I usually don't mess with outside lighting, preferring to keep it DOT, as I discussed in another thread. However, I wasn't happy with how dim the front side marker lights were. Looking the bulbs up, I found them even lower wattage than the license plate bulbs.

I thought about brighter and hence hotter incandescents, but I'd hate to create heat damage to expensive headlight assemblies. So I bought some amber 5-led bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs.com. Major improvement!

While I was at it I rolled the dice on a pair of UV bulbs, wondering if the license plate would glow under them. It didn't. There's barely any visible purple light--it's almost totally dark. So those will come back out tomorrow.

I may not be done with this though… I'm looking for some clear paint that glows white under black light. If I can find it, I may mask the numbers and paint the plate with it.

 

Need pics!!!

 

Light on the left is parking light, that on the right is side marker light
This is from the drivers side front quarter.



The flip phone camera is MUCH more sensitive to UV than my eye. It is nowhere near this bright to me.

 

Let me add to this… I'm an old hot rodder who's used jeweled blue dots in tail lights before… they give a purple look and they "vibrate" to the human eye.

I'm going for a bit of that look on the Fit's plate. I have a red reflective plate frame and I think a bit of blue on the plate will do that. So I'll probably wind up with bluish "cool white" plate bulbs. Thought I'd try UV first.

 

May want to check your license plate laws in your state. I got pulled over for having blue neon tube around the license plate. Cop said it has to be white. Retarded. I thought the blue looked cool and very easy to read. Cop didn't think so.

Just wanted to give you heads up.

 

Oh, there's no doubt I'd get ticketed for that. Ohio law definitely specifies white. But it doesn't specify warm white or cool white.

 

Cops here in MD are little sensitive about cars using blue lights any where
In the car and red or green in the front. They don't want people mistake these cars for police cars or road signals because of the colors.

 

Same here in Ohio… blue-green (cyan), magenta (purple), and yellow seem pretty safe for underbody lights.

 

Yeah that makes sense. I've had it on my 1991 CRX for several months before got pulled over.

Don't think I'll be putting any neon lighting on my Fit..lol

 

Blue plate lights here in Ohio are asking for a ticket.