In the 4 eyeballs of the 72 I just bought sit 4 Guide T-3s. I don't know enough to tell from the front whether those are old production or repop. On my old Chevy, my granddad put in GE Halogens (with the old black HALOGEN label in the middle) and I have had the enjoyment of them for 18 years of owning the car without problem and they are brighter than a Minnesota girl's hind end skinny dipping at noon in the summer. I don't know what my van has off hand, and I think one of my 442's lights is a sideways T-3, and I haven't rotated it yet (the car is a project driven during the day....when it moves.)

Are the T-3s good enough for current needs assuming healthy electrical system or do most of you all run other things? This car won't go to the OCA Nationals, so show-correct is not a huge issue. I haven't driven the H/O in the dark yet and I am bored cooped up at home, so I figured to ask.

 

I had no issues with the T3's that were on my car until 1 of them blew last fall, they were adequate. The choice was to replace with another T3 or just go ahead and install a set of H5001's which is what I went with. My car is not points judged, so I saw no reason to stay with the expensive T3's. The halogen lamps are a bit brighter.

 

There were 1 year only T-3's in 72. Instead of the big triangle like on the older ones, the T-3's on the 72 is smaller, an near the bottom of the lens. They don't give off the light that the newer ones do. As far as I know, they do not repop these 72 T-3's.

 

Hi,

I would think new repops might be, years ago had the original headlights in my 65, and my God low beams may as well been running lights, only way I could see good was brights. I live in the country so not many street lights so that didn't help.

I believe they make halogens called T4's which might be a little better.

Currently all my old cars have halogens, wageners or whatever was at the local parts store as I wasn't going for a show car circuit.

Regards,

 

Had T-3 in my 68. I replaced with halogens, I live in the country I wanted to see bambi as far away as possible. If not being judged go with brighter lights. my.02

 

T3s are great, so long as you only drive in the daytime.

 

I have the original T-3's. You have to light a fire out front to see compared to the HID on my Silverado.

Pat

 

That is pretty funny Joe.

 

I'll take T3s over this BS 100 million lumen retina melting headlights found on all new vehicles...and of course, the driving lights must be on as well even in the city.

I can drive with all 4 T3s on and nobody cares. Sure they suck and a little more light would be nice. The cars of the late 90s to 2010ish or whenever they started this ridiculousness were a bunch better and plenty bright enough.

At what point will the auto industry say ok guys bright enough everyone is blind now?
Its gonna prevent me from night driving long before my granddad had to.
-If they would simply gravitate towards the red vs blue spectrum.

 

I keep T3 bulbs in my two 4-4-2s because that's what they came with. However, I do note that, at night, high beam T3 bulbs are the same as standard beam on my 2013 Silverado. The T3 may have been good in the 60s and 70s but they just don't show the road like modern headlights. In general, I only drive the 4-4-2s during daytime.

Randy C.

'68 4-4-2 convertible
'69 4-4-2 convertible

 

You got good info on this here! Right, 72 are one year only T3's. If they have the triangle in the center, they are technically wrong. You can tell originals from repros by the 3 small alignment pins on the glass face. If they are ground down, they are repros. You can also tell by the fluting in the glass, originals are more mirror-like w/o as many flutes. All my cars have repro T3's, they are a little brighter. Finally, what Joe says...they are pretty poor at night compared to modern lights. But, I can remember driving on night trips for like 6 hours in the 60's and 70's, and back then they seemed fine. Often, they are not aimed right on old cars today. Many of the old cars have the buckets mixed, which affects the aim.

 

2X I would love to get in on a class action lawsuit against these aholes. These new lights are dangerous and self defeating. They make the area in front of the vehicle so bright, anything down-road looks dark. Consequently many idiots drive with their high beams on completely blinding anything within a 1/2 mile.

 

X3 I am with you on this. Those a holes who allowed these bright lights to the extreme need to be sued in court. They need to put a end to making these lights. Problem is nobody is listening. Many seniors have lost there lives by being blinded causing wreaks and all is said is unexplained crash.

 

x2!!!!

 

You summarized the root of the problem.

Current lights comply with maximum output regulations that have not changed for decades; however, newer lights are very blue compared to older lights.

Physiologically, our pupils do not react (close down) due to blue light, which makes many of the modern lights blinding.

Don't blame your old eyes, even young first-responders have complained that the intense blue warning lights on their own vehicles interfere with their carrying out their jobs quickly.

Bluer lights on your own vehicle seem to make seeing easier but this is not backed up by testing. Tests show that visual acuity improves as the spectrum moves toward yellow.

