Anyone here replaced their 7" round sealed beams with the e-code cut gl*** lamps that take an H4 bulb? Some are flat and don't look right - others are rounded like the original sealed beams, which is what I'm looking for. Was just wondering if you did, what make/model did you use? I've been looking at Hella's and none state if they're flat or rounded face. IMO Cibie's are the best but are hard to find and I'd have to sell the car to buy them.
Here in Australia we can get a lens which is made in India for $19 each which would be a lot cheaper than either Hella or Cibie. I think the brand name is TPY or Taipal. Got a pair in the shed to fit to the wife's Mustang to replace the flat fronted Hellas so I'll check and let you know. I run them in the Guides on my 32-5w and they fit fine. Only problem is that they come with the parking light in the lens and it shows up in the light pattern on the road.
I bought a halogen headlight conversion for my '46 Olds, 7" sealed beam with correct domed gl*** from Cl***ic and Vintage bulbs. H4 bulbs are a direct fit and look OEM. Not flat gl*** and look great.
I seem to remember someone modifying a 7" sealed beam by cutting it in half (with a die grinder) and mating the back half of the H4 to the gl*** sealed beam. The newer sealed beams are all just glued together anyway.
I'll admit that this is a bee in my bonnet, but being blinded by oncoming cars with poorly-designed or home-made 'conversion' headlights can be a safety issue, particularly as I get older and my night vision degrades. Just having a brighter bulb is only part of the equation. A better reflector makes a difference, but the real key is the lens. Lens material and fluting design is what separates the excellent lights from the also-rans. Cibie uses optical-grade gl*** (the only ones to do so AFAIK) for better light transmission and far less '****ter'. Stern's website has some links to white-paper studies about automotive lighting (as does the DOT if you look for them) that talks about what your eye perceives as 'good lighting' versus what really is good....
Susquehanna Motorsports www.rallylights.com is the go to place for lighting equipment. Anyone installing H4 in place of sealed beams needs to know that while they both use the same connector, the connections are different. Some places sell short pigtail harnesses to do this and some connectors can have the terminals swapped around.
Thanks for the links and responses fellas. I have seen the India lookalikes and for the most part guys I knew of liked them ok. They're 'close' to a Cibie but the fluting is a tad shorter in the middle and the bottom 170 degrees is smooth instead of the cut-gl*** Cibie's. For the price though, you can't beat them. If one of them took a stone, you wouldn't feel so bad. Budget-wise I was going to get Hella's (Autozone online of all places was the cheapest for actual Hella's) but after finding this site, think I'm going to blow my budget and get the real deal....Cibie's made in Belgium, for around $175 shipped. Expel film is also in the plans....or they don't go on. Cheap insurance. I used to resto old euro rides and on every one I special ordered the factory e-code cut gl*** Cibies - the light pattern was so superior and thought out (the beam was low, far and wide to the berm - not illuminating the trees and blinding everyone oncoming). I could use brights and never get flashed. Plus with an H4 bulb, I had a better selection of wattage for H/L beams. The DOT Bolsheviks never checked them and I never worried about it because they were clearly a superior lamp. The lamps I despise the most is the douchebag HID's in flamboyant purple or blue that blind people 5 miles away across a divided highway. No idea how those p*** any DOT specs. My project is getting completely rewired, so HD copper and relays were happening anyways. I was just wondering what anyone was running and how well you liked/disliked them compared to the sealed beams.
They don't p*** DOT.... and I hate 'em too.... You just can't beat Cibies... I've tried the rest, there is a difference....
The Cibie's look like a good buy for what you get. What are these India lights? Haven't heard of them before. My '27 T Roadster build: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t= 734383
You really can't compare any DOT headlight to European spec headlight. It's all in the lens pattern. I've upgraded all my cars to E-code headlights (even my new car). It's not all about the brightness. The pattern on E-codes is very defined compared to the soft fuzzy DOT pattern. I did a rough drawing of the pattern.
I run blc 904 a headlights with local parts store 7" replacement bulbs, ( no removable bulb) and these things are bright as hell,cheap as dirt,like 26$ and look the period perfect part
Amen brother. You can get them here. They're made by NeoLite and less than $18/ea. If you set one of them side by side to a Cibie, you can tell thats what they copied....they're close but no cupie doll. I suppose for a guy who off-roads his Jeep and expects to sacrifice a few lenses a year to the rock gods, they'd be ok. I think I'm going with the Cibie's. I've had Hellas and like their H4 setups alot too, but the Cibies are so much more thought out IMO. Like tjet said - its not all about the brightness. Thanks fellas.
I had a set of quad e-code Cibes in a late 60s OT car, and on low beam they threw light out to nearly the same distance as the OEM high beams... without getting 'flashed' by oncoming drivers. High beam, they would illuminate road signs at over 3/4 mile. The 7" units won't do quite this well because you can't optimize headlight aim like you can with separate high/low beams. My new car has OEM HID lights, and while they're impressive, they're still not quite as good as those Cibies were. Color rendition is very weird though; everything has a blue tint.
I had Cibies in the 48 for years until the reflectors deteriorated to the point where they didn't put out enough light according to a local cop. When they were in good shape they put out the best beam of light of any headlights I have ever used in any of my vehicles. Great low beam that didn't offend oncoming drivers and a high beam that was up to any highway speed you wanted to run. I'd run them again if I could find a set.
Same here. The auto parts store halogens are great and you can get them anywhere. I'm not sure what the other guys are trying to see. Is it something 1/2 a mile away?
It's not so much the light intensity as it is the beam characteristics. On low beam they have a very sharp cutoff that keeps the glare away from oncoming traffic while still illuminating the driver's lane and the side of the road very well. On high beam, they illuminate the whole road much better than sealed beams. The reason for this is that the lenses are much more accurately made, and the Euro specs are superior to the US ones. Anyone who lives in deer country wants to be able to see as far as possible.
If you live/drive in an urban area, the Cibies will probably be a waste of money. But if you're in the boondocks where street lighting can be non-existent, overcast weather can reduce light on the ground to near-zero at night, and critters like to wander the highway, good lighting can literally be a life-saver...
Good lighting saved my **** one night. Country road, no lights, and a black angus steer in the middle of the road looking the other way.
Yep, been there and done that.... . I was riding with a guy I used to know in the late 60s and we weren't that lucky; the cow flattened the front of his 50 Chev by about a foot and I'll never forget the county sheriff shooting the cow to put it out of it's misery. We both got beat up (no seatbelts) but got off much easier than the cow. It wasn't a range area, so the farmer had to pay to fix the car. I nicked a deer about 10 years ago in a near-mint 65 Falcon Sprint, the deer ran off but it cost me a fender, bumper, and grill plus a re-paint....
The ultimate setup IMO. My project car will have 5-7" round fogs that mount on the top of the bumper, so I'll need to find a set of those as well.......on another post.
They are.... It's funny, the Jag XJS came with a Jag-specified purpose-built Cibie 'aero' light in Europe (much coveted here) and the European owners would remove those and install the US-spec 4 light system so they could install the e-code 5.75" lights. Still the best lighting I've had on any car....
ive just ordered from this lot cibie RHD .http://www.holden.co.uk/displayprod...=Lighting&agCode=0002&agName=Light+Units+-+7" . take your pick pricey but i think the cibie are good.look ing forward to getting them in the new year
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