This doesn't really apply to the newer Monte Carlos. But I know there are several of you out there who have classic cars and may be wanting a way to make your brake lights brighter. It isn't that our lights are very dim, it's just that modern drivers don't have eyes that are trained to see them like they were back in teh day. Anything you can do to help a 16 year old girl who is texting, talking on a phone, trying ot find her coffee, and program her GPS at the same time while driving to see that you are stopping is a good thing. So here is a report on halogen bulbs and an LED third brake light.


So I got those Halogen 1157 bulbs and I got an LED third brake light and put them to some use.


So first I'll talk about the Halogen bulbs. You plug these things in at day time and they're amazing. Also, since the '68 tail light is in a metal housing, metal socket, and about 6" from a plastic lense, nothing really gets hot from them. However, at night, the brake light isn't really much brighter than the tail light. So for that purpose, they don't wokr well.


But someone before I got my car wanted brighter tail lights and had drilled a second hole in my light housing to plug a second incandescent bulb into. So my solution was to use the stock socket for an incandescent 2357, then wire the second socket that was modified so that both filaments came on with the brake lights. That seems to make them both work better.

The little LED third brake light is slick. You may notice in my picture that it is off centered a bit. I used some tape plus one of the holes in it for mounting in the regular screw hole that is already there, which makes it about 2" off to one side.

The light can be wired a few different ways. One way the lights flash inwards and outwards, which is supposed to be for backing up, but quite frankly, it looks like a police siren. I knew I would get in trouble with that. Another way ti can be wired is with all the lights pulsating on and off, which is neat, but I thought it might give someone a seizure. If you wire it in with the turn signal lights with scotch locks in the back though, it would cause a backfeed when you turned your turn signals on and you would never have them, much like when you step on the brakes with the emergency flashers going.

So another option on the light was you can wire the 4 left and 4 right lights into your turn signals. There are 14 lights total. So if you wire those lights in with the corresponding turn signals, they will come on with the brake light and flash with the corresponding light. So that is the way it is wired up.


So I have halogen bulbs wired to only come on with the brakes, and I have a third LED brake light. I think I can live with my brake lights now. I know picutres are deceiving for brightness, but this was just a standard picture taken with the flash on.





So I have brighter rear lights and I have buffed out the paint job again, which is posted in anotehr thread entitled "Torino and Fairlane pictures" where both cars have been buffed out over the last two weekends. Now they just need coats of wax.


Now maybe I can get to worrying about that one wire alternator I have. Or maybe some reproduction Good Year Polyglas tires. Maybe the fact that I don't really have a 390 GT engine in my car, just a standard 390 out of a '68 Galaxy. Either way, I'm looking for something new to worry about. If anyone has new ideas for stuff to worry about, let me know