Did a search and found a few posts but thought I'd ask again if anyone out there has done a headlight upgrade on their slick? Just wondering if its worth the cost or not. Thanks for any info or ideas.

 

Friend of mine had a set of 55 watt lights ; I bought his. if your wiring could stand more wattage they are available in much higher wattage. they look cool.

 

I got a conversion kit to H1 bulbs and a relay harness. It seems way brighter but i havent got them aimmed yet

 

In your search not clear if you are referring to the 'whiter-brighter' article, with diagram and instructions on how to improve the brightness of the headlights. I purchased the items but have not gotten around to installing the upgrade. Would be interested if members found the upgrade an improvement, the cost for relays, etc., were not expensive.

I bookmarked the article if interested.

 

We did this whiter-brighter upgrade and it was well worth it, especially given the low cost of the parts. We learned the hard way. Got the new higher intensity headlights all hooked up on the original wiring and went out for a test drive on a really dark night to check the alignment. The things conked out on us about 15 minutes into the journey. Thank goodness we had also added fog lights (on a relay switch) and those got us home. Searched here, found the whiter-brighter thread and did the upgrade the next day. Pretty simple. We tucked all the relays in front of the battery behind the grill so you can't even tell we did the upgrade. Well worth it IMHO.

 

I installed my self-made upgrade with relays, circuit breaker, heavy duty sockets and thicker gauge wire about 3 years back. The old lamps were immediately brighter. Then when correct looking halogen lamps with the Ford logo came out I put those in. So definitely an improvement even though I rarely drove at night much less driven it at all.

 

Right now my truck has Wagner BriteLite H6024's. Does anyone know if the Sylvania Silver? halogen lights are brighter? So tbm3fan your saying that just doing the wire/relay upgrade made your existing lights brighter?

 

Can folks post links to the kit or resources being referenced here? This is something on my to do list.

 

The best way to upgrade your headlights is to add a relay harness and H4 headlights. But not just any harness, or any H4 headlight. Headlights are a major safety item so don't cheap out our pick a pair because they look good.


You want a harness made with 12g wires and reliable relays. Cheap harnesses with small wire will have voltage drop and cheaper relays that get stuck or quit- that won't be a good thing after dark. Cheap Chinese-made ebay or LMC H4's might look cool or modern and say that they're "brighter" but they have poor optics and don't have any advantage over sealed beams; many have an even worse beam pattern than sealed beams. Just because they are advertised as "DOT Legal" doesn't mean that they are good lamps. Stay away from Autopal, DeltaTech, and any no-name lights from ebay, LMC, etc.


The best H4's will be Cibie, Marchal, Bosch, or Hella. Cibie's would be my first choice, Marchals are great but discontiued and hard to find/expensive, Bosch H4's are good, and Hella's are good but the high beam is aimed too high compared to the low beam. Hella would be great for a low sports car where the higher high beam would be ok, but on a taller truck the high beam will be aimed much too high.

LED headlights are just now coming to market and in my opinion they're not worth the price yet. Good H4's will out perform them at a lower price. The technology is promising though and with more R&D time I think they'll be the way to go in the future once some of the drawbacks are worked out. Currently the biggest issue is the evenness of the beam pattern- splotchy with "hot spots" in awkward places. And if you live somewhere with snow they won't be hot enough to melt snow from the lenses.


From my experience Cibie's aren't inexpensive but they're the best available and readily available. Amazon has the best deal on them I've seen at $42 each. Cibie H4's also look right at home on a vintage car since they have a fluted lenses just like the original sealed beams.





For bulbs, don't get any that have a blue tint to them. The tint decreases the light output the same way tinted windows block light coming into the interior. I like to use 80/100 watt clear Hella H4 bulbs but if your alternator is already at or close to it's limit then regular 55/60W bulbs will still be a huge upgrade over sealed beams. You could have your alternator rebuilt to put out more amps if needed.


Once you have have your lights installed you need to aim them properly for your best vision and the least amount of glare for oncoming traffic.





Here are a few pics at different distances of the beam pattern with Cibie H4's, a relay harness, and 80/100 watt clear Hella bulbs. Notice that the low beams have a very sharp "cut-off" so no there is no glare for oncoming traffic, even with higher wattage bulbs. Cheap H4 housings do not have this feature, and will not have a wide/evenly spread beam pattern.

Low beam:






High beam:

 

If one measures how many volts you get at a socket you may see around 9V plus or minus. The older the system the bigger the drop off especially since the power is routed through your switch in the cab. Just by putting in a relay system I could get just about 12V at my socket.

