# Sticky  HID Headlight how to for original looks and cost effectiveness



## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

So the most recent upgrade this winter to my '66 after the new motor was a set of 35w 5000k HID headlights. I decided to do this cause the factory sealed beams are lack luster to say the least. Most importantly I wanted to keep my original sealed beam look so here is how i did it for those interested. 

Step 1 is aquire an HID kit. 

DDMtuning.com offers 35w and 55w kits for around $50 and the quality is good. Reliable HIDs at a cost effective price with a lifetime warranty on the bulbs. Winner. A quick run down on HID color to make things easy is 5000k is pure white like daylight, no blue. 6000k has that hint of blue. Anything rated above 6000k gets too blue and belongs on a Honda, not a muscle car. Period. 35watt and 55watt are self explanatory but i recommend the 35w as the 55w light is REAL bright and may blind oncoming drivers with our sealed beam lenses that sort of scatter some of the light. I'll get to that.. You will want a low beam only "H4" bulb kit for this project. Also make sure you order their harness for $9.99. Youll need it 100%. 

Step 2 is aquire two 5 3/4" sealed beam to H4 conversion housings and two new sealed beam lights.

There are many conversion housings available but the nice part is you dont need to worry about the front lense design for what we are doing with our cars. Just make sure they accept H4 bulbs and have metal backing housings. Also buy two new H5006 sylvania headlight bulbs. If you have different existing sealed beams on your car than these, then youll want two new ones of that brand. I recommend the standard sylvania halogen curved light. $10.49 each, looks great on our cars, cant lose. Point is whatever is in your high beam youll want another pair of. If your matching low beams right now are in REAL good shape with no chips then use them for this project. I prefer new glass lenses though as one of mine had a stone chip. 

Step 3 is use the sealed beam lenses on the conversion housings you bought for an original appearence. 

You will want to take a razor knife and or fine tip flathead screw driver and pop the glass lense off the conversion housing. Get creative and be careful! But generally a razor blade or screw driver CAREFULLY prying at the edges will finally get the glue to release and itll pop off. Next pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Pop the two sealed beams on the rack for about 8-10 minutes. CAREFULLY taking them out with leather gloves on cause they are HOT- move to a safe area and take a razor blade and start to work the glue apart that seals the outer lense to the backing. Do this carefully as itll just suddenly fall apart once you get it. You will end up with a very hot 5 3/4" curved glass lense from the sealed beam in your hand. Discard the backing. Lastly, take a razor blade and clean any remaining adhesive off of the new glass lenses and also the mating surface on the conversion housings backings. Using permatex clear silicone attatch the sealed beam leses ( after a thourough cleaning ) to the metal backings. 

step 4 is install lights.

This im not going to touch too much on as you all know how to change a headlight lol. But its as simple as putting the HIDs in the housings, attacthing them via the retaining ring, on with the bezel. Your factory headlight plug plugs into the harness to trigger the relay supplied in the harness- harness plugs into the ballast- ballast into the bulb. Harness to battery. 

And there you have it. No worrying about ugly chinese lenses or finding matching lenses for your car for the sake of MUCH brighter, modern, more safe head lights. All the original looks of sealed beams with all the modern technology of HID lighting! Pictures soon!! Total cost was $50 for the HID kit with harness, $50 for conversion housings, $22 for sealed beams, $6 permatex. $128 for original looking headlights powered by HIDs. 

arty:


Note: 
$128 is low beam only, repeat this process for the high beams if you want. Also, this can be done with any sealed beam, I only mention the 5 3/4" size cause 64-72 gtos use them. It would work the same with a '57 chevy single 7" or nova or camaro etc etc


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

Everything needed. The harness looks intimidating, but trust me its not.. If you can plug in a headlight and hook up a battery cable, you got this. Note the gloves and pot holder. The freshly baked lights are really HOT ! ! ! The bulbs in the lower right are the new sealed beams after being split apart. The metal backings by the gloves are what accept the H4 style HIDs and what the glass lenses will be sealed to. You cant see the lense that came with the housings too well but its the one by itself. Flat faced and ugly. Our cars need curved lenses and look good with old school sealed beam type frosting on them.


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Now THAT is a cool and very useful idea! I just might have to steal this one for myself.

Good job!!! :cheers

Bear


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

Great idea. I say sticky this.


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## Chris-Austria (Dec 23, 2010)

Very good idea! I've installed many HID kits and for a modern car 6000k seems to be best. I also have some experience with 4300k bulbs and I think they would be a better match for our old cars if you want it to look almost stock but much much brighter.

If you only convert the low beams you will never use your high beams again because they will make about zero difference 
Do you have some pictures in the dark with the new lights on?

