Best dash bulbs?

[jvandyke]

What is the best way (since my dash it all ripped apart) to brighten up the tach nd speedo. I'm not sure I put the correct bulbs in last time around.
would these work?
Or I'd order from VB but the more watts the better, right (to a point of course).
Ebay e10 base bulbs 14 v 2.8w

 

[theleisure]

check out this thread to see how at least one person added an additional bulb to each gauge. Pretty easy to do. The author of the post installed LED's at the same time but that's not required.

 

[jvandyke]

Read it. Did it. Went okay but the more you take things apart..... The little jewel lenses for high beam and ignition warning lights are "interesting". High beam one fell apart (all I did was pull the black bulb connector "tube" off the back) The faceted face separated from the back there's white "sheathing that appears to have mostly evaporated.....acts as a joiner/gasket between lens and tube I guess.
I painted the inside of those black tubes silver and I'll rebuild with heat shrink tube and such.
I'm planning on going with regular incandesent bulbs but I'd like to source 5 or 8 watt if possible.
Wow what a slippery slope.....still it will be worth it in the end. Nice "new dash" everything clean pretty and more OEM looking, brighter lights.....focus on the goal.....not the mess I'm making!

 

[jvandyke]

I added a second bulb in both the tach and speedometer. Certainly makes a big difference on the bench. Still wouldn't mind if it were brighter across the board though. Still it's a huge improvement. I'll see if I can find a couple 5 or 8 watt bulbs vs. the 2.2s and see what happens. Can go LED too yet. Okay, back to work.

 

[regularman]

I just bought a bunch of super bright LEDs and been playing with them. I think I can come up with a configuration to replace the original bulbs and be a heck of a lot brighter and use less power to boot. I want to be able to see the turn signals flash good with the top down as well as gauges being seen. If I come up with something good I will let y'all know.

 

[jvandyke]

Something different than the thread referenced above?

 

[jvandyke]

Other than waiting 3 weeks for shipping, what about using these? Probably as bright or brighter, less power use, less heat? Same cost as standard bulbs.

Hmmmm

Most sources say 1447 bulbs are 18v, LEDs are a whole different deal, seller lists at 12v. I don't know enough about electrickity to know if these guys would work or not.

20 LED E10 base bulbs, 12v (?) from China, $12 shipped

 

[jvandyke]

Still trying to figure this out. I linked to some bulbs in the first post but they are 1449 and 18v and I think if you run a higher voltage bulb at a lower voltage (12) it will be much dimmer than the "correct" 1446 bulb. (I might have put these in last year as I couldn't get 1446 lamps off the shelf anywhere and they were certainly dim). The LED ones, well I don't know and can't find an answer. I'd like to run LEDs as they consume so much less wattage and that is probably a good thing for my car which is barely keeping up at night.
The above link says they are 12v but 1447 are always 18 yet they are LED so?
Any electrical engineers out there clear this up for me?
At this point I'm just going to get the ones from VB as, believe it or not, I can't get 1446 off the shelf anywhere (including electrical supply houses). They can order them for me no problem but at the same $$ as VB and waiting a week, what's the point? If I knew the ebay LEDs would be at least as bright as incandescent I'd go for it but I can't get confirmation.