Go Home! LED Lights See All Photos
   


These days, there are loads of places selling nice ready made LED replacement bulbs. One - who supplied the bulbs used on the rear of this Land Rover and a complete set for my other Land Rover - is Supersport LEDs.

When I built my endoskeleton wings, there was limited space for the side light and indicator to protrude through the front panel without hitting the frame. The solution I came up with was to make LED lamps which just screw on the surface.
    It occurred to me that if I was to mount an LED on a metal disk the same size as a standard Land Rover lamp lens, I could fill the lens with epoxy resin with the disk in place. This would make the lights into a solid lump of plastic which should be very tough!
    The first photograph shows the aluminum back plates. I glued the LED, a hyper-bright type sourced from RS Components and a resistor to the aluminum using a special thermally transmissive glue (also from RS Cat No 155-8320)

LED Part No's :
Red = 449-1674, White = 449-1624, Orange = 449-1703
   
I did a great deal of experimentation on the type of resin to use. Everything from Araldite to Fiberglas resin. Most were either opaque or too brittle. My basic test was could I hit the lamp with a club hammer and it not break! I settled on this stuff from a company in Guilford. It's perfectly clear and amazingly tough.
Click on the image to enlarge - you can read the address etc.
    Here you can just about see through the resin to the LED & resistor inside.
    When I came to build the rear lights, LED bulbs were more common. I still wanted something tough but thought I'd try an alternative to resin. I turned up some aluminum disks which a lens will screw too with a big hole in the middle which the LED bulb fits snugly into. With the bulb almost flush with the back plate, it is unlikely to be sheared off and if pushed, the LED will just pop through the panel undamaged.

I soldered the wires directly to the LEDs. This removes the possibility of electrolytic corrosion. The life expectancy of the lamps is such that the inconvenience of them being soldered is unlikely to worry me.
    Even if you don't go to these lengths to get tough lights, just replacing your bulbs with LED's will serve you well. I recommendSupersport LED's who can supply everything you need!
       
    Click Here to see all the photos of the build process.