My 29 roadster has 34 commercial headlights they look great are 12 volt with incandescent bulbs problem is that they leave a lot to be desired during night time driving What is the latest greatest modern fix for my lights Thanks Rich
Regular halogen sealed beam light bulbs in my Buick, work great. Don't know if they will fit in your lights though.
Unfortunately, Cibie round headlights have been discontinued. Being a low-volume item, Cibie let the tooling wear out and quality dropped below minimum standards. Daniel Stern is now selling a Japanese light (Kioto) of better quality/performance, but these don't quite have the 'look' of the older Cibie design so tracking down a good used or NOS Cibie set may be the only choice... http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html A real bummer as those were my go-to choice for outstanding lighting.
My fix in both of my 30's cars was to modify the existing reflectors inside the headlights to accept a halogen socket. I simply went to the local wrecking yard and found a car crunched up front, so headlights were damaged. The yard gave me the broken headlights and sockets for a few bucks, and I cut the wiring long enough to splice later. I cut the sockets out of the reflectors on the halogens, and then cut the sockets out of my reflectors using a holesaw to make a small round hole. Using JB Weld and pop rivets I installed the sockets into my reflectors, and then wired them into my system. It was cheap, easy, and the light level is great! I also cut holes for turnsignal lamp sockets, to add those to my reflectors.
Got re-pop '34 commercials on my pickup. They use a standard 9007 bulb that do a pretty good job. Might look into these with all the 9007 variant bulbs, might find one that works for you.
Perfect Hot Rod solution. Can you tell more on wiring? Relay ? Here's an older thread on it https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ogen-t3-lenses-on-hella-h1-h4-lights.1209713/
I had a similar problem with a coupe i used to own, went to a swap meet and there was a guy selling some Jag headlights, perfect size. I bought them and man, had to keep 'em on low all the time, on bright you'd need a welding helmet. So, you might consider some European somethings, they don't follow the U.S. rules for lights.
Have you tried the "Brite" bulbs (their spelling) from Ron Francis Wireworks? I ***ume your reflectors are in good condition and silvered (NOT CHROME). Charlie Stephens
These [attached] https://www.amazon.com/HELLA-H4-130-90W-Wattage/dp/B000VUB4CW But you must use relays as they draw 22A on high-beam, and 15A on low-beam. And don't adjust the lights too high. I've used these for years in my old tow vehicles [the damn near melt the ice off the road in winter] I've also had a few vehicles that failed roadworthy inspections because of poor headlights [reflectors/lenses] so I install a set of these just for the inspection and always get a p***.
My 32 OEM reflectors are a slight gold tint . I would not swap them for any new ones . Think you have dim lights , ride the Knuckle with a mag .
I used to run 55/100 H-4 bulbs in the lights in my 40 and on high beam they were good for any speed I wanted to run. Even with the 55 watt low beams the lights didn't put out great light after the reflectors got dull and those were 7 inch Cibie lights. With any Halogens I'd suggest running relays to protect the switches.. I had a lot of dimmer switch burn out problems in my 71 running H-4 lights until I installed relays..
Well Rich, we all have our troubles. Only thing sadder them then a car with dim headlights is no head lights. I tend to think improvement first, then modern advancement. But I do like old lens and trim that came with a factory car. While not a fan of the seal beam conversion, hidden under or exposed is a cheap improvement. Bulbs and lighting have come a long way towards improving nighttime driving. Time has shown there are more options now than ever before. A brighter bulb, a modern reflective surface. Improvement and modernization. My buddy got a E bay deal on these and asked if I could fit them for him. It was a tight fit but he's got bright reflective, built-in turn signal and they are bright. Red neck as it sounds, a couple of these bad boys epoxied into place would yield some bright to the road. Cheap as it gets and an improvement.
On my avatar, I took a carbide burr to the socket on the head light bar, then sanded the ball on the bottom of the light and coated everything with never seize. They are Bright now!
Adding light relays will help a bunch. If you need more, then add the brighter halogen lights (you will probably need the relays for them).
I am reading lots of answers here. I may be mistaken but I think that 34 comercial lights are bigger then 7" diameter. Am I mistaken? If I am not mistaken you are kind of stuck with 'em. Maybe make sure the reflectors are in good shape and find some halogen bulbs to go in them.
Here are some shots of my stock Model A two lite, with stock internals and LED bulbs, this is 6v too... These headlights beat the stock stuff 10 fold... My 56 has the H4 bulbs in the Autopal housings and they are marginal in their output, my moms 56 has Sealed beam Sylvania xtra vision and that truck will light the way better than mine. Holley has some new Retrobright sealed LED lights that dont look dumb, they are expensive but Ive heard some guys say they are really nice. All depends on what your looking for man, these LED bulbs I got from Berts worked great cause I wanted stock looking two lite housings and lenses. Just have to remember to focus the beams and output is great.
@porkn****** , the 34 Ford lights are larger. Need to work with the existing reflector, or aftermarket replacement of same size, to fit the bucket.
I got them from Bert's, forgot about that. Here is a link to the 12v and 6v Negative ground, https://modelastore.com/head-lights?product_id=18619 They also have another option for the 6v or 12v positive ground just for other folks who may be interested. https://modelastore.com/head-lights?product_id=18591
hate super bright headlights on other cars , especially new cars. blinding when coming at you, blinding from rear when light hits rear view mirror
I'd like to have a set of headlights with three modes. Low beam, high beam, and nuclear that would burn the retinas right out of the guy's eyes driving those new big pickups that have those lights that are blue and about 4 feet off the ground. Takes me about a mile down the road before I can see again.
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