Lights man, lights, day time driving lights.

Ok, so I have decided I need some day time driving lights for my Kelmark so others can see me, as the car is painted the same general color as the road and the roof line is about the same height as the window sill of a new Dodge Charger.

I dont need anything expensive, and I was hoping to stay away from anything with H3 bulbs. What are the thoughts on the cheap LED driving lights, remember this is so others can see me. I know LED flashlights dont throw a lot of light, unless you look right at them, which may be very well suited for my purpose, as long as the had the same effect when its sunny out.

Why no H3s? They don't seem to last very long, and when looking at the package in the parts store they are rated at 100 - 300 hours, that's as little at 50 trips to and from work. I also would prefer the lower power draw of the LEDs. The 110 combined watts of the two H3s, is about 1/7 HP that I would rather have at the wheels.

Thanks, Steve

I bought these for use on my sailboat for a mast mounted foredeck light. Seems pretty bright and can come with a 45 degree beam angle

superbright LEDs

I disagree on the brightness of LED flashlights. The newer Streamlights are 1500 Lumens. That's a lot of light. There are more and more manufacturers using LED headlights now too.

But I digress.

I would find some eBay LED running lights. With such low wattage you don't even need relays practically. They are also very slim and that makes them really easy to find places to mount them. Most newer cars use LEDs for running lights and I find them very noticeable on the road. In fact they even have modules that shut them off when the turn signals are on because they'll outshine the amber turns.

Hella is my go to for lighting. I have not used any of these specifically but Hella was my go to for all my lighting for our Cars that would be racing at night. There products never failed in any race and stood up to the abuse of racing with out issue.

http://www.hella.com/offroad/en/233.html

Had to google...

Neat-o!

May I suggest simply driving with your lights on and putting a post-it note by the doorhandle to remind you to turn them off?

Or howzabout...

Loud pipes save lives?

My red dome light is from http://www.diodedynamics.com/store/ and it is blinding. Just got to know what kind of LED to look for. The good ones aren't exactly cheap, though.

etifosi wrote: May I suggest simply driving with your lights on and putting a post-it note by the doorhandle to remind you to turn them off?

could always wire them on with the ignition too

Bright lights just make me look away from whatever is making the light.

Daniel Stern (http://www.danielsternlighting.com) recommends this: http://www.webelectricproducts.com/products.htm

Keep in mind the idea behind DRL's in general is to be seen, not to cast much light. This is why manufacturers cut headlight output to headlights to 30% or so for DRL's. Too bright of a light can be blinding even in broad daylight. Might look at installing a resistor in the headlight wiring to a switch on the dash so you can turn on your headlights during the day but have them at lower intensity. That also extends the life of the bulbs.

I have not seen pictures of the yellow one before, it appears to be mid engine, no vents on the rear most hatch, I want.... I have done the driving with the head lights on, and have forgotten to turn off the lights each time, guess a note would help.

etifosi wrote: Had to google... Neat-o! May I suggest simply driving with your lights on and putting a post-it note by the doorhandle to remind you to turn them off?

Knurled wrote: Bright lights just make me look away from whatever is making the light.

That should work, as they say at the track, "look where you want to go, cause you are going to go where you look".

Thanks to all for the leads. Steve

You have one of the very, VERY few vintage kit cars that are actually nice looking. Don't mess it up by sticking extra lights on it.

http://www.electronickits.com/car-headlight-warning-kit-vek3505/#sthash.Y83WL97Y.dpbs

There are quite a few headlight warning buzzer kits available. I found half a dozen DIY sites showing how to make em yourself for under $5

Always been torn both ways on this. Understand and agree lights make you more visible. Understand you can see better with brighter lights, I do like that part. Especially as I'm getting older and dark is getting harder to see in. But on the other hand, I don't like approaching cars with brighter lights. There is a brief moment that the lights block out everything for me, even looking away. So for a moment, I'm blind. Maybe related to the age thing. Tall trucks bother me more. I'll notice a glow of a light readily.

In reply to wlkelley3: Agreed, I dont want to blind any one, and most likely they will only be used during the day, with the regular lights at night, I just need to stand out a bit more from the road, like I said its small/low, and currently painted a silver/gray that blends in with the road a bit to well, hopefully the lights create some contrast.

In reply to Jumper: I was planning on mounting them behind the grill to keep the looks and a buzzer is on the list of things to do either way.

While on the list of lighting, I also thinking of a third brake light, maybe inside in the rear window. Had a big rig behind me this morning, at the stop lights, he was so close I know he could not see my brake lights when slowing for lights, and when stoped, I felt like I was not even in his field of vision due to his hood line and below his line of sight.

Other than that, and it needed some front end work, although beetle guys tell me thats how the drive, its a hoot. By no means is it a modern car, but it sounds and looks cool.

Steve

We need to see some photos of your car!

For a car that low you could probably just leave the high beams on in the day and not blind anyone.

Edit: A lot of 90s GM stuff did it that way, running the high beams in series so they'd run dim. Would be pretty easy to wire up with a relay or two, piggybacked of the stock wiring.

After getting hit hard in the driver door of my Miata, this is relevant to my interests.

I'm replacing the tail light & turn signal bulbs with LEDs and running them in the daytime. They're brighter than incandescents and make the car more visible without hanging lights all over the car. I'll have to modify the turn signal flasher to prevent hyperlink, but that's no big deal and more fun than 6 months at the chiropractor.

Here's what I'm using. Kind of pricey, but way brighter than stock.

In reply to Woody: How about a couple videos as I am at work and don't have any pics handy, although at lunch, I will go out and snap a pic with another car in it for height comparison. The vids where taken by at least the 3rd owner before me, I cant vouch for his engine specs in the description, other than it being a dual port with performance rockers on a 1600cc block. I have had a conversation with him and he stated he had a ton of paperwork for the car and engine and some well know bug engine builder on the west coast built it. Unfortunately the paperwork was lost somewhere between him and I. It runs much better now than it did in the videos, the carbs where hitting the shroud and not letting the intake manifolds sit flat causing a vacuum leak, this has been fixed with some creative dimpling (new smaller shroud in its future), but it still needs additional tuning, thought I had it last night but once fully warm (50 minute drive to work) ended up with a high idle after getting off the highway and still some 2000 rpm cruizing/slightly cracked throttle minor surging.

Anyway, here are the links to the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61HfiKd3I7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCZfqKGft4

The must and near future to do list contains, driving lights, getting the carbs right, figuring out if I can make the front end any better, wants to follow road irregularities and crown, the local bug experts tells me that normal for a aircooled bug, but there seems to be as many bug experts as computer experts these days, so I take it with a grain of salt and figure I can make it better than it is, and real seat belts as all it has now is a lap belt, bought 5 point harness, just need to get to installing them. Any maybe after all this paint, color and scheme suggestions welcome. In the far future, the dream is a mid engined chassis. I have been a cheap wad for 46 years and finally have some, not a lot of, cash to do some thing I have been to cheap to do in the past, and figure I should do it before I get out sourced.

Steve