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LED lighting journey

Started by mrkozzy, 18 June 2020, 04:40 AM

mrkozzy

Well I bit the bullett and bought some LED's for the merc.

Did copius amounts of research online, (will I? won't I? They're great! They're rubbish!)
Had all sorts of information.
In the end I just got plain tired of having substandard illumination on almost every globe in the car.

Found a guy locally that sells mainly online to the "showcar" fraternity and paid him a visit. He seemed to know his stuff and gave me a 3 year warranty.

Cut to the chase, I changed the rear indicators. (WOW!) U can See me indicating a mile away
                            Changed the interior festoons. (WOW!) Nice crisp white color now when I open the door at night. 

About to change the dashboard setup maybe this weekend.

Placed an order for tail and stop bulbs, front indicators also.

I'll see about the headlights later on.

Shouldve done it earler.



MrKozzy

Nabstud

Any pics of the interior and rear lights working at nigh???
1975 280S - Australian delivered

ptashek

I'm glad to see this post as I'm doing the same thing now, still researching and testing. The crisp white of LEDs can't be beat.

Went for festoons first, and they were terrible in terms of light output. Nowhere near the claimed 360 lumens, and actually dimmer than a standard 5W filament one.

Can you share the specific brand names and models you've picked?
1993 "Pearl Blue" W124 280TE
1988 "Arctic White" W124 200T
1979 "Icon Gold" W116 450SE

revilla

Nice!
I'm interested too.
I tried this a while back but went back to stock traditional filament bulbs as I didn't like the white lightning for the interior. I prefer the yellowish look like in the old days. I wouldn't mind higher/brighter candelas though as long as it keeps the yellow old look.
Any update would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Robert

revilla

Forgot to mention. After changing the bulbs on the instruments cluster, cleaning and painting the needles following Lucas' post on the subject (RAL2007, etc) the new look improvement is impressive and it keeps the original look too.  Brighter, digits are back to white rather than grey, neat!!!

PosedgeClk

Quote from: revilla on 18 June 2020, 05:46 AM
Nice!
I'm interested too.
I tried this a while back but went back to stock traditional filament bulbs as I didn't like the white lightning for the interior. I prefer the yellowish look like in the old days. I wouldn't mind higher/brighter candelas though as long as it keeps the yellow old look.
Any update would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Robert
Dig around for something in the 2000K range then. There is a good chance that no one makes a module, but the LEDs themselves exist.
1979 450SEL 6.9

nathan

Kozzy,
thanks for post. once you get them done, could i suggest a youtube video at night of these. if you had some before footage it would be very cool to see the difference!
regards from the other side of the colony
nathan
1979 116 6.9 #6436
2018 213 e63
2011 212 e63
2011 463 g55
2007 211 e500 wagen
1995 124 e320 cabriolet
1983 460 300gd
1981 123 280te

mrkozzy

Went all out, purchased and replaced all the exterior globes today.

Headlights (not the fog ones, we never need those here)
parking front
indicators front

rear brake light
rear tail light
reversing lights
rear park light
rear indicators

Have yet to install the 1st lot of interior lights I purchased some time ago. 

Pictures tell the story.  Better than when the car was new.

All photos taken on an overcast day at around midday. The daytime difference is staggering.
MrKozzy

mrkozzy

#8
More globe pics.

The indicators needed the additional load resistors installed.

The headlights are are definite modern day "White" beam.

I've put in a comparison photo of the original headlight as a reference.   The beam shining on my garage door says it all.
MrKozzy

floyd111

Watching this as well! Definitely interested in the end results and details.