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I recently took a trip to the local Dairy Queen in Emma — by the time I finished my Sundae and showing off my TDr to the kids and their Dads & Moms, it was getting on to dark. That’s when I started to realize how dim the headlights were on the car.
I did some research and decided to replace the 7″ sealed beam headlight bulbs with some conversion headlights made be Hella. They are available from Moss Motors, but I also found them on Amazon for quite a bit less than Moss was selling theirs. Here’s the link to the Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002M9QK6/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DERI also took the opportunity while I had everything open to add headlight relays & in-line fuses (1 each set for high beams and 1 each set for low beams) as well as change out the female connectors with higher temperature ceramic units (also got them from Amazon)With the new power feed directly from the battery via fuses, the voltage at the bulbs was around 12.4 volts — before the relays and rewire, I was getting around 9-10 volts at the bulbs.The fit on these conversion bulbs is straight forward — even though the bulbs are shallower than the sealed beam bulbs, there are 3 tabs mounted on the bulb reflector to space the bulb properly to fit the housing and chrome clamp/bulb surround.Here are some pictures: The actual bulbs themselves are H2 Halogen replaceable units…
test setup with the new bulb on passenger side and new one clipped to the ammeter on the driver’s side
High beam current consumption — engine running at idle, battery fully charged — about 1 amp more than standard sealed beam high beam…
Low beam current draw — engine at idle, battery fully charged…old sealed beam was about 3.75 amp draw……
Old on the bottom — new on top…So now that the lights are in its time to go find a cooperative side of a building so that I can adjust them —-Hmm —maybe the side of the Dairy Queen building — I can get a Sundae, chat about old cars and adjust the lights all in one trip…..Total cost for 2 conversion headlights, 2 relays & sockets, 2 in-line fuses, 2 new bulb sockets and some wire was about $120 buying the parts from Amazon.And if your wiring to the headlights is sound, you may not need to go the additional work of installing the headlight relays.But since the Halogen bulbs do run at higher temperatures, it is probably worth installing the ceramic sockets. Amazon sells a Male-Female ceramic extension that can be installed between the stock plastic (probably) socket and the headlight if you don’t want to cut and splice in a new socket…Once the headlights are adjusted I’ll report back with a subjective observation on what difference these new lights make to my old eyes.–JackJack
looks like a great job. I switched mine soon after I brought Eliza Jane home. The difference was remarkable! Since I use mine daily when shes running I was thinking about making a change. I found some headlights that I think are 9″ halogins. They are after market and designed for the early Fords. I was thinking it would give my car a bug eyed look as well as even more light. I also plan to change my alternator to the 90 amp so that i will have plenty of power. What do you think?Thanks for the tutorial, Jack. I changed over to relays last year and that alone made a good difference in light brightness. I’ve been pondering a switch to better lights.
I would not have thought of the ceramic connectors.Nice work.With the prices continually falling on the LED’s I’m half tempted to make a change.
Jack, the choice to opt for the ceramic sockets was a good one. I’ve seen a lot of melted sockets over the years as folks opted for brighter(hotter) lamps and only changed out the bulbs.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"If you wind up going to a higher wattage bulb (like a 100/55W or 130/90W you will be pulling a lot of extra current out of your battery/Alternator. The 100W would draw around 8 1/2 amps each while the 130 Watt bulbs would draw over 10 amps each (over 20 amps for the pair).
Anyone with a generator stuck in traffic would likely drain the battery to the point of not having enough volts left to keep the engine running………but a 90 Amp would give you lots of options….And then there is Bill’s idea of going with LED headlights — the prices are coming down rapidly and they will last forever (or 20,000 hours of run time at least…..) I’m not sure how the lumen output compares???Luck with going to bigger, brighter bulbs!! (I assume those 9″ lights would be in addition to the regular headlights? Or would you replace the stock headlight buckets with complete assemblies?)JackJack
I was looking to replace my main headlights with the bigger 9″ lights and keep my amber fog lights. I thought about the LEDs but I couldnt find them with the bigger lenses. I was hoping to give her an old fashoned vintage look. Even though shes got lots of speed, I still want her to look innocent. Im not running a big sound system so with a 90 amp alternator Ill have plenty of power to run the halogins.
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