After market lighting?

Gotta love that wiring . . .
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metarinka

After market lighting?

Post by metarinka »

My head lights are very dim.

Before the obvious gets asked. I plan on doing the brown wire mod very soon AND getting one of those nice head light relay kits.

I'll kick off from there, but i'll be replacing the head light bulbs at any rate. I prefer to have BRIGHT head lights, for the visibility and safety factor.
talking around on some motorcycle forums, I've ran into a bunch of people who have been a big fan of these HID systems
https://www.ddmtuning.com/ The price can't be beat, and people seem to harp about the quality.

Anyone have any experience putting HID's into their fiat, the 55w would be overkill, but am I gonna need to be upgrading wiring with the 35w system?
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courtenay
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Your car is a: 1980 Spider 2000
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Re: After market lighting?

Post by courtenay »

I spoke with Daniel Stern, and he recommended the GE Nighthawk 6024NH bulbs as an excellent, economical light.
Bruce Shearer
'80 Spider Fi
'10 Volvo XC70
'06 GMC 1 Ton PU
'72 Spider a long, long time ago
baltobernie
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Re: After market lighting?

Post by baltobernie »

You're approaching this from the right direction; first get 13 volts at the headlamp socket. With that, any H4 lamp will be plenty bright enough to see and be seen. I'm running knockoff Cibie units which illuminate as good or better than any non-HID OEM modern car, and I've rented hundreds of such cars in the last few years. $18 each. If you want authenticity, Bosch and Hella are still in business, at six times the price, but an even better product for performance and durability.
http://www.classicgarage.com/7rounheadwit.html

For you late-model guys without bumpers, they also have 7" lamps with built-in turn signals, and a wild 3-way system, too. But their Z-beam replica, properly "fueled" and aimed, is tough to beat for the price.
mbouse

Re: After market lighting?

Post by mbouse »

bernie,
have you actually used those three in one lights? i have. and if you are not prepared for modifications.... you may be in for some disappointments.

the LED turn signal and LED marker lights are in the exact same location, and the exact same brightness. which means, any time the marker lights are on, you cannot see the turn signal light flashing.

i chose to reduce the voltage to the marker lights to combat this issue. i believe there are other solutions, but i am not an electrician by trade and opted to get my car back on the road as quickly as possible.

i don't recommend those three in one light systems for anyone not willing to put in a BUNCH of extra effort.
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baltobernie
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Re: After market lighting?

Post by baltobernie »

No Mike, I'm running the Z-Beam replicas, for the stock look. (see avatar)
mbouse

Re: After market lighting?

Post by mbouse »

that wild three way system you referred to is identical to what i am using. it is not for the faint of heart to install properly and get running, especially if one wants to continue with incandescent lighting elsewhere in the turn signal system.

however, when it is functioning... it is cool
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manoa matt
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Your car is a: 1978 Fiat 124 Spider 1800
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Re: After market lighting?

Post by manoa matt »

Mike, boogiedude just put those headlights in his car, and I can attest he is not an electrician, I don't know how he did it, but they are not LED and they work. I think the lights were out of a BMW.
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boogiedude
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Re: After market lighting?

Post by boogiedude »

manoa matt wrote:Mike, boogiedude just put those headlights in his car, and I can attest he is not an electrician, I don't know how he did it, but they are not LED and they work. I think the lights were out of a BMW.
Thanks for the vote of confidence in my wiring capabilites.. jk.

It isn't actually a 3-way system. It's 2-way. They're h4's and the brand is autopal or something. A friend of mine had them in his 2002 and when we chopped it up to sell for parts, I snagged the lights. It has a built in orangeish yellow running/driving light that I wired up for the blinker since my running lights are LED and in the old bumper shock holes. And while they do the job, something still isn't right about them. The whole blinker system blinks much faster than it used to, and the front ones don't light up as much as the rears(kind of hard to see in bright daylight)
pope

Re: After market lighting?

Post by pope »

baltobernie wrote: (see avatar)
Good recommendation, I did see Avatar and enjoyed the 3-D effects!
metarinka

Re: After market lighting?

Post by metarinka »

I installed the headlight relay kit today, not as hard as I thought it was going to be (electricals are my week spot) still rather dim headlights I'm going to take a reading off the terminals now to see if I'm getting 13v. If I am, I'm going to order some of those GE nighthawk bulbs. Anyone know where to order them?
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