Brighter Headlights '33

fourfords

fourfords

Senior Member
I have a stock 6V positive ground '33. I have cleaned surfaces in search of a better connection. Short of a 12V conversion, is there a bulb or any minor modification I can do that will create a brighter headlight?

Many thanks,

-Dirk
 
What are the stock bulbs 20/30cp. I know there is a 20/50cp bulb out there somewhere. I had them in my 34.
 
I put 6v halogen driving lights on my 39, they look like fog lights and shine like a new car headlights. $60 new. I tried everything else that we all have tried. I left every thing original and just added two good looking chrome driving lights.
 
Things that come to mind are; run seperate grounds from each reflector, use brighter bulbs, use relays, get reflectors re-silvered.
 
You can get 50 Watt bulbs from the Model A suppliers ,Check out the Model A site for re silvering,You can get new reflectors but I wouldn't say they were any more reflective than my stock old ones .
 
I have had success with running a ground wire soldered to the bulb recepticle and out to the frame and adding a headlight relay. Those relays were popular in the early days because they provide straight voltage to the lights triggered by voltage from the headlight switch. They come up on epay from time to time.
 
I have several extra sets of 6V relays and wiring harnesses left over from my installing driving lights. I always buy extras just in case. Anybody need help let me know.
 
You can fit relays such as 12 volt ones from a Toyota car fuse box direct between your 6V generator and lights .You can check if you have voltage drop due to wiring bad earths etc by running temporary jump wires .With lights on see If they brighten up . Also there is a plating process that puts a bright reflective coating on the reflectors the type used on coffin handles ? .
 
Some thoughts: What reflectors do you have? I do not know '33 specifiacally but many early Ford repro reflectors are not parabolic or do not locate bulb properly.
Best would be originals resilvered or plated with the modern aluminum based process. Chrome turns out to be a very poor reflector coating.
Sockets and the contacts within...try to use originals by removing rotted wires and soldering new ones into the contacts.
As Flathead Ted says, try some jumping to diagnose possible poor connections...with lights on and throttle pulled out enough to engage charging, jump back to battery ground post. Remove lens and haul out the rflector and jump from battery hot directly into bulb circuits. Any change in brightness will reveal a circuit with resistance.
 
Most repo reflectors are chrome plated. The best reflective surface is a silver plating. Costs more but works better.
 
I have run direct fit 35 watt quartz halogen bulbs for more than 12 years in my A, no problems with using a generator, better light than sealed beams, if you want good useable light use original reflectors ,sockets, lenses and bulbs from-- http://www.classicandvintagebulbs.com/ ---there are other bulbs that are made in cheaper labor places ---and may be a little cheaper and easier to get---side by side it is easy to see the difference
 
So I went to this website ( http://www.classicandvintagebulbs.com/ ) and there's lots of info but no way to look at a catalogue, price list, NOTHING.

The problem is even worse for 36 Fords with bug eye lenses. I have H4 halogens in mine. If I run the hi beams as low beams I can actually see. The low beam element is not in the "Focal Plane" and is just a difuse dim light thru the lens.

Sure would be nice to have a halogen bulb with the same focal length on both elements.
 
Anthony of classicandvintagebulbs sets up at Hershey, that is where I get mine, he also has the pre-focus bulbs for the 36, Little British car company is a USA seller, but they don't have much interest in the old Ford market, Anthony doesn't have prices because of the changing money market, you have to E-mail him.
here is the headlight bulb page-- http://www.classicandvintagebulbs.com/page3.html

little british car co bulb page-- http://www.lbcarco.com/cgi-bin/gen5?nextform=/orderinprogress.html&o=6715957.29287133555&p= ---they have higher prices than anthony has at Hershey
 
The problem of dim headlights has been around for a long time, clear back into the 1930's when people started to drive more on the open highway..
Of course sealed beam head lights solved the problem for most people when they became original equipment on all vehicles in 1940...Many people quickly jumped on the sealed beam conversions for the pre '40 vehicles that quickly appeared on the market.
Most of the conversions were not very successful because of poor wiring and/or inexperienced installers.
The Ford electrical systems seemed to be the worst offenders because of all the wiring and the type of switch that Ford used...
The sealed beams on my '36 have always worked great because I eliminated the stock Ford switch from the bottom of the column... I wired the headlights to a relay that was activated by a modern switch on the dash.. The dimmer switch was located between the brake/clutch peddles with a starter button located on the left side of the dash adjacent to the headlight switch.
I tried halogens in my '39.. Had to modify the reflectors to do so... The lights were very bright, however, they did not direct the light onto the roadway..The original lights/lens were built for a "pre-aimed bulb" which the halogens are not..
I recently had a set of reflectors replated by Steve's Restoration in Portland. I purchased "Bright Bulbs" from Ron Francis.. The lights work much better..
I know of several people that have tried to install sealed beams behind their original lens,,, This does not work, the prizums of the sealed beam lens conflict with the original lens, defusing the light all over the place.
Of course one solution, which was very common during the '30's-40's is to add driving lights.. I was never a fan of aux lighting, fog and/or driving on old cars, I recently picked up a pair of correct 1939 Appletons for my '39... They look pretty damn good on the car.. Gives the car more of a classic look...
 
With the relay it doesn't matter what your switch is like as its only a slave .The jap or radio shack relays 6 to 12V can be wired off the generator or starter ,they work fine on6 volt ,and are small enough to hide .I run one stock silvered refectory and a rep oped chrome one on the other side cannot say the new one was brighter ,Also I had a car in that was 12 volt ,and compared brightness with my 6 v and I didn't think there was any difference .Having the reflectors Alumnised has got to be the way to go . The Model A guys on the barn would run halogens ,could be worth asking for comments .
 
I replaced the stock 6v bulbs on my '34 with 6v halogens and it made a big improvement in headlight brightness. The replacement halogen bulbs initially did not focus correctly so I modified the sockets to pull the bulbs forward to correct the focus. Now, while the lighting may not be equal to modern lighting, it's good enough to be safe to drive at night whereas before it wasn't.
 
I'm a newby when it comes to relays for lights. Understand radio shack and ****?? What place is ****? New to me. Also should relays b used when doing tail and headlights with halogens ?? Thanks josh
 
You can purchase 6 volt relays at newark.com very reasonably priced I purchased 3 of them one for my 31 cheb#!^* which I put halogens in. If you want to keep original steering column switch such as in my 34 ford you need two relays one for bright & one for dim if using halogen or sealed beams. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Gary.
 
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