Is anyone running porkpie-fittind led lightboards with standard red lenses and if so are you happy with the indicator function (legal pre 1965) in general use?

Ditto, have people found using dual wire LED replacements in wing mounted sidelights to allow hidden indicators worthwhile.... or is their "from front only" vision problematic?

You can buy por pies with orange lenses with orange LEd's also availible. To be honest I think thats the way Ill go with the chummy when the time comes. They dont look out of place. Ive two porkpies on my RL so Im used to them.

I dont think it is as important to have winkers on the front. But i was thinking about fitting another sidelight fitting in the headlight reflector and fitting an orange bulb. No seperate sidelights on most sevens

Thanks. I think they do look out of place as the Nippy back was designed so simple. Even split colour lenses seem wrong.

I'm interested in feedback from those who are using the original rear lenses with flasher function underneath, to see what the effect is deemed to be in practice....

1937 Opal
LED conversion from dynamo conversions Lincoln works very well and looks good -- seem to be just two losses of originality, the rear pork pie lenses are split between orange and red and secondly the quality of headlight etc changes from a glimmer to bright.
The orange part of the pork pie lense is obviously an indicator light and I reckon this is important as a flashing red could be taken as a faulty light -- at least it may not be recognized immediately as your intention to turn, which rather defeats the object!
The conversion of side lights is good and puts the yellow flashing light out on the wing where it is most effective.

My first foray into the world of LED was to fit the semaphores with flashing LEDs but having now put flashing indicators on all four corners and tried both systems individually I can confidently say the latter is much more noticeable and therefore safer in modern traffic.

Charles

Location: Norfolk

Jon I have done exactly what you are suggesting with stop tail indicator light boards from dynamo regulators, behind the standard red porkpie lens. I tested them and the amber of the LED is stronger than the Red of the lens so they do light up amber not red which as others have pointed out is important as most road users will not understand red indicators. Mine are 12V, for the still unfinished special. I will try to get a photograph later this evening.

Location: New Forest

Oh and on the subject of front sidelights/indicators, I have fitted LED indicators in LD109 side lights with Chummy headlamps as side and head, but with later lamps you can get reflectors with a pilot light as well so you can keep dip and main if these are the right ones for the nippy? It seems reasonable that the combined side and indicator LED bulbs would be equally up to the job, but I have no experience of them personally.

Location: New Forest

Hello Timothy.
I have modified many Ruby type headlamps with reflectors fitted with pilot bulbs and turned the sidelights into indicators. However I haven't found fitting LED indicator lamps into LD109's straight forward - how did you accomplish it?
Regards
Stuart

Location: Staffordshire - the creative county

Hello Stuart,
Sorry I should have gone into that, I agree it's not straight forward. The lamps had BA9S holders, and I could not find a LED bulb of sufficient wattage (they are usually for replacing 5W side repeaters in moderns. So i machined the centre out of the reflector and soldered in BA15S Holders making sure that they would clear the case, but as far back as possible to get clearance at the front. Best to get the shortest LED's you can get, and this may be problematic for 6 volts. The LED bulbs I used are short, like These, and are fairly close to the lenses, maybe 1/4" clearance. as I say loads of options at 12 volt, but the 6 volt ones seem to be deeper. The Dynamo Regulator conversions ones look like they may fit, but I think if I were doing it again I would make a holder to accept the 40mm indicator boards they do, with the white backing painted silver, and these are available in 6 and 12 volts, but not having tried it I can't comment on the pros and cons of the idea.

Jon here are photos of the rear lights. These are repros, and some original lenses look very deep red in comparison, and may have more of an effect on the colour.

OFF



ON



Hope that helps

Location: New Forest

Thanks for that Timothy. I have used the LED indicator lamps from 'Classic Dynamo........' but I had to use the reflector/bulb holder from the forerunner of the LD109 the LD108 and even then it wasn't straight forward.
Just one note of caution on the output of the lamps - the filament type I understand should be rated at 18watts.
I know Martin Baker of Basingstoke has been down this route and perhaps he could further enlighten us?
Regards
Stuart

Location: Staffordshire - the creative county

well, Timothy, thankyou - that is conclusive proof that no-one ever need to have amber lenses on the back of a vintage.

Obviously, we are tied to the one bespoke product, unless Stuart also does some LED solutions too (I read in another thread, but that admittedly was a very old one)

I was thinking they would be appearing red (as per many american pre 1965 cars over here) but that's a bonus to see!

I did wonder about staying with tungsten and perhaps an amber indicator bulb would have the same effect. But it sounds like the the DRC front sidelight lightboard is too well conceived to not go with (or rather, the hassles of trying to come up with anything else too great to overcome!) so I will probably follow that route with the dedicated LED flasher unit.

Jon, glad I could be of help. I assume in the last part of your post by the DRC front sidelight lightboard you mean the combined sidelight and indicator bulbs? In which case you will need to convert your sidelights to ba15d (two pin) fittings if they are not already of that type. If you mean the 40mm indicator light boards I mentioned earlier, then again it's not a standard fitment into the sidelights but (and i'd stress that I haven't actually physically tried this) as the LD109's (at least the ones I have here) I have are over 40mm in diameter, I don't see any reason why a satisfactory method of holding them in place could not be fashioned.

Location: New Forest

Good point. I'll measure the sidelights. The annoying thing about putting the two pin fittings in is that whilst they can stick in easily with silicon, getting the ground earth sorted seems slightly harder (or beyond the strength of my soldering iron...) unless you know of any reasonably priced three wire options?!

With LED though, do we REALLY need sidelights at all any more, when running a headlight is more advisable and of not much load?

I'm using led pork pie rear lights with original glass lenses. They do look yellow when indicating but are not as bright as I would like, which is really only a problem in bright sunshine. The front sidelights flashing yellow work well. I always stick my hand out for right turns but if you use the correct hand sign for left turns people think you're inviting them to overtake.

Location: Isle of Wight

Louis - useful info. Are you using LED "bulbs" or the 50mm light boards in the porkpies?

Lightboards.

Location: Isle of Wight