[Formulajones]

I think it's cool they are repopping the T3 headlights but what I really think would be the cats meow is repopping a T3 housing to accept LED's. Now that is something I'd be really interested in.

[Formulajones]

Well after a couple attempts of trying to contact Hector I gave up and went back to the tried and true pieces I've been buying off Amazon.

I had my wife ask him a few questions about the headlights since she's a facebooker, and he only responded by saying they are out of stock for a few weeks, didn't answer any questions. So I tried contacting him via his email listed on his page with the same questions and have gotten no response. No answer on the phone either.

I appreciate the lead but don't think I want to deal with someone like that.

[RocktimusPryme]

Thats funny. He got back to me within like 5 minutes. Im probably going to try a set when he gets them in. Ill report back how it goes.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

Thats funny. He got back to me within like 5 minutes. Im probably going to try a set when he gets them in. Ill report back how it goes.

That's just it, he got back to us on my wife's facebook rather quickly, but avoided a couple questions I had and just said he was out of stock. Well that doesn't answer my questions.

So rather than bother my wife again with the facebook garbage, I grabbed his email and phone number off the facebook page and just tried contacting him that way, to reiterate my questions that he didn't bother to answer the first time.

Now he's just dead silent. I'll move on.

[tallrandyb]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

Ha! That pretty much describes the experience of driving my '66 before restoration began. Add to that brakes that pull hard to the right, a dead blower motor (i.e., no defrost), and a brake light perpetually out due to bad wiring in steering column. All that definitely taught me how to be a cautious driver!



I'm with you there. I just bought some 3-point retractable belts from Morris Classic Concepts. They seem pretty nice, and it's great that they just bolt in with no drilling. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I wish it was that easy for 65's!

[tallrandyb]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

We are running LEDS in a few cars here now. I'm using a specific H4 style LED that I've found I like best, and they use fans. Most all of the good ones will use some sort of fan these days. Never an issue to date with mine. They are just small fans that run so quiet I can't even hear them come on.

What I've done is bought the glass housings from Amazon that I mentioned earlier, and I can run any style H4 LED in there I want. I've experimented with a few until I found one that puts out good lighting I was happy with.
The LED already comes with a short adapter harness so it's plug and play, and the glass housings I buy from Amazon bolt right into the factory headlight buckets with no modifications. It's really made the night time driving a much better experience, to the point I really don't like getting in the other cars at night that have sealed beam halogen bulbs, they are dull in comparison, lol.
Eventually I'll get them all switched over.

Agreed on LEDs, I like the looks of these (sold by the pair), I installed as my low beams and have halogens for highs, and basically will likely never use the highs; no comparison. Or some day I may replace the highs also...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Best part, 2 amps per bulb!

[vertigto]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

Well after a couple attempts of trying to contact Hector I gave up and went back to the tried and true pieces I've been buying off Amazon.

I had my wife ask him a few questions about the headlights since she's a facebooker, and he only responded by saying they are out of stock for a few weeks, didn't answer any questions. So I tried contacting him via his email listed on his page with the same questions and have gotten no response. No answer on the phone either.

I appreciate the lead but don't think I want to deal with someone like that.

Thanks for the info. I'm always hesitant going with someone that doesn't communicate or respond within a reasonable amount of time. I assume that's an indication of what I can expect from the product/transaction.

[vertigto]

Originally Posted by tallrandyb

Agreed on LEDs, I like the looks of these (sold by the pair), I installed as my low beams and have halogens for highs, and basically will likely never use the highs; no comparison. Or some day I may replace the highs also...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Best part, 2 amps per bulb!

Seems like there are a lot more options than I anticipated for 5 3/4" LED conversions. Some seem to be substantially more than others.

Guess I need to do a little more research...leaning toward what Formulajones or Vckline313 used (at this moment) as a cost effective option.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by vertigto

Thanks for the info. I'm always hesitant going with someone that doesn't communicate or respond within a reasonable amount of time. I assume that's an indication of what I can expect from the product/transaction.

Yeah makes me hesitant. They weren't hard questions. I simply asked if his housings would accept the typical 9003/H4 style bulbs, and I asked if he sold the housings separately, because he is only listing kits.

I figure since he wouldn't answer those questions it must mean the answer is no. So I don't think he can help me any further.

I've had excellent success with the stuff I find on Amazon so I'm going to stick with that.

[dataway]

Would be interesting to run two of those high/low beam pairs, you could do some wiring shenanigans and have four low beams on, or four high beams on at the same time, and probably use less amps than a single conventional bulb. Would give a four headlight car that airplane headlight level of brightness

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by dataway

Would be interesting to run two of those high/low beam pairs, you could do some wiring shenanigans and have four low beams on, or four high beams on at the same time, and probably use less amps than a single conventional bulb. Would give a four headlight car that airplane headlight level of brightness

LOL

Dad put all 4 LED's in his GTO high and low beams. When the highs are on and all 4 headlights are lit up, it seems like you could land an airplane with those things lol. When the high beams are on (factory wiring) it actually works like you said. The low beams actually get brighter as the high beams also come on. So you basically have 4 high beam headlights. It worked this way with factory bulb style headlights too, it's just insanely brighter with the LED's.

I've found with the 7" round single headlights in the camaro, the LED's are so bright on low I don't even use the high beams. I've clicked them on to see how they work and it's almost ridiculous.

