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I spent a whopping 15 minutes installing & aiming a set of Holley RetroBright low beams in my el Camino. Roads were decent so took it for a night time test drive.
WOW! Top notch, likely 3x the effective light of the halogen sealed beams (nearly new) that they replaced. They’re not giving them away, but I feel I got value out of them. High beams next time I have some $$$ burning a hole in my pocket.
These do what the E-codes almost do in my other car & I love them, but the Holleys use less than half the current of those high wattage bulbs.
Nice lead, bccan, did you get the 3000 or 5700? I'm sold on getting a set of these for my blue 79. Finally, something made that's plug and play and actually looks like factory? Well done! I've had the same set of halogen headlights in my blue 79 since Halogens first came out. A change is long overdue.
I agree 100%. That is about as hot as you can get before you start to see a blue to it. In my 2014 F-150 I upgraded from the factory 4300 to 6000 and there is the slightest tinge of blue at that level. I can't help but think there are some of us out there that would think spending these bucks for a car that is almost never driven at night may be excessive. I would tend to agree with that, but my blue 79 is a bit of an exception. I do a decent degree of dawn/dusk/night driving with this car and now that I live in an area which lacks a big amount of street lights, any edge I can get on lighting is a plus.
So it's game on with this upgrade, thanks again for the lead.
Good bright headlights are important. I do a few show and shines every week in the summer, and they are far enough away that coming home is usually dark out. Some of my friends have T3 original lights, they may as well be candles. The don't do anything to light up the road. I put halogen lights in my car and they are probably 3x better, but I think I will go LED if I can find some that look original. Too many animals on the country roads not to mention other things that appear quickly.
I don't want to damage my car let alone hit a person or animal.
Building a 215 Jetfire engine and then have a Jetfire coming from Colorado that is getting work done to get it ready for the nationals. If I get time I hope to build a couple Jetfire carburetors also. On the side of all that I am working on an old Honda 200 3 wheeler. Trying to find an NOS front tire is proving to be a really challenge. I think this is going to be tougher to find than some of my Jetfire parts.... I am slowly getting sucked back into the vintage 3 wheelers again. Just picked up a basket case Honda 350 X last night.
My 70 Cutlass has been out of sight out of mind for a second winter in a row, gathering dust and debris in the garage. Unfortunately, every time I open the door it's no longer out of sight. Two summers ago I took the battery out and never put it back in. I use it to start my nitro marine engines.
Just ordered Coker Firestone Red stripe
GR 60 15 tires. The Firestone wide oval rwl I have on now are 9 years old, too old for me to take on the hwy. Tread on them is still amazing, no cracks but not willing to take the risk.
x2, I got completely ripped off years ago when buying a set of wide whitewalls for my 79 Calais, when I unwrapped them, they were over 5 years old already. My bad for not unwrapping them at the swap meet. They were hard as rocks, I had them on the car 1 year before tossing them.
Kind of new plans- I'm cleaning up the grille, and I'd like to repair the battery tray. I'm hoping I can buy a battery tray that's about the same size, and then make it work. Or- I'm going to beat the crap out of a piece of steel and "bond" it to the old battery tray, after I cut out most of the rot. "Bond" means weld, or JB Weld, most likely. Then I want to replace the missing battery tie down. I'm thinking an old style repro battery for shows would be cool. Of course, I'll repaint the whole front section of the radiator support, and I'd like to move into the engine compartment too. I need the correct straps for the wiring harness along the inner fenders, and a horn relay/power junction. I'd like to fix the power locks, and I've purchased seat belt webbing and sent the parts out to be chromed, so I'd like to install the "deluxe seatbelt option" that came with the car. I have the parts. The seat belts and power locks are pretty uncommon options. I think they'll show well. And I'd like to align the windows with the convertible top. It's something I wanted to do last year, so now its kind of a thing for me- left undone.
I acquired a good core for my rear bumper, and it's out being rechromed. I've seen some great pictures of people's trunks, and how they lined them with carpet, or just the correct paint and the cardboard panels. They tied down the jack and spare tire the way they are supposed to be secured, and it just looks so great. I found a company that will sell me a sheet of vinyl that looks like the factory cardboard pattern, so I'd like to glue it to lauan plywood and line the trunk so it looks great. That's still in the "idea" phase... I'm not sure where I'll go with it.
And I did dual exhausts on the car, but the after market exhaust comes up short of the bumper, and it's a bit louder than I like. I'd like to maybe put resonators up underneath at the rear, and then weld in chrome exhaust tips that extend a couple inches out beyond the new chrome bumper. I'm thinking a resonator would improve the exhaust note and give me the extra few inches I need to add a chrome rolled edge exhaust tip that extends maybe 2" beyond the bumper. That would look so cool!
And I'd like to paint the wheels the same color as the car- Provencial white. I have full wheel covers, but it would be great to have the lip of the wheel at the tire bead match the color of the car, instead of being beat up old black paint.
Then I want to change the oil and put 5000 miles on the car before July 4th. And maybe take home one "best in class" this year. That might be ambitious... but one never knows what the judges might like.
I used to do one big project a year on my Cutlass. One year it was suspension, another it was installing a 5 speed. If I planned one big up grade per year I found I didn't get bored with the car and you didn't spend money in a scattershot fashion. Keeps you interested.
It’s been a cold winter and I haven’t spent much time in the garage. I had a major leak from the transmission oil pan back in December and the car has been on the rack since. I ordered a new pan with a drain plug to replace the OEM pan that was dented up, it came that way when I bought it back in 1990 or so. The pan is back on the car and I pulled the tail shaft housing in preparation for a new speedo gear combination that I ordered this morning to get that reading correctly. I also took the exhaust off so I could rework the h-pipe and raise my mufflers up a few inches so they won’t hang so low. Now I have to rework the tail pipes. Will be setting up a torque converter lock up system as well. The wiring in the transmission is done, need to do the car side next.
Currently installing very upgraded Headlights from Sharp Light innovations.in my C5. I honestly can't see nuthin' with the stock headlamps out here in the country. GM A-Bodies headlamps are ok as long as they are aimed correctly and have good bulbs or so I have found. Probably do coil overs next season (or this depending).
I wiped down the under belly of the beast today. Glide A Matic ATF makes the sheen. Looks like the bars were installed before they laid down THAT black
