Old School Head lights - Sealed Beam, Halogen, Xenon

OK, we know that Halogen is brighter than a plain sealed beam. Then there are Xenon sealed beams.

From the Wagner site, Halogen are 40% brighter than sealed beam. The site also states Xenon are 20% brighter, but not what they are brighter than, sealed beam or Halogen or something else, assuming Halogen, is that correct. These are non HID Xenons so there is no confusion, links below.

I am figuring on changing my dim bulbs of unknown age. I want some real light at night, and not spend a fortune.  I need good old 7" round headlights, going in a old school kit car (Beetle? ) head light bucket.

https://www.wagnerbrake.com/products/li ... beams.html
https://www.wagnerbrake.com/products/li ... beams.html

What should I buy for the best light on a budget.

Being a standard size headlight housing, you can probably get ECE pattern halogen lights that take an H4 bulb.  That also (with upgraded wiring) opens up the option of higher wattage bulbs, so it's probably the best you'll get without getting housings with projectors (or retrofitting them yourself) and going HID.  

I had a good customer experience with Susquehanna Motorsports (www.rallylights.com) when I bought upgraded bulbs for my wife's Odyssey.  I need to upgrade the sealed beams in my 1969 Cougar and was looking at their ECE housings with replacement bulbs as noted above by rslifkin.

On the 77 f150, we had autopal e code lights and hella high wattage h4 bulbs, both from amazon.

Amazing light output.

Relays made it even better. 

I have that setup in the duster now, and compared to the silverstar halogen bulbs, aren't as dramatic a difference as on the f150.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

On the 77 f150, we had autopal e code lights and hella high wattage h4 bulbs, both from amazon.

Amazing light output.

Relays made it even better. 

I have that setup in the duster now, and compared to the silverstar halogen bulbs, aren't as dramatic a difference as on the f150.

 

I'm running a similar setup on the ZJ. Glass E-code lenses and the Hella H4 bulbs, combined with a relay set that ties them directly to the battery and uses the factory headlight supply to trigger the relays. The light output is almost as good as the HIDs in the new pickup.  

If you can find glass housings that allow use of the H4s it seems like the best solution for ot much dough, comparatively.

Can you ever actually use the high beams?  If so, a set of Bosch or Hella H4 lamps with 100 watt high beams will melt signposts.  If all you ever do is run on low beam, I think a good quality halogen sealed beam is pretty close to as good as you need.

I had 100/55 watt H4's, along with 100 watt H1's in my 82 Camaro with 4 small rectangular bulbs.  You had to be absolutely alone to use them, and dropping from 200 watts per side to 55 watts on low beam with a sharp cutoff was like turning the lights off.  I went to halogen sealed beam hi/low beams and kept the 100 watt H1's. Seemed like a good compromise, and low beam performance in a very low car seemed better.

100 watt bulbs, you will absolutely need to add a relay near the lights, particularly if you are using a Beetle headlight switch.

The H4 housings are harder to find now.  I got mine from an agricultural supply outfit.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

"100 watt bulbs, you will absolutely need to add a relay near the lights, particularly if you are using a Beetle headlight switch."

Better than the beetle switch, it's a vintage Lucas switch. Well it was before it melted, now there is a chineseium switch there. The plan is to relay it also so I dont melt another switch, ordering a relay kit tonight. 

I have not driven much past dark as it was primarily a summer car and the heat not only sucked, but it smelled like rusty metal on the wire wheel. With the ej in there I have modern heat and will be driving much earlier in the spring and later in the fall when there is much fewer daylight hours. I will be using high beams, plenty of empty roads in NH, lots of critters, and brakes designed 100 years ago I will need to see well ahead. Yes, a brake upgrade is on the list also. 

Get some Trucklight LEDs, or equivalent.

I replaced the 7" sealed beams in my TJ Wrangler with the Hella H4 kit and am very happy with the performance to price ratio.

The Hellas are a huge improvement over the original sealed beams, that might as well have been carbide lamps.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G72SKQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0ztlCbFHYYW93

 For anyone recommending Hella ... have you tried Cibie yet? I’ve tried both back-to-back on the same car: 1991 E30 318is. The Cibies are substantially better in every measure. Brighter and more even (fewer hot spots) with much, much sharper horizontal cutoff. They’re more expensive than Bosch and Hella, but not by much.

Short of a full HID conversion, Cibie “e-codes” are the way to go. I haven’t bought one in a while, but I used to order them from Aardvark International. 

Dr. Hess said:

Get some Trucklight LEDs, or equivalent.

Awesome headlights, but the style may not suit a vintage car.

Easy button is Hella e-codes with decent bulbs. They don't even need to be super high wattage, just make sure they're getting full alternator power.

Keith Tanner said:

Dr. Hess said:

Get some Trucklight LEDs, or equivalent.

Awesome headlights, but the style may not suit a vintage car.

Easy button is Hella e-codes with decent bulbs. They don't even need to be super high wattage, just make sure they're getting full alternator power.

 This.  I had Hella E-Codes on my NA and loved them.

LanEvo said:

 For anyone recommending Hella ... have you tried Cibie yet? I’ve tried both back-to-back on the same car: 1991 E30 318is. The Cibies are substantially better in every measure. Brighter and more even (fewer hot spots) with much, much sharper horizontal cutoff. They’re more expensive than Bosch and Hella, but not by much.