[lust4speed]

For the people that have aftermarket bulbs - how is the beam pattern and cutoff? Systems in our newer cars spoil us and it would be great to end up with an aftermarket system that came close to modern day output with as good of light placement.

I never cared whether my light bulbs had a T3 on them but did want the same convex lens with similar fluting. Out of date and pretty worthless info today but one of my cars had Sylvania Halogen bulbs and another with General Electric Halogen. The GE bulbs were much brighter and had a much better pattern. We even installed relay wiring with the Sylvanias and the GE were still much better.

It would be great to take a giant step forward with LED lights.

[dataway]

On a GTO with hideaways ... since I won't be showing ... heck you could have Tiki torches behind there far as anyone knows
I'd think with the pretty flexible adjustment of the vintage buckets headlight aim could accommodate most bulbs with some fiddling around.

Before this thread is over it would be nice if someone that has a really sorted setup could post this info:

1. LED bulb brand/model (fan or no fan)
2. Shell/lens brand/model
3. Will it fit in OEM buckets
4. Is it plug and play with OEM wiring.

I'll go LED in a heartbeat, I love good lights at might, and I hate the thought of sending who knows how many unnecessary amps all the way up there on original wiring. Even though only 10% of my driving would be at night ... out to the drive-in burger joint now and then, or out to a drive-in movie.

[RocktimusPryme]

Food for thought.

I was talking to a couple optical engineers at work the other day about this. Both used to work at Valeo who make headlights before they came to work here. They were telling me that a lot of the headlights on old cars, even up until the late 80s early 90s barely pass or even sometimes fail the specifications for current daytime running lights/fog lamps.

So, no matter how you do it, this is almost certainly a worthwhile upgrade. As I said earlier I mostly avoided going places in my Firebird where I knew I would have to drive back at night. So I am looking forward to the upgrade.

I have a feeling this is going to be like when I replaced all my front end components and got a good alignment. It wasnt the sexiest modification Ive done. Didnt make any more power, but it made the car way more drive able.

Side note that I found funny. Both of those guys told me that their "Day 2" mods on new cars usually involved upgrading the headlights. That cracked me up, but I suppose it makes sense. There probably arent that many audio engineers out there with factory sound systems in their cars either.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by dataway

On a GTO with hideaways ... since I won't be showing ... heck you could have Tiki torches behind there far as anyone knows
I'd think with the pretty flexible adjustment of the vintage buckets headlight aim could accommodate most bulbs with some fiddling around.

Before this thread is over it would be nice if someone that has a really sorted setup could post this info:

1. LED bulb brand/model (fan or no fan)
2. Shell/lens brand/model
3. Will it fit in OEM buckets
4. Is it plug and play with OEM wiring.

I'll go LED in a heartbeat, I love good lights at might, and I hate the thought of sending who knows how many unnecessary amps all the way up there on original wiring. Even though only 10% of my driving would be at night ... out to the drive-in burger joint now and then, or out to a drive-in movie.

Here ya go. This is what I use. I've tried a half dozen LED bulbs and finally found an LED that I really like. It costs a bit more than the others but it actually has an adjustable beam and it's really bright. Biggest difference I noticed is that the cheaper LED's I could never tell a difference between low beam and high beam. These LED's there is a definite difference in hi/low. I also found that when shopping LED's, keep the light output color to no more than 6500K, which these are. When you get higher than that they start to have that blueish appearance to them that you see on some cars. I've had those and the light output even though by the number is higher, was really poor while driving, at least to my eyes.

LED's. I like the Lightening Dark. They make these in fanless but I prefer the fans, they seem to have better longevity feedback. They are plug and play, have a pigtail that plugs directly into your headlight harness.

https://www.amazon.com/LIGHTENING-DA.../dp/B07N67CQGQ

On housings, I've been using these. The fit in the stock headlight buckets and accept the H4 bulbs. These are the 7" round.

https://www.amazon.com/IPCW-CWC-7006...e%2C118&sr=1-4

These are the 5 3/4" round

https://www.amazon.com/IPCW-CWC-7003...e%2C116&sr=1-2


So basically on the 7" round headlight setups I'm spending about $100 to do the conversion and the light output is outstanding.
Of course it's more if you have 4 of the 5 3/4" headlights.

[dataway]

Thank you sir, even though I don't need them yet ... might just have to order some of those to play with over the winter.

I have two fetishes ... lights, and vacuum cleaners. I'm the guy that can't wait for a power outage, I've got enough lighting to do surgery if the power goes out.

Items are marked and membered in my Amazon list.

[Formulajones]

[vertigto]

FWIW...I emailed Hector this morning to see if he would respond to a few questions. He replied within 5 minutes (including two follow up emails). The 5 3/4" round kits are available again and accept any H4 bulb.

He also stated that...

• lenses are slightly rounded/convex
• LED bulb specs - (50w / 6000K color / 10000LM brightness / fan cooled / 2yr warranty)
• he accepts PayPal, CashApp, Venmo, or Zelle

Very tempting.

[vertigto]

Some pics he sent also...

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by vertigto

FWIW...I emailed Hector this morning to see if he would respond to a few questions. He replied within 5 minutes (including two follow up emails). The 5 3/4" round kits are available again and accept any H4 bulb.

He also stated that...

• lenses are slightly rounded/convex
• LED bulb specs - (50w / 6000K color / 10000LM brightness / fan cooled / 2yr warranty)
• he accepts PayPal, CashApp, Venmo, or Zelle

Very tempting.

I guess he has selective email syndrome