Reply To: LED Headlight Bulbs

[Kim Scorah Bourget]

This discussion about LED bulbs in antique cars is interesting but in the end,they just do not look right.A friend who shows very beautiful Model A Fords in national meets tells me the judges look through the lens at the headlight bulbs to see if they had the ridges in the glass like headlight bulbs had when Model A’s were new and not the later type.A halogen or LED would certainly cost points.I have driven many times an antique car at night with stock bulbs and never had problems with seeing.My 1929 133 Roadster has NOS ribbed glass Edison Mazda 21cp bulbs in her headlamps and these lights on high will blind you.These are the bulbs called for to use in the headlamps and they are visible looking into the McKeelite lens.Many earlier cars have a resistance dimming system and the use of LED’s might not even be compatible with such systems so as to lose your lights entirely when dimming the lamps.Not all domestic LED’s work with dimmers.