+1 for Cibies (made by Valero now, apparently). I've used Hella and Bosch 7" H4s before, and the Cibies are notably better. Amazon has them.

Dr. Hess said:

Get some Trucklight LEDs, or equivalent.

Garbage.  Way too bright and the pattern is awful unless you only look ten feet in front of you.

Best lights I ever had were some 80s E-codes.  They didn't light up the road at ALL, and didn't have extreme glareback from reflective road signs.  This meant that one could actually SEE things, instead of lighting up all sorts of unimportant things.  (When was the last time the road in front of your bumper came up and hit you?  That's right, never. So why are you looking at it?)

I greatly prefer the 7" rounds on my RX-7 to the HIDs in teh Volvo.  Bonus:  One of the 7" rounds is the headlight Mazda installed in 1984.

A good set of H4 European-type glass headlights will do the trick - and the usually unmentioned benefit is the wonderful low beam pattern - the cutoff is as good as most real fog lights, and you can see both sides of the road.  Control of the light pattern is key.  The best setup I've ever had was back in the late '70s with Marchal 55/60 watt 5 3/4 inch hi/lows and 100 watt Marchal high beam units (4 headlight system, '75 Toyota pickup).  As previously mentioned, you had to be real careful when you used the highs, they would pick up reflective signs at 1.4 miles going across White Sands Missile Range, but blind oncoming traffic at 1/2 mile.  The regular 55 watt highs would have been a more useful choice.  I used 7 inch Hella H4 eurobeams on my '63 Baja Bug (upgraded to 12 volt) with stock wiring and switches with no problem.

OOO - is that a Kelmark?  Cool find!

A lot of the Porsche 924/944 guys say good things about the Hella H4 conversion lights (which have e-code lenses). I plan to get some soon myself, as they're very inexpensive. This is on Pelican Parts: 

I found the Cibie h4 small square to have too sharp a cutoff with a very low nose on the car.  I couldn't get distance without irritating oncoming cars.  I guess that would just make me fit in with every new truck and SUV on the road now.

Keith Tanner said:

Dr. Hess said:

Get some Trucklight LEDs, or equivalent.

Awesome headlights, but the style may not suit a vintage car.

Easy button is Hella e-codes with decent bulbs. They don't even need to be super high wattage, just make sure they're getting full alternator power.

The two guys I know who rally porsche 944s use those - i've seen them in action. They are GREAT for dark woodland rally roads, but they definitely scatter a lot of extra light and I think they'd blind oncoming traffic on the road....

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

Yep, kelmark. 

These are $60 on teh amazones:

https://smile.amazon.com/Headlight-Davidson-Motorcycle-Projector-Wrangler/dp/B017B8NHEE

I think that one is the "other" maker, not the Trucklight, but the JW Speaker version.

This one:

https://smile.amazon.com/Headlight-Approved-Wrangler-Uni-light-J004-1pcs/dp/B0788HXV8P

is the Trucklight style, also about $60.  They are both good.  I have one of each style on my bikes, the Trucklight style on the FLHT and the JW Speaker style on the Sportster.

Irrs said: I want some real light at night, and not spend a fortune.

Either of those will do it.  Note that he did not say "I want real light at night, not spend a fortune, and it has to look like it's 50 years old..."

Dr. Hess said:

This one:

https://smile.amazon.com/Headlight-Approved-Wrangler-Uni-light-J004-1pcs/dp/B0788HXV8P

is the Trucklight style, also about $60.  They are both good.  I have one of each style on my bikes, the Trucklight style on the FLHT and the JW Speaker style on the Sportster.

I like how those say TOP at the bottom, upside down.

In 1980, when I got my TR250, the original Lucas sealed beams left a lot to be desired.  I was working morning watch and drove a lot at night.   I saw an ad in a car mag ( don't remember which one ) for 7" headlights that were to be used on motorcycles only.  Yeah right.

I bought two of them.  They are made by Hella.  I've had to replace the bulbs once and have run relays to them a couple years ago.

Triumph does make motorcycles right?

Another vote for adding in relays, and glass housings that fit H4 bulbs. Here's a before and after on my car 

I went from being afraid to drive at night because I couldn't see ten feet ahead of me, to having lights every bit as good as a modern car.

These pics are after adding relays, but with the H4 bulbs on drivers side, and sealed beams on passenger side. I can't stress enough what a HUGE improvement it made to driving at night.

Dr. Hess said:

These are $60 on teh amazones:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/Headlight-Davidson-Motorcycle-Projector-Wrangler/dp/B017B8NHEE

 

I think that one is the "other" maker, not the Trucklight, but the JW Speaker version.

This one:

https://smile.amazon.com/Headlight-Approved-Wrangler-Uni-light-J004-1pcs/dp/B0788HXV8P

is the Trucklight style, also about $60.  They are both good.  I have one of each style on my bikes, the Trucklight style on the FLHT and the JW Speaker style on the Sportster.

Irrs said: I want some real light at night, and not spend a fortune.

Either of those will do it.  Note that he did not say "I want real light at night, not spend a fortune, and it has to look like it's 50 years old..."

But visibility is cut down dramatically from having to wear a bag over your head, due to embarrassment.