I'm rewiring my parents' 28 Chevy Sedan, and one of the things on the list is to make the headlights brighter than now. This car was built in the 80s, and someone gutted what might be the original reflector and zip tied a halogen headlamp bulb to it. The halogen then shines through the original Twilite lense (not very well at that). To make matters worse, one of the halogens was not zip tied in there straight, which explains the crap pattern on the road in front of the car. I'm looking for advice on getting proper (and bright) headlights so my 75 year old mom can see at night The headlamp housing is 8 1/2" wide, and there's a 7 1/2" opening to work with. Does anyone make a drop in complete assembly (with adjusters), or have a suggestion on what to do with this? I've considered going the HID route, too, but haven't found anything that looks like it would work. It looks like the trim rings might be original, along with the bucket, and the Twilite lenses are glued to the rings. Thanks in advance!!
some pics would help us help you.... there's many ways to swap lights, but we need to see what you have to work with.
For starters you could buy a set of BLC units either originals or repops and use the halogen sealed beam units or get a set of repop 32 Ford lights from someone like Bob Drake, that would probably look a little more "original" if that's what your moving towards. Although you might get a bit of flack for using Ford lights on a Chevy if anyone paid close enough attention. Either way you should have plenty of light output for your Mom. Mitch.
No, Mitch, looking original is less important than actually being able to see. Having said that, though, I'd like to use these buckets if I can. I was looking for either a drop in bucket/light thing or recommendations on what OEM buckets I could get to fit in there. With these lenses being glued to the trim rings, it might limit what I can do.
Looks like the reflective coating is gone. Might try rattle can chrome or search the chrome paint thread on here. Don't know how bad the lenses are, id think someone repops glass lenses since they would break often enough
Place called headlightplugs .com sells the receiver side to halogen or hid. You'll have to fabricate some kind of bracket to hold it in the back of your reflector. One thing that comes to mind is an appropriate sized conduit clamp used in building electrical, could be modified to work
I used stock OEM headlamps on my '35 Chevy phaeton and had the reflectors resilvered. I bought a QH halogen conversion from Classic Bulbs. Brilliant at night time and most importantly, they are focused correctly to match the OEM headlamp buckets. They did mine and once aimed they're great. You could also consider using large headlamps from old Yahama motorbikes, have seen it done before with thin S/S filler to fit bucket. Almost undetectable as they look OEM. Old school looks with modern safety.
If you had new reflectors and halogen bulbs you would have headlights nearly as good as new cars and perhaps better than some. I would be looking for repop reflectors and halogen bulb conversion, if nobody makes them for your Chev, look at a Model A Ford parts seller's web site. I'm sure you can buy new reflectors for a Model A and probably the halogen bulbs too. If your headlamps are close to the Model A in size you should be able to make them fit. If you can put the headlight together with good seals around the lenses the reflectors will stay bright for a long time. 5 to 10 years before they need to be replaced again.
Unfortunately, the reflectors are wasted - whomever zip tied the bulbs to the reflector cut the center out to make the bulb fit. I like the headlights with the turn signals built in, but this car has signals in the cowl.
Here are a couple of shots of the reflector. Unbelievable that someone would think this a proper conversion...
I di the same. I'm using a "Coolbulbs" product that is a HID 8,000 system and my lighting is still in the original buckets with a resilvered reflector. The refinish was done by a Bay Area firm. Normbc9
They used to make a sealed beam conversion and someone no douibt repops it that had a rubber boot that went around a sealed beam. That is what I would use.
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