Jan, I got the part numbers for all the bulbs I wanted to change out of my '72 service manual. Then I went to superbrightleds.com put in the incandescent part numbers then their site brought up an LED equivalent. There's a calculation of taking your amount of bulb lumens then dividing that by 12.57. That should get you a pretty close candle power match. There are various bulb, brightness, and angle options. I cannot yet verify the quality or longevity of these LED's as of yet as I just changed out all of my bulbs this summer & the car is in the garage, put up & being worked on until next spring. Kyle
^^^ That's what I did in my '64, and will do in the '68. Have had mine in for about 2 years, drive as often as I can, and no issues at all with any of the bulbs. I did put in the brightest LEDs for external signal, brake and tail lights, since they are so much brighter on new cars, I want to be seen. (Headlights are still incandescent)
Here what I know about LEDs: 1. Use the same color LED as the lens. If you cross 1157 to an equivalent white LED and use it behind a red and amber lens it wont look right, the colors will look washed out. 2. Leds come on faster than incandescent bulbs. I changed one side on my wife's car and had her hit the brake to see the difference. What I didn't expect is the LED came on almost a second sooner then the incandescent. If you do the math at 70 MPH that's about 80 feet, so, LEDs could prevent you from being rear ended. 3. The reason to go to LEDs is efficiency, they make more light with less power,so, if they need to add fans to dissipate heat it's not worth it! To use them on our older Buicks involves replacing the housing since they are sealed beam headlights. I'll use them every place but the headlights for now.
Note that they offer "cold" or blue looking LEDs (what you usually get) and "warm" or incandescent bulbs. If you add warm to your search you can find leds that look much closer to the incandescent bulbs our cars came with. Its very obvious if you mix the bulbs, blue leds and incandescent.
At our yearly, CRUISN THE COAST. Vendors were selling LEDs, I went and made the change. They sold bulbs that were made like the originals as far as shape. But said buy the color bulb to match the lenses color where used. They even had glass headlights and the bulbs for my car. Also helps cut the amp draw. So if your alternator has trouble keeping up with all the new technology, LEDs will help at night. But theres more to that story.
Something else to remember.... I you are using LED for signal lights you need the appropriate flasher as the LED bulbs don't draw enough to make a conventional flasher operate.
