LED opinions
OK, here is my observation regarding LED cluster lamps shown above by Peter, and other thoughts.
I have seen what I believe are these LED cluster lamps on several occasions in Denver, and they're a bit odd in appearance. They show a smallish dot of light in an otherwise dark lens. When viewed straight on, they are about as bright as you might expect per element of area, but they're entirely too small, so from a distance it appears quite dim. In the interest of economy and safety, I don't consider my lights a 'fashion accessory', I want the biggest, brightest, most reliable lights that science can provide!
LED lamps are designed with a lens over each diode element to boost output and so appear 'bright', all the light is focused into a beam of light that doesn't care one whit about a reflector that may or may not be present. They don't use the reflector poorly, they ignore it completely.
The Coupe's tail light reflector for the rear running light (the dim one) is about 2.12 x 2.75 inches, an area of 5.84 square inches. LED cluster lamps have a 1 inch circle (rough size of the LED cluster), about 0.79 square inches. The stock lighted area is nearly 8 times larger but, in most cases, dimmer per element of area. Therein lies the rub... You may want brighter tail lights, but it's no good if it's one eighth the size, and dimmer because of that small size. And as sexy as you may think LED lights are, if they are ineffective, you are risking alot.
I am relying on 40 years of experience with poor light design, and have been doing what I can to improve them. It started with my 1962 VW beetle, then my 1972 2002 (which was totaled five times), then my 1985 K100 RS (BMW motorcycle), totaled by a truck, and now my 1986 535i. After increasing the number of bulbs and area of lens that lights up, rear end collisions stopped!
It's not the LED's fault, it's the design of the reflector and the lamp together that makes it less effective. So, here is a suggestion. Let's do a comparison of all the options to see what is the best way to prevents rear end collisions ... Meeting new people is nice, but not so much if it's over the caved-in trunk of your coupe, right?
So here is the comparison I am eager to do, and in fact in the middle of creating the opportunity for right now.
(0) Baseline- stock lights, old darkened bulbs, dirty lens, rusty dull reflectors.
(A) Clean lenses, restore silvering on reflectors, new standard bulbs;
(B) Clean lenses, restore silvering, High Output bulbs;
(C) Cleaned, resilvered, dual tail / dual brake light modification with HO bulbs;
(D) Clean lenses, LED Cluster Lamps in place of regular (tungsten filament) bulbs.
Now, at $35 a pair, I am not able to afford to go out and buy a handful of these LED jobs. However, if there is someone (ideally local) with a set that installed and didn't like them, I ask for the loan of same to do a test in the nearest coupe, meaning Wayne's.
You reading this, Wayne? I am about done with the restoration of those lights you gave me, expect a call soon.
I will post pics, of course, and now I'm off to the laboratory to finish those tail lights!