I have, apparently, been on a snipe hunt lately.

Trying to find a high intensity / xenon / cool blue / something bright replacement headlights for a gen1 4 headlight system. It gets really really dark out here in rural Iowa, and my standard halogen headlights don't cut it by a long shot.

Apparently, Phillips, Sylvania, Wagner, nobody makes a decent headlight in a small round! Have any of you gus found anything that puts out decent light? (sure, I often just run all my auxiliary lights, but technically, that's illegal.)

Help!

there are two dia sizes that I'm aware of with respect to round headlights.

 

5 3/4 inch

and

7 inch

 

i vaguely remember seeing something about a 6+ size too but thats not even a fuzzy thought its more of a "why do i think i remember that size?"

 

prime example here : 5 3/4 sized hal. lights

 

these are a set of 7" diameter lights

 

(disclaimer: I have no Idea the sellers are, just uesd for size picture references)

They are the small rounds. (I assume the 5 3/4 's)

The parts stores had top of the line lights in the big rounds (7"?) for 2 headlight systems, (high & low combined) small squares, Big squares, small rectangles.....everything but small rounds for a 4 light set up.

Went to Sylvania, Phillips, Wagner websites...nothing available.

Just wondering if any of you Gen1 owners had found anything better than standard halogens?

Those yellow fogs are cool. McBrat had some in his gen1 Brat for awhile, and they looked really cool, but i'm looking for something to upgrade my low beams.

Anybody.....

Tom,

you might have to go to Euro style replacement H3 type system with the removeable bulbs... My dad ran into the same problem with his 68 firebird (quad 5 3/4 lights also)

yes there is something, foglights!!! im kidding, i really have no idea, except for driving/fog lights.

I'd be willing to go that route, if necessary. (lookin that way)

Do you recall, ballpark, what the conversion cost?

What company did he get them from?

For Mom's '69 charger hehehehoh is she happy now!

 

5 3/4 Hella H4 design lamps

set of 2 for 39 plus shipping over the bay of E-ness.

 

Granted her "baby" is still the 4 light system I did a silly thing for her, I left the wiring set up for the old high beams in tact as these units came as a 2 light setup (each is a Hi\lo) so the Hellas are the lows and when she hits the high button all fore lights are on hehehe she Liiikes it.

 

I have seen the 4 set of Hellas (with 55W lows and 65W highs go for $100 plus shipping over the summer but i don't see any right now on ebay... but the pairs are out there for a cost reference.

 

I personally swear by Bosch fog and Hella fog lamps. and have for over 12 years. With all the night driving I did/do they have ALL pair forthemselves repeatedly beyond recall. Shoot one night i kept track going home from work after installing the rack system under the bumper.... the $52 fog set and the $65 set of offroad driving lights paid for themselves by showing off :

8 deer four pheasants

2 fox

a big turtle

12 cats (Atleast)

a few coyotes

7 or 8 farm dogs (a few got used to me and my latenight flybye too)

over a dozen 'coons and a few squirrels

several Opossum

 

...and that was just that one night alone.

 

sorry for the tangent.

just realize one thing about the eruro design they have THICK glass that sticks out further then your stock ones do so just be awareof this... as in the Chargers case I had to swap the location of the lowbeams because of this thinkness (the vacuum actuated covers wouldn't fully open or close due to catching on the thick lenses of the Hellas'

 

Go for it!

Cool. no tangent, I'm intrested in all the info I can get. I was hoping to do the same Hi-Lo setup.

Did you have to use a new wiring harness to go from the 3 prong to the H4 plug, or did you just do a splice job?

Thanks again for the info!!

I have yet to see these in a store but check these out.

http://www.pilotautomotive.com/pilot2jb.htm

 

Mike

Those look like the very conversions I ended up getting (thru JC Whitney) very happy with the result.

The OSRAM SILVERSTAR is the best possible choice at present for halogen headlights because it offers the highest light output.

osram.com

With the small round lights you could try going to the wrecking yard and picking up some composites out of a 91 or so BMW with the replacable bulbs in which you could get the HID's or so, I have also seen a wagon with the fog lights out of a 70's benz, both of the lights you could get from the JY without a problem, and they should fit fairly easy.

Yeah, I put (sylvania) Silverstars in the lights I got. BIG difference. Good idea for the bimmer lights, but there's not too many BMW's in the wrecking yards here in rural Iowa!!

 

Speaking of which....Where in Central Iowa you at, subiemech? I'm in Coon Rapids. (bout an hour west of Des Moines.)

some of them are thicker then you'd expect.

 

fortunately for the Subie's they don't have the Vaccuum actuated headlight covers that Mom's '69 charger does. I upgraded her low beams to H4's and had to do a little work to get the covers to close properly again because the lens was just a bit thicker. :>)

 

 

FYI anyways. :>)

Madrid, centennial book said we are in the middle of Iowa.

Some very good info has been posted, I would just like to add to this list

 

a) Sylvania (OSRAM) has a lamp with a higher output than the very good Silverstar series, these are marketed as Halogen XtraVision

Here is a link to their perf. lighting

http://www.sylvaniaautocatalog.com/sylvania/highperforman.asp

 

If you want to achieve the maximum light output from any aux. lamp that draws more amperage (read higher wattage) than a factory lamp,

it is best to use a relays fed with larger AWG (gage) wire directly from the battery. Have these relays controlled by the headlight switching circuits.

BTW Subaru headlamp systems are negative switched circuits, not positive switched like normal American cars. Please, if you have specific questions, email me.

 

c) It has not been mentioned but any "quartz" lamp should not be touched by the bare hand. Grease deposits will cause a disproportionate heating of the envelope and can cause premature failure. If you do touch them, clean then with isopropyl(aka rubbing) alcohol before lighting.

 

Hope some of this helps, I have been in the lighting industry for many moons

If you really want to light things up and have a small substation for power, there's always aircraft landing lights on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=26439&item=2449333997 These are 100 watts but there's usually some 250 watt/13 volt available.

M2 combine we use 5 of them to lite up the field, we also run 2 alternators, 200 amps? total

we buy them from Carquest