Hood Ornament Light-P15

[Sam Buchanan]

When the '48 first entered my shop the cool translucent hood ornament began begging for attention. I really expected to see a defunct bulb socket in the hood crystal but none was present. The ornament on my car is crazed from age but still in nice condition. However, when pondering lighting options I was concerned an incandescent bulb would run hot enough to damage the 70-year-old plastic. Some time perusing the huge auction site with a host of Chinese connections turned up the solution.

 

Here is the 6v LED light bar I ordered for the whopping sum of $1.69........including shipping from China!

 

 

 

Two color temps are offered, daylight and soft white. I went with the soft white (2700K) because it would be very close to the color of the headlights. The strip is the perfect size to fit in the hood ornament, the only installation required is to carefully solder power and ground wires to the strip. I insulated the connections with heat shrink tubing, attached the ground wire under one of ornament mounting nuts, and ran the power wire down the hood to an in-line fuse at the low beam terminal on the dimmer switch.

 

This thing really looks cool! If I decide to spend some mad money I may splurge for a new repop ornament. I'm positive I can hear the old P15 chuckling when I drive it around town at night. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Sam Buchanan

[Bbdakota]

Really cool Sam!

[DJ194950]

Did you run a separate ground wire back to the body itself or count on a ground through the hood, hinges, etc. for the ground wire??

 

Thanks,

 

DJ

[Sam Buchanan]

9 minutes ago, DJ194950 said:

Did you run a separate ground wire back to the body itself or count on a ground through the hood, hinges, etc. for the ground wire??

 

Thanks,

 

DJ

 

The ground through the hinges is working nicely. As I stated originally, the LED strip is grounded via a wire at one of the ornament attachment bolts.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Sam Buchanan

[BobT-47P15]

Does it light the full length of the plastic piece..........or just the rear portion?   Is the light distributed pretty evenly?

Edited June 5, 2019 by BobT-47P15

[Sam Buchanan]

2 minutes ago, BobT-47P15 said:

Does it light the full length of the plastic piece..........or just the rear portion?

 

The entire ornament is lighted, I'll try to get a better photo when the shop is dark, the phone camera was struggling with the shop lighting. The lighting appears more even when not looking down on the ornament.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Sam Buchanan

[BobT-47P15]

OK   Cool       Will await more photos.            However I did order a couple lights while the info was handily available.     I have been using

two incandescent type bulbs with sockets, like the type originally offered when the car was new.  

Edited June 5, 2019 by BobT-47P15

[Plymouthy Adams]

I went a different approach on mine...I utilized twin mounts with two different color LEDS and a 'mood' switch...…...

[YukonJack]

Are they available in 12 volt?

[Sam Buchanan]

Another photo that is more representative of what it looks like in the flesh:

 

[Sam Buchanan]

3 hours ago, YukonJack said:

Are they available in 12 volt?

 

Just need to do the same thing I did.....hit the search engines until you find what you want. 

An initial search turned up this one and this one.

Edited June 6, 2019 by Sam Buchanan

[chrysler1941]

6 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

I went a different approach on mine...I utilized twin mounts with two different color LEDS and a 'mood' switch...…...

They offer led with 7 different colors now so you may express multiple moods ?

[blue p15]

Sam, that looks great!  How did you fasten the leds to the ornament?

 

[Sam Buchanan]

1 hour ago, blue p15 said:

Sam, that looks great!  How did you fasten the leds to the ornament?

 

Got real lucky....this particular LED strip is just the right size to rest in the bottom of the ornament and kinda gets wedged in as the ornament is remounted on the hood. Other strips might require a bit of RTV or something similar.

[BobT-47P15]

Thanks for the better picture Sam.....looks good.   Somewhere in the past I found this socket and bulb which I think was the original item.

Have used it in the past.  Now wanting something to give just a bit more light.

[Plymouthy Adams]

this is the bracket for the light that is stock to the P15 hood ornament....

 

[Sam Buchanan]

Drove the car on the highway at dusk this evening and found something about the way I wired the hood ornament light that I had forgotten. I originally stated it was wired to the headlight switch but I actually tied it into the low beam circuit. Rational was so it couldn't be a distraction to the driver when in dark conditions on high beam.

 

It looks cool either way. 

Edited June 14, 2019 by Sam Buchanan
correction: changed high to low

[BobT-47P15]

I had my old light wired to the low beam side and it turned off when high beam used.

[9 foot box]

   If I was going to put a light in, I lean to PA's picture of an original aftermarket accent light bracket. With a mini bulb socket and a 55 or 51 dash bulb. I think it would have more of a glow. A lighter candle power might even shadow the texture of the sails. 

[47 Coupe Tom]

Thanks everyone. Looks like an original-style bulb bracket might not be too difficult to fabricate.