United Pacific Headlights & Taillights: Outfitting a Mustang with LEDs

You know, we've all seen LED taillights by this point. You know, it's the difference they've made in our hobby is undeniable. You know, they've added brighter lights to even vintage cars. They're reliable because they're not prone to fail like a filament bulb. But the thing to remember is not all LED lights are the same.

There are some out there that, you know, they're simple bulbs that you replace your original bulbs with. Some have kind of cheesy little panels that you drop in. And what I like about the United Pacific products is it's an integrated system. But before I get to that, you know, it's important to remember United Pacific has been building parts for years. They started out building parts for the heavy trucking industry.

And soon they realized, Hey, a lot of what they're doing in that industry would also apply to the classic car market. And they have embraced it so well that now they have over 7,000 specific products for classic cars. So you've seen me before. I've talked about United Pacific LED taillights and headlights and side marker lights on a lot of cars. We've got on the website, we have installation videos for putting them in a nice C10 pickup.

We also have an early Ford Bronco. But rather than sit and preach to you guys about the quality, I thought it'd be a good idea to get a set of LED taillights, and headlights. Go visit the guy that knows Ford Mustangs, Bob Wilson at RJ Restorations. Because he builds concours quality cars. He knows a good part when he sees one.

Well, Bob. What's your first impression? Well, Mark. I was really, really impressed because I've done- Of course, like you mentioned, when we specialize in concours restorations, and those are authentic to the way the car was when it was built brand new. Yep.

But I also have other customers that have multiple collections of cars. And they have resto mods and daily drivers. And they always want to set their Mustang a little bit different than everybody else's. So I've had some experience in installing these aftermarket products. I mean, you touched on something that's really, really important is the quality.

LED lights come in various ways and various expenses. But at the end of the day, I've actually installed two or three of these LED lights in other cars. And this is by far a high quality product. It's not a printed circuit board. It just sets inside the housing.

This is the complete lamp assembly itself. And so it's all integrated into the taillight lens. The printed circuit board is sealed up. It's molded into the lens itself. It's going to be a really, really nice, easy installation.

So I'm actually really excited to put them in. Yeah. And the, you know, a lot of times, you know, you just see something, you know, online or you know, even in this video, you don't realize the quality it is until you actually hold it in your hands. Right. And you know, that was one of our first thoughts when we looked, you know, even the 69 Mustang taillight.

And you remarked on this right away. That, you know, the taillights themselves- This isn't just a circuit board that kind of flops in and, you know, held in place by everything else. This unit is designed to fit the opening and then it's sealed in epoxy. Right. So there's no dirt dust, water, or anything can get in it.

So now they built this so indestructible, they offer a lifetime warranty on it. Well, that's amazing. And so I'm usually people get excited about buying a part and putting it in as new. And I am already a little bit skeptical because I do this everyday for a living. So I'm really expecting this not to go well and/or expecting to be disappointed when I get a part.

And I was amazed because the printed circuit board in this- and you can see where all the LEDs are. Yep. Well, they're sealed off. If you just have a printed circuit board bouncing around inside the housing, they're not going to last forever. And you get moisture and dirt and everything else on them.

And now here there's no dirt can get in here because it's sealed. Right. Right. Yeah. Even though there's a gasket around the housing and then there's also a gasket around the lamp assembly itself, it's going to last a long time.

So you get what you pay for it. And I was, like I said, I'm always- I don't want to say skeptical, but I'm easy to disappoint. And I was actually quite surprised. So I was very happy with the quality of the part. And the other thing I like about these taillights is they offer the sequential switch.

So you can either have these lights, you know, come on. You know, when you turn on the turn signals or they flash from one side to the other. Or you can set them to just work like a normal flashlight. Or taillight. So you have that option to either have, you know, kind of a more modern look where it sequences.

Or just the standard, you know, all at once sort of look to your car. And, you know, that allows you to customize the look to whatever you like. Some guys don't like the sequential stuff. They think it looks too modern or, you know, more modern. Or maybe they think it looks like a Cougar or something.

Cougar. Shelby. Those both came with the sequential- Can't say that word. Sequential. Thank you.

