The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Saw something interesting today

Saw a late '60s Chevy pickup pull into the gas station while I was filling up my car this morning. The headlights had a circle of white LED lights within each one which were illuminated, much like the running lights on the new pickups. But then when he put the turn signal on those white lights turned amber and began flashing. Essentially the headlight was now the turn signal! Not sure if it was the same circle of lights or another circle right beside the other ones.

I didn't get to talk to the guy for more than a minute mostly to comment that I had never seen anything like that before. I just also wanted to confirm the year of the truck, as it appeared to be a '67. He said it was actually a '72 with a '67 front clip on it.

But I had never seen lights like that before. Just wondering if anyone here was familiar with them.

My wife thinks those LED halo lights are cool, but me, not so much. I've noticed that on the newer vehicles, when the turn signal is blinking, the headlight on that side is off. I think that's weird. I have not seen those aftermarket lights on older vehicles, but I'm sure just about anything exists.

I saw two kinds of those in NM our last trip. One set was on a late 90s Jeep and another on a pickup---of some make/year. On the Jeep one was flashing amber and it was a halo style. On the other, one was flashing but it looked like a horizontal strip at the bottom of the headlight...which was strange, actually.

A local business owner put blue halos on his Challenger. He got in a bit of trouble with the local police because he'd drive around town with them on. Forward facing red or blue lights is a no-no unless it's a commissioned vehicle.

I saw those on Amazon when I was shopping for LED headlamps. I preferred to have something that looked original, just brighter.

I agree! I don’t want halo LED’s on my vintage truck and just like you, brighter original looking headlights.

Do you have a link for the lights you used?

I used these bulbs:
https://auxito.com/products/h4-9003...orward-lighting-bulbs-12-000lm-52w-bulbs

The bulbs will fit headlight shells designed for H4 halogen bulbs such as Hella, Bosch, Cibie, etc. If you already have a set of headlight shells designed for H4 bulbs, you can use them.

I didn't have any shells lying around, so I bought these:
https://www.amazon.com/IPCW-CWC-700...EPEU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

The locator tabs on the cheap headlight shells are flimsy and didn't fit the buckets on the truck exactly. A couple of minutes work with tin snips and pliers made them fit.

BTW. The bulbs are only 26 Watts each. No need for relays.

Gord&Fran, are those housings actually glass? I used to have a glass set that were great, but let them go with an old truck and never found a good set again. Several companies advertised "glass", but were actually just brittle plastic.

If those are actually glass lenses, I need a whole stack of them.

Yes, the housings are glass. However, I suspect that the optical quality of the lens is not as good as the ones from the European manufacturers. Anyhow, they are better than sealed beams and the LEDs work well.

I've seen those halo LEDs on a 64 Mustang that used to cruise through the neighborhood a couple years ago. I thought it was cool, but I could never bring myself to install them on my '65 C20. I went with the relays for the low and high beams, and they are much brighter than without, and that is using the same Halogen sealed beams.

Edit: I don't have a before pic, as I was embarrassed to even drive the truck the way it was. It didn't illuminate the dark enough to drive safely, even on local streets with streetlights and 25 mph speed limits. But this shows the "After" of the relay installation.