Purist? Sometimes..

[airehead]

Myself being new to the board, you guys don't know much about my background other than the wife and I have been VeDubbers years ago, and just recently returned. Well, a little about myself so that the Purists out there don't get too upset. I was going to post this in tech, but it is more of a personal nature than tech. I am 51 years old, and have been a car guy since my Dad and I played with cars before I was even a teenager. He was a gear head, and I took on that torch. I built my first car, which was a 65 Bel Aire. Sure it was a POS, but it was mine, paid for, and built with my own hands by the time I was 15 years old, and before I even had a license to drive it. I have been building, restoring, modifying classics and hot rods ever since until about 10 years ago when I took on a disabling injury that does not allow me to enjoy that hobby as deep as I used to. VW's came along in the mix years ago, along the way. I was one of those Hot Rodder snobs, but at that time was a VeeDubber in the closet. Mainly because my hot rod buddies made fun of VWs. I never participated in that, but also never admitted at that time that in my head I always thought, "Those are just cool cars....". My hot rodding buddies always said VW's were the hot rods for people that can't afford, or build a real hot rod.. I always frowned on that phylosophy, but have to admit at that time, didn't defend the VW. At one point after years, I started building VWs too. I had them right along side of the American Hot Rods. I had some hot rodder snicker, but had others that came out of the closet too, and enjoyed them with me. Some cars I restored, and was a purist. Others, depending on the car, and the condition, rareity etc decided to restomod, or flat out hot rod it. VWs I like the purists pure cars, but I also like the modded ones, and SoCal style the most. My Daughter's 69, is a SoCal style bug, and it simply fits her. I am installing an in dash GPS system, and other things bringing it into the 21'st century. It has 4 wheel discs, electric fuel pump, and eletronic ignition now as well. Runs like a swiss watch now. I took out the speedometer because it didn't have a cable, and I figured it didn't for a reason. I was right. The speedy was locked up like a 30 year old virgin. After completely disassembling it, and restoring it to full fuctional condition, decided it might be cool to remove all the burned up red and green plastic membranes from the dash lights (you know how those are typically all crusty and burned up from the heat of the lamps). I am thinking about replacing all those dash lights with red and green (in their proper locations) LEDs. Takes less power to run them, more reliable, and no heat. I could use all the extra power I can get now that I am using electric fuel pump, and a thumping 1200 watts of stereo the daughter put in. The bug uses more electricity than it was originally designed, so I figure I can cut down on that in other places, and that includes LED lighting. Probably going to end up with LED tail, markers and turns as well eventually. Anyone else run LEDs in their Fweemers?

[harleyh77]

I put '39 Ford led taillights on my tub buggy. Don't know how much power I am saving. I used them because I didn't like the big VW lights, wanted a cleaner look. Also used a couple led idiot lights on the dash, those are a bit bright at night.

[airehead]

It does save allot of power as it relates to lighting, but actually not much as it relates to overall power available to run a car. But every little bit does help from overworking a generator. I think 3 incondescent lamps will draw about 1 amp. You can light most all of your lighting on a car with 1 amp draw using LEDs.

The only thing to think about when using them as turn signals though, most older flashers are mechanical, and use heat from the amprage draw to operate the flash function. LED tail lights dont draw enough amprage to operate a mechanical turn flasher, so you either have to upgrade that to an electronic flasher, or use resisters in the lighting to draw enough power to get the mechanics in the flasher to flash, which kind of defeats the purpose anyway. So, when you do use LEDs as turn signals, remember to also use an electronic flasher over the older mechanical flasher.

But actually, I was being trivial really mentioning it to save power, because a fuel pump uses more power than you might save using LED lighting anyway (I never really did the math).

[81pumagtc]

I have done a lot with LEDs, and there can be used for a lot of cool things. My experience is, however, that dash lights are not one of them. LEDs are highly directional, and usually have a lens at the end of them. That gives you a very bright light, but it is in one direction. Most dash lights use light generated from the sides of the bulb, and a bright light at the end just bounces off of the metal face of the gauge.

I tried the same thing, and was disappointed. Works great for indicators, but not for the actual dash lights. I built a few for testing, boldly going where no one had gone before...

It's just because everybody is smarter than I...


Dave Riedle

[airehead]

Good point. When you say "Dash Lights" are you refering to illumination type of lighting? Or indicators like oil, gen, turn? I was meaning for the lights in the speedo for oil, gen and turn signals. But, also considered for alumination as well. But, as the common LED being diractional as you mentioned, they do have many configurations of LEDs the have a soft glow, defused light, even rectangle and other shapes. But, good point on the type you use.

[MadMike]

I see an Alternater in the near future ;D As for the Hot Rodder Buddys you should of built an 11sec Bug and Spanked them!!!

[airehead]

Actually, it was that, that brought me out of the closet. In my Hot Rod snob days, a buddy of mine used to build drag bugs, and took me to a bug race. Walking around that event really opened my eyes and put VWs in a new light in my eyes. Watching those little bugs scream down a drag strip with neck breaking speed, and seeing a Kombi Split window doing a near 90 degree tail stand down the strip, I was awe struck.

Then, later when I served in the USAF in Germany. I was on the autobahn with a German national buddy when I saw a German Polizei (Police) driving along the autobann in a Polizei marked Air cooled VW bug, complete with blue bubble gum Bosch light on the roof. I laughed and my buddy said, "Laugh all ya want my friend, but do yourself a favor and NEVER try to outrun one of those!!!" About that time, the Polizei VeeDub opened up and shot past us like we were parked. My jaw dropped, and I was sold..

[81pumagtc]

Airhead:

I was referring to dash illumination or gauge illumination.

For indicator lights, LEDs work great! I have yet to find an indicator light that doesn't have the bulb directly behind the indicator. In a past life, I designed LED Type 3 arrowboards, (the big 4 X 8 arrow signs you see on the highway that say "change lanes NOW") and played around with all sorts of LEDs. I am just that kind of guy...

One thing that had potential was the multiple-color LED that would change colors depending on conditions. The one I built was a Ford Motorsports turbo boost gauge for my 86 Mustang SVO. The dial was white, and when everything was cool, it glowed white.

In overboost (a condition I was intimately aware of, and visited often) it glowed reddish.

Of course, it only worked at night, but it did look cool as anything. Ultmately, however, I adapted a bright red light to indicated overboost which worked even better, because you could see it in the daylight. It took me hours and stupid money to make it looked like something Ford would use. and in my warped opinion, it looked stock, (well, except that the gauge was mounted on the driver's side WINDSHIELD pillar with two other gauges, and they were WHITE instead of gray like every other instrument in the car), but it looked cool and said Ford Motorsports on each little gauge, and EVERYBODY knows you are serious when things said Ford Motorsports on them...

Anyway, when I sold the car, the VERY FIRST thing the new owner did was to replace my spiffy, and very expensive hand-made gauge with a new normal gauge.

He might have stopped at a rest area to perform the swap for all I know, and used a hammer to smash my very expensive hand-made gauge to bits...

Anyway, he CALLED me a=like the very next day and said that he had done this.

Since the gauge was a special order part, I assume he hated the gauge so much that he ordered it in BEFORE he bought the car...

A good idea that apparent was not a good idea...


Dave Riedle

[MadMike]

Yep ,I remember them 'Polizei' bugs well ;D I saw one with a 911 stuffed in it back in 1975 near Stuttgard

[airehead]

yep, that's what I understood from my German buddy when I was over there, that they all had Porsche motors and running gear in them.

[yankeyspeed]

I used 37 Chevy taillights on my Baja. I am sure my days of doing Hot Rodding (still own one) made an impression on my Baja build.