[tabasco813]

I have the rear lamp assemblies out and apart on my 68 LeMans. The bulb sockets are rusted out and the whole thing is a mess. Since I have to replace everything anyway, I was thinking of putting newer style sockets into the original housing to get brighter tail lights and modern bulbs/connectors. Anybody ever done this? Any suggestions on bulbs/sockets that would fit well? I figure why use the 60's unsealed bulb sockets, nobody will ever see inside there anyway and brighter lights would be a safety improvement, right?

[68lemansman]

let me know also i was thinking of doing this with my 68 cause the stock tailights look really dull at night

[j69shep]

You might want to get new sockets wire them in and just use the 1156/1157 LED bulbs instead of the 1156/1157 stock bulbs, much brighter and a direct swap. LED bulbs will last much,much longer than standard lights too. Available online or at any parts store.

[paint guy]

When I re-wired my 69 (don,t know if sockets for a 68 are the same or not) I went to NAPA and found newer sockets for 1157/1157 bulbs. A tight fit into 69 housings. Posted the part #s once, you might be able to find them with a search. These sockets have a ground wire, so you don't have to deal with the terrible "ground wire-clip" set-up on the original. Also, if you don't want to go LED (a great upgrade, IMO) Ron Francis sells brighter 1157/1156 bulbs that cost about $7 each.

[tabasco813]

Thanks, I did a lot of searching before I posted the question and didn't turn up anything. Does the 69 use a 3/4 inch hole in the housing or is it the more modern 1-1/8 or so?

[GT182]

Originally Posted by j69shep

You might want to get new sockets wire them in and just use the 1156/1157 LED bulbs instead of the 1156/1157 stock bulbs, much brighter and a direct swap. LED bulbs will last much,much longer than standard lights too. Available online or at any parts store.

Be careful on what LED 1157s or 1156s you get. Some that come from China are no good. A friend that owns a MGB found that out just before Christmas. With some of these Chinese LED bulbs, they have too much ground resistance and you might need a ground wire from the socket to the body.

[paint guy]

Originally Posted by tabasco813

Thanks, I did a lot of searching before I posted the question and didn't turn up anything. Does the 69 use a 3/4 inch hole in the housing or is it the more modern 1-1/8 or so?

IIRC, it is the 1-1/8", but its been a while so I'm not 100% sure. If you take your housing to NAPA (or similar) you should be able to match something up.

[goatman65]

I use Bright Bulbs from Ron Francis' Wireworks.direct replacement for 1157 bulbs and MUCH brighter without any mods to use them.

[goatman65]

regular 1157 bulbs are 32cp,the Bright Bulbs are 50cp.

[tabasco813]

thanks, that's the way I'll probably go. The car goes for paint in about 3 weeks and then I'll have time to rework the lamp assemblies. Still looking for the best new sockets to use.

[hgerhardt]

Years ago, I retrofitted mid-'70's-style sockets with integrated/dedicated grounds into my '66 GTO. The original taillight housings are pot metal and don't conduct ground power all that well. Made a big difference. Also, the '70's GM cars used a dielectric grease on the bulb bases and sockets to prevent corrosion of the contacts. It was a black messy goo but worked very well.

The problem with LED's is that they are highly directional. Some of these cars have the bulb perpendicular to the reflector and others in-line. Most of the LED's I've seen just point their light output straight out and don't take advantage of the reflector in the housing. You'd be better off with the retrofit halogen bulbs, but then you run the risk of melting the lens.

[goatman65]

www.ronfrancis.com Lot of good stuff and the catalog has a lot of good info too

[tabasco813]

Great site. I ordered the brighter 1157 style bulbs. Nothing cheap on that web site but hard to find, good quality stuff. Thanks for the tip.