AUSTIN VERT ADDS A TOUCH OF BLING TO THE FRONT LIGHTS.

[Austin Vert]

Hi Folks,

I wanted to do a write up regards my front lighting system on my '73 Vert. What i have ended up doing will probably not be every ones cup of tea. Some may like it/ some may not. All good. I had two main goals. Firstly, i wanted to upgrade all my front lights to LED, and second add a touch of bling by lighting up my Mustang Horse Emblem. I do believe that upgrading to LEDs for ALL Mustang lights is the way to go, as you have much less drain on the entire car's electrical system, plus, all LED bulbs run much cooler and last a great deal longer that the old filament globes. WIN/ WIN.

So, running through my front lights upgrade, i recently purchased two LED front semi sealed beam headlights from Octane Lighting America for $79.90 US. The LED bulbs are an Aussie brand, Narva. The output is 2000 lumens per bulb, ( that's 125 watts old school) with a color temp of 5700 Kelvins. The glass enclosures come with a white colored LED halo light. I have used these halo lights for my parking lights, and works well in this regard. In Australia, our laws require drivers to run clear or white lights for front parking lights, and amber lights for turn signal/ indicator front and back. We have clear backup lights, with red stop and park/tail lights for the rear. That said, i wanted to set my front lights up to follow Aussie laws. Would you believe i am allowed to run the traditional American rear setup with red indicator/stop and tail lights, as in my State you are allowed to do this on the older imported cars. In America, if you keep your front orange bulbs for park and turn lights, you could add on the halo lights to your front park lights, to come on at the same time as well. Just a thought. You can also buy front headlights from Octane with different colored halo lights, or multi colored changeable halo lights. Check your State for colored halo lights being illegal.

Next, i have been running driving lights below the front bar. These H3 halogen lights were upgraded to LED H3 bulbs putting out 2000 lumens each with a color temp of 6000K. For the front indicators, i bought new Orange colored LED lights which are very bright compared to the old filament bulbs. The front grille vertical indicator light lenses remain clear, but blink orange due to the orange colored globes. Lastly, just for fun, i added a strip of daylight LEDs to the Mustang grille running horse emblem. Blingo! These emblem lights light up the running horse, self stick applied, and are wired up to my White halo parking lights. When the main headlights are turned on, the halo parkers and the horse lights stay on as well. This horse light setup works only for the standard 1973 egg crate grille horse design,plus the standard '71 and '72 grilles as well, and not for the Mach 1 grille designs sorry. Maybe someone could invent a custom light up system for that grille as well. Maybe you could buy and adapt an illuminated horse made for later model Mustangs.. See this link ..............
https://www.cjponyparts.com/ford-pony-emblem-front-grille-light-up-v6-ecoboost-gt-2015-2017/p/GO44/

My theme has been done before , but i believe it was made for '65/'67 Mustangs only. See my link.
Lastly, i could have added a black colored back up panel to the horse corale to stop light bleeding into the radiator area. I chose not to for two reasons. Doing this, cuts back on air flow coming to the radiator, and second, i like the unrestricted open look behind the horse. For me, the little bit of light bleed behind the grille and into the radiator area, is not an issue i would worry about.

This LED horse setup is cheap and easy to install for any DIY Guy or Gal. If you find setting up the wiring is a little too much for you, you can always grab a auto sparky or a knowledgeable friend to help out.

My LED strip light purchase was on Ebay for a cheap price. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/332169849858?hash=item4d56ddac02:g:7GwAAOSwmgJY3epa

Finally, i am happy with the way the whole thing has turned out. Watch your own State laws for running the Horse light, as it may be illegal to do that.
See all my photos and setup diagram below that tell the story well.

Thanks,

Greg.

 

[Sheriff41]

Hey, that's pretty clever! Nice, personalized result.

 

[Lazarus]

Cool concept for sure. I don’t usually like too much flash but I have to admit the LED strips are very tempting. I have seen some modern Challengers that look great with a subdued glow behind the grille. I think it would look great on our models:

 

[Austin Vert]

Thanks Guys,

Glad you like it.

Lazarus. The Challenger looks cool. I did a similar red light thing to my '71 Challenger Vert a few years ago and it came up looking really good too. You got me to thinking that you could chose any colored LED strip for the horse light up. Say, an orange color to match the orange park lights could be ok. You could even buy a multi colored LED strip with remote control to change the color of the horse to suit yourself. The sky's the limit here i guess.

Greg.

 

[tony-muscle]

Thanks Guys,

Glad you like it.

Lazarus. The Challenger looks cool. I did a similar red light thing to my '71 Challenger Vert a few years ago and it came up looking really good too. You got me to thinking that you could chose any colored LED strip for the horse light up. Say, an orange color to match the orange park lights could be ok. You could even buy a multi colored LED strip with remote control to change the color of the horse to suit yourself. The sky's the limit here i guess.

Greg.

You could also do a LED strip that changes the color with a remote. That way you can choose whatever you feel like it or have it fade in and out of colors.