Sealed Beam Headlights

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mopowers

mopowers

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Are there any sealed beam headlights on the market that are worth a ****? I know the GE nighthawks were decent until they outsourced to China, but are there any others currently in production worth buying?
 
I realize slantsixdan is the expert, but I definitely welcome other opinions as well. What do you guys use?
 
Do they HAVE to be sealed beams? The H4 conversions look very close, but blow most any sealed beams outta the water as long as you get a good headlamp and use a headlight relay harness kit like @crackedback sells.
 
i run Hella H4 E codes with 55/60 bulbs, and boy howdy is it bright.

like, got pulled over in texas bright.

i know that didn't answer your question about sealed beams, but the conversion is super low effort with no mods except the minimal wiring upgrade. another benefit is that if you ever get a pop-eye the H4 bulbs are available pretty much anywhere.
 
if i can get RHD H4 conversion lamps to fit US cars to make them legal in the UK
you must be able to get the appropriate Left hand dive pattern in the US i.e there is enough standardisation across models manufacturers and indeed continents to give a wide range of options for an H4 or similar conversion, that differs cosmetically only in the logo on the lense from what was there originally.
I would never go back to sealed beams

relays and H4 and a new headlamp switch (when that thermal cut out wears out it will leave you stranded in the dark) from a reliable supplier all good

lamps hella
bulbs philips
switch Richard Ehrenberg

No problems for 10-15 years

Dave
 
I kept every headlight bulb from every mopar I stripped. Three boxes full. I haven't bought a headlight for an A-body since the 70's. I would like to put Plastic halo style lights in this front end. What is the easiest to mount? has anyone done this?

GF062_70_72_Dart__Demon_Pro_Front_End_2.jpg
 
Thanks guys. It's just not worth the upgrade to H4's for this particular car, but I'll eventually go with those for my '68 one of these days.
 
H4s on one car, excellent.
Sylvania somethings, terrible.
Wagners on another, awesome - but here's the catch, I put a ground hub next to the battery, pigtail from the neg battery cable to the hub. Ditched the headlight grounds to the body, ran new wire to the hub, they're effing bright as heck now.
Same with parking lights, tail lights, reverse lights, never had lights so bright.

Screenshot 2024-03-15 161225.png


Screenshot 2024-03-15 161314.png
 
mopowers said:
Are there any sealed beam headlights on the market that are worth a ****?
Click to expand...

No.

Wagner never made a sealed beam headlamp with any virtue other than cheap. That has pretty much always been Wagner Lighting's primary specialty—vehicle lighting that (more or less) meets the legal
requirements at lowest cost.

For quite some years, the Philips and GE halogen sealed beams were the best ones available on the US market, and for awhile the GE NightHawks were the only worthy sealed beams available without spending extreme money pouncing on old stocks of little-known options not generally available. GE actually put some engineering skill and talent (and oh yeah: money!) into those NH sealed beams. Not the world's best headlamps—they were still sealed beams, and still had to sell at sealed-beam prices, so there wasn't a whole lot of money in the budget to make them—but a very credible effort. Good quality high-luminance C8/C8 burners well focused in the reflector, good
quality reflectors with minimal heel distortion, and a thoughtful lens prescription (yes, it's called a prescription, just like with eyeglasses) giving a good mix of beam spread and well-placed peak intensity.

GE held out for a few years after Wagner decided to go to China rather than renewing their thoroughly decrepit equipment and Corning shut down their production of sealed beam reflectors and lenses (which sent Sylvania to China for theirs, too). But eventually GE shut down their last sealed beam production line, too, and went to (class? Anyone?)
China. You can still buy a GE Night Hawk sealed beam, only now it is severely nasty garbage which very likely does not meet the minimum photometric requirements, or might just barely meet them, and certainly does not offer any performance benefit over any headlamp that can be brought to mind, including a non-NH GE sealed beam (same dreck). They're much worse than the pre-halogen sealed beams our cars came with.

Sealed beams are dead-dead-dead. There's NOS still floating around on Ebay; if you want to stick with sealed beams, go get a couple NOS Philips H6017 or GE H6024 . Older packaging = better. Like these or these or these or these or these or these (H5024 = long life H6024).

