Back in the day Western auto, Bearcat and a few others would sell the conversion kit to change them over. If you can get lucky and find a used pair at a swap they they might already have them. I think 37-38 had the same kit. Back in the 80's when I was building my 38 coupe I was buying a lot of parts cars for stuff I needed.
I used some headlight buckets from an early model pick-up (Toyota I think), where the backings were attached to the radiator support panel. I can't remember whether they were spot welded or screwed on, but they came off. Probably plenty of 60's-70's cars had the same set-up.
Here is a couple of comments from another site from 15yrs ago... I think that you are best advised to take your existing '37 headlight shells and do some measuring. Then, go to a junkyard and get yourself a seven-inch round sealed beam unit (I'm speaking of the headlamp bucket with the adjusting mechanism, sealed beam unit and all - not just the glass sealed beam portion). The sealed beam unit can be from just about any car that used seven-inch round units, but I'd suggest that you get one from an older (six volt) car as the wiring and terminals will be more substantial. Then, see what you could fabricate to graft the two together. It will take some doing - as the lens of the seven-inch sealed beam unit is considerably "flatter" than that of the original round '37 lens. Years ago, there were all kinds of conversion kits marketed to fit the new "high tech" sealed beam units into late twenties up to 1939 model vehicles (there was a BIG improvement in lighting mainly since you no longer had to worry about the reflector surface dulling over time - plus no more focusing issues). But, finding one of these "conversion kits" today - at reasonable cost - would be just about impossible. Second one: Until you, (we), find a conversion kit, I'll tell you what I did with my '38. I removed the inner componnets and fit in a round sealed beam light and wired in a three prong plug. I had to do a tweaking on the inner flanges. The outer headlight ring locked the bulb in tight. (it takes a little work to get the "tweaking" to aim the light straight). Then I loosened the three bolt bucket bolts to aim the lights up/down. Kinda "Rube goldberg" but works great. But I'm still looking for a conversion kit to do it right..
i have a Julianos halogen kit in mine. don't know if they still sell it. works ok, have to drive with High beams all the time, but that might just be an adjustment problem. still use the orig lens.
Hagan sells conversion kits but you may not like the frenched look. There is a how-to section that may give you some ideas.
My '37 truck lights, I went to the salvage yard and found some 7" light buckets from a pickup that used sealed beams. I trimmed the pieces to fit the '37 shell and welded them in. The trim rings are from a Harley Davidson motor cycle. The lights are Halogen, 7" replacements. I can pull the trim off for a better picture if you need to see inside.
I used these on a 37 that I built. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-7-Inch-Tri-Bar-12-Volt-Halogen-Headlights,4407.html
@ Joe H. mine is a 37 sedan. Could you please pull the trim rings off and show me the inside? Also, do you have the part number from Harley Davidson? Thank you in advance for your help!
Pretty sure those Harley rings are the same as all the Guide rings the hot rods use. Maybe even some of the inner retainer stuff is the same in the Guides. There's got to be somebody near you with a Guide headlight you could take apart and look at. And if you need parts the Guides are reproduced and might sell you individual parts.
Yup, they are guide lights, and all the old guide rings fit. The 37 pontiac lights on my 34 are similar. I had some rusty rotten BLC, or guide lights that that I trimmed the front face off with the wiz wheel and then bolted it on the pontiac bucket. My lights swivel for adjustment, but I would guess the 37-38 bucket is close to alignment and the face part bolted on could be shimmed to get where you want. Then, the trim ring covers it all up
Many years ago I just trimmed / ground notches in the bucket for a 7 in headlight bulb to fit properly , and used the Harley trim rim to hold the new sealed beam in the bucket as stated , adjustment was not an issue on the 37 , my Buddy had a 38 the bulb fit by doing the very same thing , but adjustments were very limited compared to the 37 as best as I can recall . This is a very simple straightforward swap.
I will get you some pictures later this morning, trim rings were for a '48 HD or some where around that age.
I converted my '39 Chevy headlights to halogen sockets. I didn't care to go to sealed beams as I thought the halogen conversion kept my stock glass lenses, and look better. I just went to the local wrecking yard and found a car that had been hit in front, and plastic headlamp housings were broken. I got them dirt cheap being broken, and used the reflectors, and halogen sockets to adapt. I think they charged me $10 for all of it? I cut the original sockets out with my hole saw, and then cut down the reflectors for the halogens until they laid on the backside flush. I drilled holes in 4 places for rivets, and then mixed up JB Weld and installed the new sockets with pop rivets to the backside. I wanted turnsignals also, so bought a couple 1157 sockets and drilled holes in my reflector to add turnsignals to the reflectors also. I think I've got $25 in the whole conversion, and I'm very happy with the look and the great headlights at night!
Here is how I did it using salvage yard buckets and trim rings. The lights are thinner at the mounting flange then standard headlamps, thats why there are rubber pieces around them. Glass bulbs fit right.
https://www.lmctruck.com/1973-91-chevy-gmc/headlight/csb-1973-80-single-headlight-round Something like these should work.
If you are preserving the original look, which I prefer, it's worth the effort to put original lenses over the adjustable bucket/sealed beam.
You just gotta grab a conversion kit that's made for your car. This kit will have everything you need, like the sealed beam lights themselves and sometimes a new wiring harness if the old wires don't match up. I've been following this website called leds.to, which offers a lot of articles on lighting, including these types of kits, so you might want to check them out and see what they recommend. I haven't tried converting mine, but now that you've given me this idea, I'll be thinking about it too.
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