Here is the difference in brightness between the standard bulb and the SuperBrightLeds.com part 1156-R19-WV:
The "bulb" itself (actually 19 LEDs and a circuit board) is a tiny bit taller/wider than the red lens...
... so to make the retaining snap ring hold the lens properly, I de-nubbed the lens to allow more 'grab' area between the ring and the black base (as seen in photo 2). [ note: if you are extremely bored or have a snap ring fetish, you can see the retaining snap ring in photo 1 if you zoom in on one of the lights; it's the silver that goes around 7/8th of the circumference.]
De-nubbing:
The punchline? Naturally after doing all this hacking resulting in just-ok results, the exact same beehive brake lights are pre-made with LEDs by SuperBrightLeds for the same price as the LED bulb alone! Although, to be fair, their assembly is sold as a marker light and only has 6 LEDs, whereas my hack has 19...
