updated headlight suggestions??

Have a 28 Franklin with parabeam headlamps and 21 candle power bulbs.

Can not see the road at night. lights are on, but don't do the job.

Any suggestions for mounting a pair of 6 volt sealed beam headlights as aux headlights?

Thanks, Al

Have a 28 Franklin with parabeam headlamps and 21 candle power bulbs.

Can not see the road at night. lights are on, but don't do the job.

Any suggestions for mounting a pair of 6 volt sealed beam headlights as aux headlights?

Thanks, Al

My opinion can be found at How good can those antique car headlights be?

Google UVIRA. They're in Oregon and will electroplate aluminum to your headlight reflectors and polish them. The reflectiveness of the polished aluminum will rival silver, and will not tarnish like silver does. I had them do my headlights on a Graham over 25 years ago and they were like driving with sealed beams.

Frank

Google UVIRA. They're in Oregon and will electroplate aluminum to your headlight reflectors and polish them. The reflectiveness of the polished aluminum will rival silver, and will not tarnish like silver does. I had them do my headlights on a Graham over 25 years ago and they were like driving with sealed beams.

Frank

When I had Uvira do my reflectors they did the whole job as you describe. I have heard that they now would like the customer to do (or have done) a number of the preparation steps before sending them the reflectors. Contact information for Uvira is linked to from the page I referenced in my earlier post on this thread.

The lights on my '32 Franklin were dismal as well. I gently cleaned the reflectors and replaced all the wiring. Now they are much better. Still not like modern lights, but acceptable at lower speeds. Also, if your car is a short wheelbase car with a wooden chassis, check that all your grounds are good and clean.

BEFORE sending your reflectors out, you can alter the sockets to accept modern '3 tab" type quartz/halogen headlamp bulbs. You can get them in 6 volt. THEN send the reflectors out for re-silvering or better yet, as the posters above note, aluminizing.

When you are done, they will NOT be like 6 volt sealed beams...they will be MUCH more powerful ! And you wont be messing with the authentic appearance of your car!

If you don't need all that brightness you could just try a brighter bulb. I had my reflectore resilvered and now run with 50/32 candlepower bulbs. I don't have any trouble driving at 50 mph at night and stopping within the range of my lights. The only downside is that they draw almost 30 amps. However because of all my night and winter driving I had installed a 50 amp 6 volt alternator so have no problems.

Check / improve the grounding before installing higher-wattage lamps or halogen bulbs.

Poor grounding + higher load could result in a cooked headlight switch / wiring. If you're going to increase the headlight load, would recommend installing a relay.

Would try cleaning your old reflectors first (lampblack and alcohol, and cotton flannel cloth), and checking the grounds.

Are your headlight lenses darkened ? I've seen some early lenses ( even through the 1940's) that have turned dark gray to purple; I've been told this is due to trace lead content in the glass...

The advantage to the Uvira treatment is the aluminum plating / glass sealing of the reflector make for a more durable reflector.

Getting your Parabeams working will give you "better than sealed-beam performance" - I believe the Parabeams are 9 or 10 inches in diameter, as opposed to the 7-inch sealed-beam.

Do these lights require a certain type of bulb to focus correctly? I think there is an adjustment on my 1930 Dodge 8 to move the bulb back and forth to improve the output of the overall light. Otherwise, the earth is the most important thing with 6V lights, in my experience.

In order to maintain a "focused beam" of light, any replacement bulb must put the filament in the exact same location as the original bulb, otherwise you'll just get diffuse light and not a beam of light.

I made my own bulbs a couple years ago with high power tri-emitter LEDs that output about 700 lumens per bulb. I turned a copper slug the diameter of the bayonet bulb base and attached the LEDs to the face of the slug with thermal epoxy to dissipate the little bit of heat they put off. The slugs position the LEDs at the same relative location as a bulb filament. I hid the LED driver circuitry in the headlight buckets behind the reflectors. They are like looking at an arc welder in action and really light up the road. Best part is they only draw a combined 1.4 amperes. I know the technology is coming soon if not already here.

I made my own bulbs a couple years ago with high power tri-emitter LEDs that output about 700 lumens per bulb. I turned a copper slug the diameter of the bayonet bulb base and attached the LEDs to the face of the slug with thermal epoxy to dissipate the little bit of heat they put off. The slugs position the LEDs at the same relative location as a bulb filament. I hid the LED driver circuitry in the headlight buckets behind the reflectors. They are like looking at an arc welder in action and really light up the road. Best part is they only draw a combined 1.4 amperes. I know the technology is coming soon if not already here.

700 lumens would be about the equivalent of a 50 watt incandescent bulb. I did not know that LED was that much more efficient, I thought it was more like 4x to 6x more efficient than incandescents rather than 10x. Do you have the LED facing forward toward the lens or set to bounce off the reflector?

" are like looking at an arc welder in action and..." Doesn't this blind oncoming drivers?

Do you have the LED facing forward toward the lens or set to bounce off the reflector?

They are facing forward toward the lens but they are also far enough back in the reflector and have a wide enough radiation angle to focus the beam in a similar pattern to the original bulbs. I have the headlights aimed properly so as not to blind oncoming traffic. You just don't want to be staring at the LED when it powers up.

They are facing forward toward the lens but they are also far enough back in the reflector and have a wide enough radiation angle to focus the beam in a similar pattern to the original bulbs. I have the headlights aimed properly so as not to blind oncoming traffic. You just don't want to be staring at the LED when it powers up.

You are not all that far from me, any chance I could visit and take a look at your setup sometime?

You are not all that far from me, any chance I could visit and take a look at your setup sometime?

PM Sent.