http://www.speedwaymotors.com/...-H-4-Bulbs,2376.html
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LED too! I almost got the Hella H4 City Lights when I bought the H4 assemblies. They have an extra bulb at the bottom of reflector which in Europe is used for driving in lighted cities. In US it would make a good daytime running light.
Wolfgang- does your non-sealed lamps of H4, shown above fit into Kirk's VS bucket? I'm looking to change out the standard that came with the car. Michael
Michael B (aka bluespeedster SoCal) posted:Wolfgang- does your non-sealed lamps of H4, shown above fit into Kirk's VS bucket? I'm looking to change out the standard that came with the car. Michael
I swapped the sealed beams in my VS built Speedster with Hella lenses and H4 style bulbs without modifying the bucket..
Mine is CMC and there was room even for the plug plastic body - if not enough room you could so straight wires with spade terminals to bulb (I'd shrink wrap).
Greg,
Where do you find the set-up you show above?. I'd like the city lights....they look very cool. I had a BMW that I bought a set for back in the 90s from Germany.
Here's 1 source - I got mine from a 4x4 place.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/3...ps&ul_noapp=true
And here's a PAIR of knock-offs for $45
http://www.busdepot.com/hq6014
Hey that site Wolfgang is quite good, thanks for posting it. He also has H4 55/100 white bulbs which are real bright, FYI if he had 70/100 that is eaven brighter than LED kits sold. I still prefer the Hella euro style lamps the best IMHO... Ray
Wolfgang, I had those H4 lights with the city light socket. Yes, they fit a Vintage headlight bucket, IF the fiberglass bucket is the same on Vintage Spyders and Vintage Speedsters. No, I didn't have them hooked up.
Not to steal your thread but the Euro Hellas are on Sale at Sierra ...at a substantial saving I have these and they are have a nice focused lense with cut off to not blind on coming traffic. IMHO 
http://www.sierramadrecollecti...-s-50-65-p25080.html
Just a note that they need H4 P45T base ... This site has the officially offroad 80/100w I have used these before, and these are really bright and you need to make sure your lights are well aligned to not blind the oncoming driver.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eiko-H...DNdVgeH3&vxp=mtr
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Check your wiring size. If you run a bulb that's too bright (hot) you'll melt your wires. When I upgraded to H4's I used the 50/55 bulb. Later, when I decided to add relays so I could put in brighter lights I found that the stock plug had melted. Thankfully I found it before it ignited and melted my car. Just be careful you don't put in too hot of a bulb without adding relays and heavier wire. That 16/18 gauge stock wire stuff is crap.
Your absolutely right! You have to upgrade your wiring if your car was not built with those lights at the builders, who needed to add relays and wiring capable of handling the higher intensity lights. A sealed beam setup may not be wired appropriately.
So all of these H4 conversions require heavier gauge wiring and relays or no?
frank
I added relays and heavy gauge wiring after I did the H4 headlights on my Vintage Speedster. The lights are definitely brighter and a voltmeter check indicated an almost 3 volt increase.
joel
Frank C. posted:So all of these H4 conversions require heavier gauge wiring and relays or no?
If you use the 55/50 watt bulb you should be fine. I read somewhere on here that that is the direct plug-in replacement without adding relays and heavier wire. Alan is the CMC expert so you might want to drop him a line to be sure.
Adding relays was pretty easy and IMHO a very worthwhile upgrade.
55 watts / 12V = 4.6 amps, therefore 2 headlights pull about 9.2 amps total.
16 gauge wire is typically good for 13 amps and 18 gauge for 10 amps. The 18 gauge wire is marginal, and something like 14 or even 12 is the best for headlights, especially if you run the 100 watt bulbs (about 8 amps each!). My calculation is just an estimate because I am not considering voltage drop due to length of run, actual voltage, etc. Also, there are many different quality wires out there, but this gives you an idea of where you need to be with wire size.
And one more thing... your switch really doesn't like this high of current. That's why a relay is always a good addition to high amp circuits like headlights, horn, driving lights, etc.
Thanks guys. Appreciate the advice.
Try this: Turn on your headlight and observe the light it puts off, then while leaving the lights on run a heavy gauge wire directly from the + battery terminal to the light terminal that has power and observer your light output change. Take the wire off....then on....then off then....well you get the idea. Unless it has a heavy duty wiring headlight circuit (IE: Heavy gauge wire and relays) you will be amazed at the difference. you could see as much as a couple of volts difference if measuring with a meter. By the time power goes through the switches, fuses, loose or corroded connections plus questionable grounding (your results may vary depending on condition) you lose effectiveness of your headlights. I highly recommend putting in relays and heavier wiring (Note to self....this means you too idiot 
) I have done this experiment on another older car and it was a huge improvement.
This is just one webpage I found that talks about this:
http://www.madelectrical.com/e...ter-headlights.shtml
A quote from above web page, I have seen the light 
"Lighting systems engineering data has it that if we drop the voltage delivered to a light by 10%, then illumination out-put is reduced by over 30%. Going from 14.0 volts down to 11.5 volts is a loss of nearly 18%!"
Sorry CARTECH-IM, guess we kinda stole the thread and I just took it further down the rabbit hole.
Thanks for sharing the post on those lights.
Chris
No apologies needed. The comments made simply added the facts that most of us needed reminding. A good Ground is something that an old pan car may be lacking completely, and then the proper wire size to handle the lighting load.
Antique cars are plagued with bad grounds.
"Lighting systems engineering data has it that if we drop the voltage delivered to a light by 10%, then illumination out-put is reduced by over 30%. Going from 14.0 volts down to 11.5 volts is a loss of nearly 18%!"
Quite the quote.
Ray
Wiseguy posted:Try this: Turn on your headlight and observe the light it puts off, then while leaving the lights on run a heavy gauge wire directly from the + battery terminal to the light terminal that has power and observer your light output change. Take the wire off....then on....then off then....well you get the idea. Unless it has a heavy duty wiring headlight circuit (IE: Heavy gauge wire and relays) you will be amazed at the difference. you could see as much as a couple of volts difference if measuring with a meter. By the time power goes through the switches, fuses, loose or corroded connections plus questionable grounding (your results may vary depending on condition) you lose effectiveness of your headlights. I highly recommend putting in relays and heavier wiring (Note to self....this means you too idiot
This is just one webpage I found that talks about this:
http://www.madelectrical.com/e...ter-headlights.shtml
A quote from above web page, I have seen the light
"Lighting systems engineering data has it that if we drop the voltage delivered to a light by 10%, then illumination out-put is reduced by over 30%. Going from 14.0 volts down to 11.5 volts is a loss of nearly 18%!"
I went back to a thread I posted about a year ago and here is a chart that highlights (see what I did there) how a reduction in voltage results in a reduction in lumens.
Here's my original thread:
https://www.speedsterowners.com...light-wiring-upgrade
Here's what Daniel Stern said:
In many cases, the thin factory wires are inadequate even for the stock headlamp equipment. Headlamp bulb light output is severely compromised with decreased voltage. The drop in light output is not linear, it is exponential with the power 3.4. For example, let's consider a 9006 low beam bulb rated 1000 lumens at 12.8 Volts and plug in different voltages:
10.5V : 510 lumens
11.0V : 597 lumens
11.5V : 695 lumens
12.0V : 803 lumens
12.5V : 923 lumens
12.8V : 1000 lumens
13.0V : 1054 lumens
13.5V : 1198 lumens
14.0V : 1356 lumens
14.5V : 1528 lumens