it has done probably closer to 4,000 miles. That is something that I want to get fixed this summer when I ship the car over to Italy for a summer drive up through Europe.

You can also fit a corrector gearbox. Here's a few photos of the ones that I build nearing completion.[frame]

Sits on the back of the speedo. These are for the MG TD but have the same speedo head thread (M12x1mm) as the later Moggy-not sure about the earlier one. These are 1:1.2 Ratio=20% speed increase[/frame][frame][/frame]
You could try Speedograph in Richfield but I doubt if they can supply one that will fit directly.
http://www.speedograph-richfield.com/ht ... arbox.html
They couldn't do it for the TD so I had no other choice but to DIY it or have the speedo re-calibrated.

Nice work by the way and sorry for hijacking the thread.


Regards
Declan