Today I officially start my semi-retired lifestyle. So I thought I would do a quick win project to kick things off. I went old school and bought a Williams BL-2. Which predictably runs great however the lighting from the headlight and markers lights was almost nonexistent running at 8 volts. So I added LEDs to brighten things up.
The original lighting arrangement is 2 12 volt bulbs and an open interior for the light to shine through.
In order to direct the LEDs focus I encased them in heat shrink tubing.
Here are the triple LED light sets installed in the engine. Note the tube completely goes up to or over the plastic lenses. This focuses the light out of the cab and not shining inside.
Here is everything connected up. I removed the 12 volt bulb holder and wired direct to the truck leads. There is enough wire length to comfortably open the shell from the frame. Not too much so that fitting it all into the cab when closed up is easy.
The final result is a focused headlight that shines forward about 6 inches down the track. The marker lights are now quite visible but not too much. The picture makes the headlights look blurry which they are not to the naked eye.