The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay HID or LED Headlight conversion?

I have a stock 54 as far as the lights wiring is concerned. All the lights work perfectly fine. It is a 12volt system with a Chevy 350 and good modern day alternator.
I am assuming that no special consideration in terms of replacing the wiring to heavy duty harness for LED conversion needs to be done. For an HID conversion is it suggested that the wiring be replaced to a heavy duty harness? If so I wil go the LED route. the less work in this case, the better. Fine with either alternative.
I am only talking about the headlights here. I will be changing out the 1156/57's to LEDS and have the correct new flasher for that.

If you are using the original 6 volt wires, those should be heavy enough for the HID.

I converted my '38 to HID and they are very bright. I like them.

Thanks. What brand HID headlights did you buy? Hella H4's maybe?
Also sealed beam or replacement type?

larrygk,
you can buy light assemblies that take an 9300 H4 bulb and fit where the old sealed beams were. Actually the 55/60 watt sealed beams should give you pretty good light to begin with.

Wayne67,
that is a very nice 38. I am interested to know how you converted to an HID light. It looks like you had new reflectors too.

I bought them on amazon, don't remember the brand. They were about $40 for the pair.

I was using 9004 bulbs but they were getting dim. So I wired the 9004 plugs to the HID wires. The HID bulbs mounted into my reflectors and there is enough space behind the reflectors to mount the box that fires the HID.

I polished my reflectors to make them shine.

Good grounding will bring original style bulbs back to life. It is also a good thing to take care of with the LED lights.

OK understand that and thanks for the responses. Forget LED for headlights. The research says they don't cast the length of projection that halogen or HID do. Regardless if you go to Halogen or HID you need the reflector housings. Remember I have stock sealed beam old school lights now. I did not see any HID kit that includes the housings. . If that is true then you have to start with a full Halogen kit so that you have the housings. And then change those bulbs out and buy the HID conversion kit. What am I missing?

Halogen sealed beams are available. I have them in both my '54 and '56. No need for adapters or wiring change.

Please let me steal a little piece of this thread.
I would like brighter head light myself. My problem is I still have the six volt system and plan to keep it. Is there a brighter bulb for the old style six volt bulb available?
Thanks.

Appreciate the response but that was not my question stated above..

I think I can answer my own question after some more searching. If all you have is the stock sealed beam lights, you buy housings only at about $40 each (e.g. Hella Vision Plus) and then decide if you want to fit them with a halogen bulb or an HID bulb/system.

I have recently done some reading on headlight systems and their history. As you know the 50s trucks had 7" sealed beams. The 6 volt bulbs are rated at 35/40 watts for low beam/high beam. However when they went to 12 volts, they made available 55/60 watt halogen bulbs that have the same contour and are an exact fit. They are actually pretty good lights, the same as the ones Cleitis mentioned. Now how can you accomplish this with a six volt setup? Here is how:


They sell bulb assemblies that take an H4 or 9300 style bulb and are very similar looking to the stock sealed beams. They also sell a 6 volt halogen bulb that is rated at 55/60 watts. I just purchased this set. 6 volt 55/60 watt headlight . They are a very close fit. I think I will need to trim a little of the metal on the inner bucket hole to make room for the rubber seal on the assembly. I can put 12 volt H4 bulbs in these if I want and I think I will go to 12 volt anyways. If you use these with 6 volt bulbs you will want to put a relay in the supply after the headlight switch. At 60 watts they would be drawing 10 amps each.

I don't think there is a kit to convert 9300 H4 style lights to HID. I think the idea with HID is to use a complete setup made for the HID bulb.