Spectrum regulations would be a good first step towards resolving the glare problem.

NHTSA says the majority of complaints they receive are concerned with headlight glare. They asked for professional comments years ago on the problem but government-agency inertia must be holding them back.

EU has regulations in place for better glare control. Aiming distance is independent of headlamp height (IOW, the lights on a goods transport truck and on a Fiat must be aimed at the same spot in the road ahead of the vehicle.

EU vehicles can have also higher intensity lights than we can; however, if manufacturers choose to so equip their vehicles, the lights must have

• self-aiming to compensate for load
• headlamp washers to eliminate scatter (glare)

 

I use the repop T3's.
Part of the charm of driving these old cars for me are the dimmer lights.I also enjoy my 8 track.This is how the cars were when I started driving them.If I didn't enjoy driving my car so much I would still be on bias ply tires. My next set of tires will be the bias ply looking radials.
I won't upgrade the headlights for halogen and I won't upgrade the interior lights with led.
I did upgrade my taillights with led bulbs so I can have brighter brake lights so the modern drivers have a better chance of seeing my brake lights. I felt the fact that most modern drivers are use to looking for the 3rd brake light and without that and dimmer lights,I felt it greatly increased my chances of getting rear ended.

 

I have original T3's on my W30 convertible, they might as well not even be on at night. I don't drive the car often at night and if I do the streets around me are lit up enough that its usually ok. Though even then, there are times I feel the lack of lumen is dangerous. For the other cars, I have purchased round European headlights that are much brighter, they are not a perfect fit as you need to play with the mounting ring as the glass is thicker but it makes a huge difference. I might try the aftermarket T3's, as the other issue is the age of the old T3s, they dim as they get older.

I know some lights today are very blue and very bright to the point its dangerous to on coning traffic but in reality our old headlights are crap. Just like the seat belts. I had mine re-webbed as I wasn't willing to risk a belt snapping in an accident, these old cars are dangerous enough. Yes they are cool but safety wasn't one of their strong points.

 

I wonder how the hell people drove these cars in the late 60's and early 70's. Must have been a lot of nighttime accidents. Of course in those days you didn't have some jackwagon blinding you with the lights on his BMW.

 

1. It's almost guaranteed that the headlights are NOT receiving the voltage/amperage that they should. Too many years worth of corrosion in the wire harness, and on the contacts for the headlight switch. Headlights should have 12.8--13.2 volts, engine running, alternator charging, headlights (of course) "on". Most old cars are doing good to have 11-something volts. Test voltage AT THE HEADLIGHT, not farther back in the wire harness. Also test the ground side--any voltage on the ground side subtracts from the voltage on the positive or "supply" side. Example: 12 volts on supply, 1.5 volts on ground = 12 - 1.5 = headlights actually powered by 10.5 volts.

2. Headlights are rated for brightness at 12.8 volts, they're rated for service life at 13.2 volts. Less voltage = dimmer, more voltage = burn out quicker. Guys who increase the voltage at the headlights by adding a relay or two, often have the headlights working at 14+ volts, leading to very short service life. Properly done--with a self-resetting circuit breaker on both the low beam and the high beam, and modest-size wiring to keep the voltage in check, this can be a great upgrade. Too many folks use a fuse or two, if there's a problem you're stranded with no lights unless you fix the problem right then and there. At least with self-resetting circuit breakers on high and low, you could just switch from low to high, or high to low, or--worst case--the lights flash allowing you to drive slowly to somewhere safe.

3. Sealed-beam headlights with some years on them are very likely to be dim even at correct voltage. The reflectors degrade, the "mirroring" on the inside of the bulb breaks down, and light leaks out the back side, instead of being reflected to the front. Also, the filament will "splatter" microscopic metallic residue over the reflector so the reflector gets "cloudy" or "dark"; so again less light is reflected out the front where it can do some good.

Here's a photo of a sealed-beam headlight with a degraded reflector. All the light you see on the outside of the bulb is light from the inside of the bulb that's shining through the failed reflector--it's leaking out from the inside.

 

Good write up.

 

That's a great point, Shurkey.

There was an article in Hot Rod about 20 years ago that showed the difference in factory wiring versus relay-supply to the headlights on Jeff Smith's 60s El Camino.

The voltage at the light was 11.50. With relay supply, it was 13.98 V.

Light output increase was 98% (light output versus voltage is a exponential function).

Our eyes don't register that full 98%. Our physiological perception of that increase would look like 39% better illumination, which is still a huge increase for a simple modification.