Taillights. And this is what we're going to do on this one. We're going to make it that function. He wants the bang, bang, bang of the left and the right. So I'm actually really excited to install these.

Yeah. And it's neat that, you know, you got an owner who's not a purist. He just wants a vintage Mustang that looks cool. And he can go to local car shows. And he's not going to detract from the value.

And he can always switch it back to the original taillights pretty darn easy. Very easy. And so that makes it a nice upgrade. It's a safety aspect because you got brighter lights. And the LEDs are less prone to failure.

Yeah. We're not modifying the original wiring harness whatsoever. Basically it's a plug and play kind of thing. So they'll be very- This is something you can install on a Saturday morning. You know, in maybe an hour and a half, I think if you- If you take your time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And enjoy it. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

And so it's an easy install, quality product. Headlights. I got to admit, you know, I'm not always a fan of LED headlights. Cause some of them start to look, you know, kind of too modernist. But there's no denying the difference it makes.

You know, bright LED headlights are insanely bright. And it becomes both a safety thing is now you can see out you have good visibility. But you also have that advantage of LED bulbs. So it's not going to be prone to failure like a filament bulb. And the design of these is just killer.

Yeah. And the way we're going to install these today is we're going to link- it has an LED light bar in the lamp. And we're gonna wire and explain how we're going to wire it by putting it in the parking lamp circuits. So when you turn the parking lights on, the yellow amber lights in the lower valence will be illuminated. And then the four light bars in the headlights.

So there's a single LED bar that runs through each of these. So when just the parking lights on, they'd be just a nice line going across the front of it. That's going to be nice. I'm looking forward just to see what that looks like. And the quality here- This is a quality unit.

I'm not kidding. I was amazed with the taillights. The headlights were over the top. And I'm serious. Most of the times when we get LED lights.

I have a son. He likes to modify his pickup trucks. He goes out and buys these LED lights. And then he goes on a Saturday and him and I install them. And one week later, one of them will fail.

Or the light bar will fail or something like that. And these are really nice glass lenses in the front. There are glass housings in the back. They're not plastic or anything like that. They're real nice, heavy sealed up units.

You can tell that that's a quality piece when you pick it up. I mean, it's actually- It's got a weight to that. Yeah. And it's actually better than a conventional seal beam headlight. I mean, it's not a cheap poly plastic thing that's going to get scratched.

Or something hits it, it's going to shatter right away or anything like that. These are definitely worth it. And you know, sure. The purist isn't going to love them 'cause they don't have Ford logos on them. Right.

But this is a quality unit. This is a quality. And again, just feel it. And I'm anxious to see what these look like once we turn 'em on. Right.

Well, my customer, Jason, he drives this car lot. It's a 69 Cobra Jet. Yeah, you see he's got a big motor in there. Yeah. It sounds awesome.

And he likes to drive it. He enjoys driving it. And so we're going to do these customizations to make it a little bit his way without modifying the car anyway that is somewhere down the line, he gets rid of it or somebody else, they can put all that stuff right back. And I'll give them all the original parts back, you know. And then he can put them on the shelf.

If he chooses to get rid of the car and somebody has it and they want to put it back, that's an easy change. It's not that big of a deal. But you know, everybody wants to modify or personalize their vehicles to be their own. And some things are done tastefully. Other things, not so much.

I think these are tasteful add-ons to the car to individualize the car and make it his own and be cool. You know, there's some when you walk up and they go to a car show and there's 300 Mustangs there, you go, "Oh, wow. That looks different." It's subtle. You know, you see it pulling out and the taillights are going, you know, boom boom. It's those subtle things that you could do to to make your car different than the rest.

Especially, you know, when it's not a purist restoration. I think it's going to be a great look for this car. So with that, why don't we just get these parts on the car? Yeah. Sounds good.

Let's do it. Awesome. Okay. We finally got done with the installing headlights and our taillights. And I'll be the first to say that, you know, just the overall quality of this product is just astounding, you know?

Yup. Most of the time I'm skeptical on the parts that we get, but I was very, very impressed. It's some very high quality items. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of cheesy LED stuff out there.