Here you can see both colors on one of my cars: (4300 vs 5000)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t31/1292998_3938631921579_40992421_o.jpg


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

Thanks fellas, I figured you guys would definitely like the idea of old school looks with new school functioning HIDs. I will have a few pics soon, had to swap my hot rods battery to the wifes Cherokee. This lovely -10 weather killed it for her. Tomorrow afternoon when i got some time im gonna swap it back into the Poncho and ill take some pics. I didnt take a before one.. You always seem to remember to do that soon after its all done haha

She can keep that 3 year old interstate, im gettin' me a new red top optima ; )


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

Chris-Austria said:


> Very good idea! I've installed many HID kits and for a modern car 6000k seems to be best. I also have some experience with 4300k bulbs and I think they would be a better match for our old cars if you want it to look almost stock but much much brighter.
> 
> If you only convert the low beams you will never use your high beams again because they will make about zero difference
> Do you have some pictures in the dark with the new lights on?
> ...


Nice car Chris. My brother in law has a 2012 550 twin turbo, BMW makes a fine machine no doubt. Those 4300s look like halogens to me. 5000k is nice and white, 6000k is touch too blue for me but not obnoxious by any means.


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## Chris-Austria (Dec 23, 2010)

That's really a great idea and great instructions how to make it work. I myself like the 5000k very much, but I think if I do the conversion I'll use the 4300k for the GTO just because it looks more "vintage". I also use LED's for the interieur but only warm yellow colors.. they are really bright but look stock just like the 4300k HID do. 
I posted the pic to show the difference. 
I used 6000K with my old BMW E30 (1989)... that wasn't a good matching color. Can't find a pic.
I also have some 8000k in my garage.. I installed them, switched the light on, switched the light out and removed them.. didn't even make a pic because I felt ashamed, the poor car didn't deserve this! A 550 is a very nice car.. if you had the chance to drive on the "Autobahn" like I do, you (and your brother) would love the car even more


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

Great thread Ben, have this on my upgrade list, i like that you can use an old set of T-3's for the lenses to keep it looking stock...:cheers


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

ALKYGTO said:


> Great idea. I say sticky this.


I did 

Bear


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

*Sealed Beams *


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

*35w 5000K HIDs *


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

*HIDs from about 20 feet *


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Impressive! :cheers

Bear


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## BigHitDaddyJ (Nov 27, 2013)

I got 35w 6ks off of ebay with some housings ready to go. I bypassed the old headlights and ran the lights to a switch inside so I didn't have to go through the old system and I could use much better wire. 

New lights are WAAAYYYYYY better than those old stocks


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

Anybody have a link to the lights they used from Ebay?


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## Eric Animal (Oct 28, 2007)

Looks very good...and well written. I am putting a set of halogens with halos in mine....did a pair already. Recently found some with LED "halos" so I'm gonna upgrade!:cheers


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

ALKYGTO said:


> Anybody have a link to the lights they used from Ebay?


I can't vouch for the Ebay stuff cause ive never used it before. I can say that DDMtuning.com has great prices ( $40 with harness ) on complete H4 kits and they have a lifetime warranty on the ballasts and bulbs too. Dont bother with the mounting brackets or any other stuff you wont need it. Just double sided tape. The harness for $9.99 will make life *incredibly* easy and its a simple plug in so for sure make sure you get it too. The relay supplied in the harness is activated by your existing sealed beam plug so your factory headlight switch still operates the headlights with no wiring mods needed inside the car. Power the relay at the battery and plug your existing headlight plugs into the harness. Harness to ballast, ballast to bulbs, done. 

DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits


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## Bensjammin66 (May 12, 2009)

BigHitDaddyJ said:


> I got 35w 6ks off of ebay with some housings ready to go. I bypassed the old headlights and ran the lights to a switch inside so I didn't have to go through the old system and I could use much better wire.
> 
> New lights are WAAAYYYYYY better than those old stocks


Looks great man. 6000k is a bold look, its an aggressive blue tint in those lights but i bet its still 3x better than stocker sealed beams! Looks good! 

My write up was for people still wanting the headlights to appear stock avoiding the "crystal eyes" look or flat faced lenses that the Hella or most Chinese conversions that are available to us ussually come with. I found it impossible to find curved lense H4 housings that look like sealed beams so i made my own.


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

Bensjammin66 said:


> I can't vouch for the Ebay stuff cause ive never used it before. I can say that DDMtuning.com has great prices ( $40 with harness ) on complete H4 kits and they have a lifetime warranty on the ballasts and bulbs too. Dont bother with the mounting brackets or any other stuff you wont need it. Just double sided tape. The harness for $9.99 will make life *incredibly* easy and its a simple plug in so for sure make sure you get it too. The relay supplied in the harness is activated by your existing sealed beam plug so your factory headlight switch still operates the headlights with no wiring mods needed inside the car. Power the relay at the battery and plug your existing headlight plugs into the harness. Harness to ballast, ballast to bulbs, done.
> 
> DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits


Thank you sir! :cheers


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

Great idea and well done instructions.......Thanks!


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## Eric Animal (Oct 28, 2007)

Looks great...ORACLE and DAPPER LIGHTING are two companies that can supply "headlight upgrades"....there is also a 'plug and play' wiring harness that will allow you to use your existing headlight switch to energize relays...thus supplying electricity directly from your battery. This will 'unload' your switch and allow brighter lights!!


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