I used real Bosch relays, a 30V circuit breaker, 10 gauge power wires along with the 12 gauge wires on the new sockets I installed.

 

I was going to bring this up, I'm glad you did. I don't have ANY problem with relays or headlight upgrades but let's stop and examine some assumptions here for a moment. The voltage drop for starters shouldn't be anywhere near that, and they didn't come this way from Detroit. Dim headlights are a symptom, not a factory option.

Headlights and lighting have definitely improved over the years, but it's not as if people were driving around blind back in the day either. In my experience if headlights are that dim to be noticeable then there is a problem with the wiring - (corrosion most likely after 50+ years, c'mon or perhaps paint, charging system, etc) and this should be remedied first, before adding relays.

Why? Part of the problem is auto manufacturers treat copper as if it were a semi-precious metal. They used the thinnest, lightest material they could get away with and only where they absolutely had to. Barely adequate when new, time makes them act more like resistors over the years under load.

Headlight circuit uses the steel frame and radiator support as the return ground path and a circuitous route from switch to floor dimmer out. Cleaning the bullet connections and the grounds up, use new heavy cables and fresh switches will largely remedy the dim headlight problem. All of this will also make any headlight relay installs work that much better!

I have run Halogens in my 64 for years using the stock generator system and (new) switches. Halogens draw more current than the standard OEM bulbs, but not enough to matter with a functioning system.

The reason that I bring all this up, if the headlights in the old rigs are substandard or yellow/dim (and 9 volts is not acceptable no way no how even with crappy engineering by the bean counters) relays will bring the headlights up as advertised, but it's a kind of band-aid. It's a cinch that the rest of the electrical system is also being starved for proper voltage and current. Ignition in particular (Trust Me) will appreciate full voltage, starter will have more juice, heater blower, etc.

 

Was about to echo what Tedster said first. What he said is correct, though I will add that the current draw feeding a relay will be far less than 2 headlights and will be far less impactful on other parts of the system if they are less than gooder.

Going to a relay is a good path to take regardless. It's done that way universally now because it is a sensible method of powering large lamps rather than pushing current from the battery to the fuse box to the headlight switch then down to the dimmer switch and then back out into the engine bay finally to the headlights. You have easily 8 or more connectors and 2 switches that the power has to go through before the lamps ever see any of it. Ohms law works here as well. 15 feet of (relatively small) wire, contacts, and switches - or 3 feet of [maybe] 12 gauge wire and far fewer contacts. Switches will last longer with way less heat because they feed only a relay (one for low and one for high).

I hide relays in voltage regulator housing to make them look less... unFord-like. This one is in my Falcon wagon which has a one-wire alternator no longer needing the regulator:





As for connectors I always pull the firewall and individual connectors when going through a resurrection on a car/truck and clean all the contacts. I wire brush the male and polish the female contacts with a wooden Q-tip end with a bit of 600 grit wet/dry taped around it and spin it around each hole until it shines.





I recommend this to anyone regardless the job. Eliminate 50+ years of oxidation.

I've never done anything more than Halogen bulbs, so not much to offer there.

 

I will then say that all five of my older cars have relays in them now. The Cougar, always garaged from all elements, had the highest voltage of the bunch at just over 10V. Of course, there are small gauge wires for one. Two, even in 1985 my Cougar could not run halogen lights without flickering all over the place inside and out. Electronic regulator helped here some.Three, all light power routes through the headlight switch which I don't think is the most efficient way to distribute the power. Definitely not the best way in a Mopar with the infamous bulkhead connector. Four, what newer cars run their power through the switch. All cars now get 12V and unless I had made a measurement in 1965 to know for sure what a new truck/car would have I can't say exactly how much better in voltage.

 

Voltage drop on a stock wiring system shouldn't be more than maybe two tenths of a volt at most, at the bulb itself, under load. Measure from battery negative post itself to negative terminal on bulb with voltage meter set to tenths, lights on.

Nine volts at the bulb represents 4 volt drop and may not make the bulb even usable at all. This is the point I'm trying to make, a relay would help but it's not addressing the underlying fault at all - poor grounds and wiring, etc.

 

Since I am not an electrician, but nonetheless heavy background in the sciences, I set up a simple lab test. As long as everything is measured the same way, under the same conditions, then the numbers will have some meaning. I simply wanted to know what gets to the back of the lamp. With all engines running and systems under load the power was measured at the light sockets. Then the same routine with the relays in and the numbers clearly higher. Good enough.

Grounds never an issue with me as I am ground happy. Just look around my engines and one sees a third ground added to the block and it is 6 gauge ship cable off a USCG cutter.