And you know, we've all run into it and I've probably installed some of it myself and said, "Geez, well, I wish this was better." At no point during the installing either the headlights or the taillights, did we say, "I wish this was better." No, not at all. No. And it's really a high quality product. So with that, we're ready to actually try out these headlights and see what they look like lit up. Bobby, you wanna turn on the parking lights?

Wow. That's distinctive. You know, it's kind of, it gives you that nice little bar different than any other car on the road. You pull into a nice car show in the evening and you know that people are going to notice that. Yeah.

It's definitely going to set it apart from any other 69 Mustang. Yep. Go ahead, Bobby. Let's see what the low beams look like. And those actually look good too.

You know, it's sort of like the outer light draws your low beam lights. And it still maintains the center bar. Okay. Let's see the highlight high beam too now, Bobby. Boy, you know, once you get all the LEDs lit up, boy that's a irregular light show up here.

That's really neat. Yup. And I like the clear on fluted lenses. And it's definitely, you know, displaced a lot of light and they're definitely bright. They are bright.

They are insanely bright, just like all the other United Pacific lights and LED headlights we've installed. You know, every owner we've installed these on remarks that how intensely bright their lights are. And the added benefit that, you know, that makes your car safer. Okay, Mark. One of the things that I really like about it is the unfluted lenses.

I like the clear lens. Yup. It gives it a real distinctive look. And you know, I think United Pacific has really nailed it on the design of these. And you know, you just look at them and it's like, it really sets the car apart and it makes it one of a kind.

So with that, let's go ahead and check out the taillights now too. Sounds good. My first impression, Bob, is before, you know, just looking at the lenses and the fit and finish- Every bit as good as the original. Oh yeah, absolutely. They look- They're indistinguishable as from the originals.

Yeah. And you know, for the quality of the part, you know, I think United Pacific's really nailed this one too. And as good as they look just off, I think the real magic happens when you turn them on. So go ahead, Bobby, turn on the parking lights on this. You know, right away you notice- Three, four times brighter than an originals.

Oh, the original bulb head, taillights, you know you get in a bright sunlight even, sometimes people can't see the brake lights even on the car. Exactly. And with these it's like, you know, even just with the parking lights on, it's like, that's bright. You notice that. Right.

Right. Right. Exactly. So not only a good look, it's an added safety feature. Go ahead, Bobby.

We let's switch over. Let's see the right turn signal to start with. Now the magic really happens. That is so cool. And it's really rapid.

It's really precise and it's crisp. And the other ones I've installed prior to, not so much. Yeah. And the sequential thing, you know you're used to seeing that on like Shelbys and Cougars. You know, where they had the sequential lights and it fits the Ford moniker.

But it gives the Mustang a much more distinctive look to it. Yeah. This definitely sets this 69 apart from all the other 69s. And it's, I mean, they're bright, they're crisp. They look really, really good.

And you go to the car show. People are gonna, you know, maybe when your car is sitting still, they're not gonna notice it. Cause these look like factory taillights. When it comes time to go, everybody's going to turn and see that. Absolutely.

Yep. Yep. Yep. And it actually overall, you know, between the the taillights and the headlights, this looks like a low cost way for just about any car enthusiast to upgrade or personalize to look of their car. Yep.

With a quality item. I mean, I was really, really impressed with the taillights. How the printed circuit board was molded into the lamp assembly itself. Sealed, permanently sealed. And it's a nice piece.

Yeah. And I agree. You know, it's like, you know having installed some cheesy junk before, when you get a piece like this, it makes all the difference in the world. Bobby, how about hitting the brake lights? Go ahead and turn off the turn signal and hit the brake lights once.

Wow. There's no mistakin'. You're shutting this card down. That's right. Yeah.

This is definitely brakes. Brakes on. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, that could be the problem with a lot of these older cars is like, you know, people are so used to big, bright LED lights on modern cars.

On these older cars, when you got just a little bulb in each one, a lot of people remark that, "Hey, I can hardly see your taillights." And it was like, well, that's the way they were in 1969. So having, you know, not only is it, you know, providing, reliability, safety, it's a good look. Yep. That's a win-win-win. Bottom line, you know, installing the United Pacific headlights, taillights.

Great addition to almost any classic car.