I'm trying to keep my 4-headlight '71 Satellite very close stock for car shows - given that, what sealed beam headlights would you recommend as best or least bad? GE Night Hawks don't seem to be available for the 4-headlight system. I've 20-year old halogens in there now, but if there's something better I'd like to know.

Answer depends on what you mean by "very close to stock". Obviously you don't want something that looks jarringly different from original equipment, so no flat-lens lamps, no clear-lens lamps, nothing like that. But are you going to have judges kneeling down and peering at the lamps to see if they say "SEALED BEAM" in little letters around the front edge? How much night driving do you do (how good do the headlamps have to be)? And what's your budget look like?

(Must be Lighting Day on slantsix.org today! )

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks Dan,

"How close to stock" depends on the judge, but if it looks close enough that only an expert can tell it's not "right" from 6", that's probably OK. Right now I'm running 20+ year old GE halogens and I've not been dinged for it. I've considered carefully scrapping off the little "GE Halogen" sticker - without that, the lights look very, very stock - even most judges would have to check the #s to tell they're replacements.

I only drive my Satellite about 2 hours/year on very dark country roads coming back from our big yearly show, and only about 500 miles/year total, virtually all of it to and from shows.

I've measured around a >1V drop to the lights through my original wiring after cleaning all the connections I could easily reach. I've considered reworking the stock harness and installing hidden relays where they can't be easily seen for ign & lights, but decided to leave it for another time when I can take the car out of service for a year or two to rework many things.

Generally, my old lights seem adequate (about as good as my much newer Ford daily drivers, one of which is running Sylvania Xtravision sealed beams), but after 20 years I expect I may have to replace one or more and hoped that newer technology might improve things or be at least as good.

So I'm just looking for your recommendation for the least-worst option in the way of a Virginia DOT-legal 4-light sealed beam replacement. If I could find lights that would be a huge improvement, given the above conditions, I wouldn't mind dropping $200 or so for a set, or ought I go scrounge junk yards and garages for old sealed beams as a spares?

PS I also tried 3357's for 1157's in the taillights, but couldn't see any difference - I tried them because both my Mopars with low bumper -mounted brake lights have tended to get rear-ended a lot (4X between them).

Thanks again.

Okay, gotchya. Those stickers were deleted from GE sealed beam production a long time ago. The small round sealed beam system's low beam performance suffered very bad degradation in the switch from tungsten to tungsten-halogen. Tungsten low beam wattage was 60w and beam peak intensity was around 25,000 candela. Really quite adequate all things considered. Halogen low beam wattage was 37w and beam peak intensity around 18,000 candela, a big loss relative to tungsten. And the beam focus got much poorer. I'd put in a pair of new old stock #4040 commercial-duty tungsten outer lamps - send an [url=Mailto://tech@candlepower.ca]email to Candlepower[/url], where there are some such beams carefully stashed in a corner of the warehouse. They're expensive relative to current production, but current production sucks. The old ones were comparatively very well made with good beam focus, etc.

The halogen sealed high beams got better with halogen; peak intensity rose from 30,0000 candela to 60,000 candela per side. But if you want substantially better high beams for those very dark country roads, and you can get away with a period-correct accessory that was available when the car was new, put the convex-lens Cibiés pictured below (130,000 candela per side, extremely well focused) in the high beam buckets. They are SAE-marked so no problem with inspections, take a replaceable quartz bulb, and work a great deal better than what you have now.

Relays, definitely yes, no matter what headlamps you install, per the relay article. The components are compact and easy to install neatly and hide.

P3496 is the bulb to pick for the brake/tail lights. More info on upgrading them and other exterior lighting upgrades in this post.

Click the pic below to send me an e-mail.

[url=Mailto://dastern@torque.net][/url]
Urf. Some of the worst on the market.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Wow! Thanks Dan!

This weekend I'll look in the back of my garage for the low beams I took out 20 years ago - I naively thought that halogen had to be better and never did any kind of non-halogen/halogen comparison 20 years ago - and if I find them I'll try a comparison, if not, I'll get the NOS as you recommended.

Then I'm going to remeasure the voltage drop to the headlights and reconsider moving up my schedule on the relays to get more power to the lights. Do I understand correctly that going from 12.5V to 13.5V at the headlight gains me ~30% on light output?

Later I'll reconsider the Cubie, but right now I don't think the Cubie looks close enough to stock to fool a judge (most don't consider period-correct aftermarket as stock; only what you could get from the factory or factory-blessed/dealer installed). I'll ask the judges at the next show about it.

Also, I had a friend get his 50's something car impounded after a cop stopped him for running Cubie lights, so I'm trying to find the exact VA state rule on allowed replacement headlights. Some cops can be pretty picky sometimes, even if you've got a copy of the relevant state law in your glovebox.

Thanks again! K

If you find them, throw them in the trash or use them as paperweights. They last a long time, but grow progressively dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. Get new ones.
Yup. And it's likely your lamps are seeing less than 12.5v. Remember to check the voltage drop with all lamps connected, and the circuit (low or high beam) you're testing turned on. And don't forget to check both legs of the circuit, + and -. A quick way to check operating voltage is to measure across the low beam feed and ground terminals of the headlamps with the low beams on, and then across the high beam feed and ground terminals of the headlamps with the high beams on.
Cibié.
I doubt that's the whole story. The VA vehicle lighting code is a mess - a real mishmash of provisions written in the 1930s (which if enforced would render each and every vehicle presently on VA roads illegal), provisions written in at the behest of special interest groups in the 1990s (fortunately preëmpted by Federal codes) and provisions written in over the years that physically/technically don't/can't apply to any item of lighting equipment ever made. I think your friend is probably crossed up on what he thinks he understands of why he got the ticket. It is more likely his lamps (of whatever type) were improperly aimed, improperly used, equipped with improper bulbs (blue, etc.), and/or festooned with illegal accessories (visors, shields, etc.) Also, Cibié has made many different lights over the years, and some of them do not have the SAE mark that would be necessary according to a strict interpretation of VA code.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks Dan. The older I get, the more I appreciate the importance of good lighting and I do appreciate your advice.

I heard there's a loophole in judging rules that may allow changes for safety reasons - I'll ask whether that would cover slightly non-stock appearing lights and hidden relays. Thanks Again, K