Custom LED Front Turn Signal Lights
I am going to be using the front parking light housings from a 1954 Chevy and I am putting hi-intensity LEDs in place of the bulbs. I purchased an aftermarket housing off of ebay and will be using yellow aftermarket lens and original bulb housing which will need to be modified to clear the lens. I'll post some pictures as I get to that stage.
Hi-intensity LED replacement assembly
Hi-intensity LEDs require 2 volts forward bias each. I've put 4 in series for 8 volts and added a 220 ohm 1/2W current limiting resistor in series. The resistor limits the current to about 20 milliamps which is right in the operating range of the LEDs. I used 12 of these across the battery for a total of 48 LEDs per parking light. The total current draw is about a 1/4 Amp which is dramatically less than the old bulb lamp.
LED soldered to PCB on left, LED mounted using flushmount panel mounts on right
I couldn't put the LEDs on the front of the circuit board because they would be too high and would not fit under a stock lens. I used black plastic panel mounts to mount them flush to a black piece of 1/8" thick plastic. There's no PCB, just a piece of plastic with 1/4" dia holes drilled into it. The panel mounts are pushed into the panel holes (1/4" dia), then the LEDs are snapped in from behind. The locking rings are clamped over the back of the panel mount to lock the LEDs in place - that's the tricky part cause you need quite a bit of force to lock them.
Alternate Signal light housings
Ford pickup stepbumper license plate light, Chev S10 stepbumper on the right
While looking for a unique center brake light, I came across some neat ideas for turn signal lights. Pickup truck step bumpers have neat little license plate lights. You can get them round, oval, tear drop or rectangular. They can be painted and some come in chrome. Ford has tear drop shaped ones and Chevs have round and rectangular shaped ones. They would be great for small turn signals.