You have to sift through a ton of junk to get to the good stuff on the replacement-for-sealed-beam market, as described here and here.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Do they HAVE to be sealed beams? The H4 conversions look very close, but blow most any sealed beams outta the water as long as you get a good headlamp and use a headlight relay harness kit like @crackedback sells.
Click to expand...
Pretty much this. Unless it's a resto, it's this.
 
slantsixdan said:
No.

Wagner never made a sealed beam headlamp with any virtue other than cheap. That has pretty much always been Wagner Lighting's primary specialty—vehicle lighting that (more or less) meets the legal
requirements at lowest cost.

For quite some years, the Philips and GE halogen sealed beams were the best ones available on the US market, and for awhile the GE NightHawks were the only worthy sealed beams available without spending extreme money pouncing on old stocks of little-known options not generally available. GE actually put some engineering skill and talent (and oh yeah: money!) into those NH sealed beams. Not the world's best headlamps—they were still sealed beams, and still had to sell at sealed-beam prices, so there wasn't a whole lot of money in the budget to make them—but a very credible effort. Good quality high-luminance C8/C8 burners well focused in the reflector, good
quality reflectors with minimal heel distortion, and a thoughtful lens prescription (yes, it's called a prescription, just like with eyeglasses) giving a good mix of beam spread and well-placed peak intensity.

GE held out for a few years after Wagner decided to go to China rather than renewing their thoroughly decrepit equipment and Corning shut down their production of sealed beam reflectors and lenses (which sent Sylvania to China for theirs, too). But eventually GE shut down their last sealed beam production line, too, and went to (class? Anyone?)
China. You can still buy a GE Night Hawk sealed beam, only now it is severely nasty garbage which very likely does not meet the minimum photometric requirements, or might just barely meet them, and certainly does not offer any performance benefit over any headlamp that can be brought to mind, including a non-NH GE sealed beam (same dreck). They're much worse than the pre-halogen sealed beams our cars came with.

Sealed beams are dead-dead-dead. There's NOS still floating around on Ebay; if you want to stick with sealed beams, go get a couple NOS Philips H6017 or GE H6024 . Older packaging = better. Like these or these or these or these or these or these (H5024 = long life H6024).

You have to sift through a ton of junk to get to the good stuff on the replacement-for-sealed-beam market, as described here and here.
Click to expand...
Great info. Thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it.
 
Yeah, lets install ridiculously bright headlamps so we can blind everyone coming towards us (even on low beam) and get our cars wrecked when the oncoming traffic can't see anything... This trend has gotten way out of hand.
 
I installed 2012 Jeep Wrangler (halogen) headlamp assemblies in the Jaundiced GT. They are a bolt in, but the wiring harness needs to be modified to accept the new connectors. When I put them in I also put the headlamps on relays (similar to crackedback's kit (I made my own)).

FEF (Gas Alley 2022).jpg


Ask me about PSC Liver Disease
 
I put headlight relays in my 68 Roadrunner and whatever low beams I have in the 4 h/l system are much brighter now.
 
str12-340 said:
Yeah, lets install ridiculously bright headlamps so we can blind everyone coming towards us (even on low beam)
Click to expand...

Where'd someone suggest that? Good headlamps put light where you need it and, on low beam, keep it out of other drivers' eyes. Lousy headlamps don't do one and/or the other of those things.

str12-340 said:
and get our cars wrecked when the oncoming traffic can't see anything... This trend has gotten way out of hand.
Click to expand...

Speaking as the guy who wrote the (literal 38,500-word) book on the subject of headlight glare: you're right, it has. And I still don't see how that's relevant to this thread.
 
str12-340 said:
Yeah, lets install ridiculously bright headlamps so we can blind everyone coming towards us (even on low beam) and get our cars wrecked when the oncoming traffic can't see anything... This trend has gotten way out of hand.
Click to expand...
Now, you're just speaking out of ignorance. The Cibie E codes I spoke of actually have a very sharp cutoff of light in front of the vehicle on low beam. They don't scatter light at all, but they have very focused to a very specific pattern and location. Most problems stem from people being ignorant thinking those LEDs they just bought are the latest and greatest, when in fact, unless they spent about $250 EACH, they're probably junk and they still could be. Then, we have those who have no CLUE ON EARTH about how to properly aim headlights. There are plenty of good upgrades on the market that work and work well, but any of them can be crap if they aren't properly aimed.
 
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