Tail Light Brightness

[DD931]

I'm getting ready to do some wiring and lighting system upgrades on my '48 F-1. This will include some new wiring and turn signals. My question: Over time I've read posts from folks who painted the inside of their tail light housings with something other then standard black. I remember silver (aluminum) and white. What do you guys use? What's best? I'm not going to 12 volts or leds. I just want to make the most of what Henry provided. Thanks!!

[cmbrucew]

White is the most reflective. Good grounds are the most important.
Bruce

[Bruce in southern OH]

I used the chrome spray paint, white was in the original light, low out put, next did the rear passenger side in Aluminum paint, better. Don P. told me to try the Chrome spray paint, took to several evening car cruise ins and people thought I had LED lights. I did attach an extra ground wire to light so that as car ages more it will continue to have a good return path to ground.

[Blu Dice]

I used white in the front and rear marker lights in a '50 shoebox. Great improvement.

[Vic Piano]

I used white in the '39 LZ tail lights, the car had been converted to 12 volts but the white was a vast improvement. I'm going to paint the tail light housings in the '39 CS (still 6 volt) white as well.

[Drbrown]

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I was reconditioning my back-up light assembly and used the shiny side of aluminum foil as a reflector. Fastened it in-place with a bead of adhesive caulk. Works good.

[V12Bill]

White improved mine.

[Brooks]

Dd931, use 1932 headlight bulbs in your taillights and they will be plenty bright.

[expavr]

" Good grounds are the most important." I agree. On my truck (6V) I ran another grounding cable from the battery to the frame and then grounded both headlights and taillights directly to the frame.

[SSsssteamer]

I found that the chrome aluminum paint sprayed onto the inside of the parking light and the tail light housings almost doubled their brightness. I got the idea from the headlight reflectors being silver plated.

[Ken/Alabama]

On my 40,I painted the inside of the taillight buckets gloss white and installed 32 Ford headlight bulbs in there . Bright now !

[4dFord/SC]

I've had good luck with these Super-Brite tail light bulbs: http://www.vintageford.com/part_sear...3-6sb&Category Also painted the buckets white.

[Bruce in southern OH]

We only see visible light between .4 and .7 wave length in microns, silver is best and needed a cover to keep it from tarnishing from humidity. Protected silver provides the highest reflectance between 500-800nm but is best suited as a rear surface reflector due to its sensitivity to tarnishing. The Chrome/mirror paint is almost 98% reflective, you will see a very noticeable improvement in using chrome/mirror paint. Silver was used in head lights for this reason. One other problem over the years was light incident on a second surface mirror was subject to dispersion from reflection off the cover glass. Glass tends to disperse light, causing different wavelengths to refract at different angles. Car company's worked on lens/glass problems until modern times to focus the head lights. In modern rear tail lights you will now see three bulbs for each purpose, one bulb running light, one bulb backup and one for reverse.

[Blu Dice]

Who has chrome/mirror paint we can use effectively?

[Bruce in southern OH]

O'Reilly's paint isle worked fine for me, removed old original white paint, taped off the light socket, and worked great.

[40cpe]

Originally Posted by Ken/Alabama

On my 40,I painted the inside of the taillight buckets gloss white and installed 32 Ford headlight bulbs in there . Bright now !

Do you have to change the socket to install the '32 headlight bulbs?

[DD931]

Thanks to all!! Just what I wanted!!

[Ken/Alabama]

Originally Posted by 40cpe

Do you have to change the socket to install the '32 headlight bulbs?

No, The 32 bulbs have pins unlike the later headlight bulbs with the flange . Also installed a relay at the brake switch to keep the excessive load from burning it up,now the switch just makes and breaks the ground to operate the relay.

[DD931]

Has anyone actually had trouble with extra current load on the brake switch when using '32 headlight bulbs? Would a modern switch solve the problem? Note that this is a hydraulic system.

[cmbrucew]

Here is an old thread with some information on the proposed headlight use for stop and tail light.

http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?p=459402
Bruce