The 1992 - 1997 Thunderbird's had the normal brake/tail lights on the corners, plus large tail light only on the trunks.

I cut the lights for the trunk open, and added 2 LED strips in each, and wired them to the brake lights and turn signals. I went to the junk yard and picked up some rear lights from a 1996 Thunderbird, since they are all red, and do not have the black strip on the bottom, and look better.

Here is the finished lights. The top is tail lights only, and the bottom is brake lights. They work with the turn signals also.

I cut each light open and added 2 additional high output led strips to each. Now the original leds work the tail lights, and the 2 new ones are wired to the brake and turn signals. After testing, I resealed them with epoxy. If anyone wishes to do the same, I can email you a sketch of where to cut, and what LED strips I used. This is how they should of come from the factory.

To add Brake and Turn Signal function to the tail lights mounted on the trunk, you will need to remove them, and cut them open to add LED strips. These lights are not glued together, they are industrially melted together, so using a heat gun will not help to melt any glue, just melt the lights.

I decided to add 2 strips, 1 near the top and the 2nd just above the factory led strip. The photo below is how I cut mine. This allows easy access to install the strips, feed the wires through to the same place the factory led strips wires are routed. The lower cut is high enough to stick the new led to the inside of the housing, just above the factory led, and the upper strip just above the Thunderbird logo so it does not interfere with the light.

Use a piece of stiff wire to put through the slit near the backup lights, and connect to the new strip wires to pull the through. Use small needle nose pliers or forceps to reach in and pull the wire through the hole.

To keep the reflective evenness of the lights, the opening you made needs to be covered with either the piece you cut out, or you can make a reflective patch. Some silver duct taped to the sticky part of a larger patch can be placed over the opening so the silver covers the opening, and provides the reflective surface inside the lights, and does not show up as a dark spot.

The + wires need to be spliced into the brake/turn signal wire at the corner lights, and the - wires to the black wires at the corner lights.

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Head Light Upgrade

I went with new headlight units, Clear Corners, Sylvania Silverstar Ultras 9005 for all 4 lights, a set of led yellow/white switchbacks for the turn signals, and a led flasher unit. I was a little Leary of using the 9005 in both high and low beams, till my buddy showed me his Vipper comes from the factory with 9005 in both low and high beams. I checked the headlight housings for the Thunderbird, and it has a low beam pattern cutoff deflector built in, so the 9005 has the exact same cutoff pattern as the 9006 had, only brighter.

The headlights each have 3 retaining clips that require using snap ring pliers to remove, and reinstall. These are easy to damage, and if they need replaced, most auto parts stores carry them, Doorman Parts 42190. They come in a pack of 2, and it takes 3 per headlight unit.

Where I ordered my Headlights: $92.00 for the Pair:


Head Lights



Clear Corner Lights: $48


Clear Corner Lights

I will tweak the adjuster if needed. They looked very white, till I turned on the led yellow/white switcbacks. The clear corners are very white and bright till I hit the turn signals, then they show yellow.

Since the factory headlight wiring goes through several long runs of small wiring, switches, connectors , they usually have a voltage drop at the bulbs. Installing these relays, will give full voltage to the lights, which will improve the performance of the lights, irregardless of which bulbs you are using. The diode simply keeps the low beams on with the highs, which improves lighting closer to the vehicle. Without these relays, the factory light switch would be toast from the increased load. These light switches have a problem with just the factory fog lights and headlights. If nothing else, put your high beams through a relay.

The above lighting mods should be more than adequate for anyone, unless you do a lot of high speed driving out in wide open areas. Using Silverstar Ultra 9005 for the low beam is about as good as it gets if you have good clear lens. You can improve on the 9005 or 9006 for high beams if your car has good reflectors and good clear lens.

If you are not wishing to fabricate your own harness, this one will work great with 9005/9006 bulbs. If you wish to have the low beams on with the highs, you would need to simply add a jumper with the diode in it between the two relay sockets, correctly oriented. If you are going double 9005s, you will have to use a Dremel, and modify the one as shown below. This will make your head lights much brighter, by providing full battery voltage to the headlights. It also allows higher output bulbs, without overloading the light switch.

Putco Light Wiring Harness

I searched the internet, and thmotorsports was the best price
on this harness. There price was $48, Free Shipping, No Tax.

This is a very well made harness, that is stickly plug and play except if you op to have low beams stay on with the highs. This will require splicing a wire between the high and low beam wire some where between the new relay and where the new harness plugs into the stock harness for the diode.

Some people just trim the bulb base to fit, but I would rather not chance damaging the bulb. By doing the base, it takes care of any future bulb replacements also.

A direct replacement and upgrade for 9005 high beam, is using 9011 bulb, also called a HIR1. They are direct plug in, except the 3 plastic mounting tabs are aligned slight differently at the center tab, but easily trimmed with a dermal.

The 9005 high beam has aprox 1700 lumens, while the 9011 has 2300, and a better pattern for long distance.

9006 Low beam 1,000 lumens
9005 High beam 1,700 (can be used as low beam with a modified plug
         and trimmed center tab)
9011 HIR1 2,300 lumens

The low beam and high beam take differant plugs that you can get at Advanced Auto, or most any of them.

Simply trim the new bulb tab, to match the original. The 9011 uses the same socket as the 9005, and the 9012 uses the same as the 9006.




Getting it ready for the Strip

Full Project