Head light conversion from sealed beam to european type

[Peter B.]

Hello,
my car still has its sealed beam headlight units and this has to change, in order to get it road legal here in Germany. Various suppliers offer those conversions, with/without upgrades to halogen etc.
Am I right, that I need the 7" type of lights, without sidelamps included? Do I also need a particular holder, different to the one fitted for the sealed beam units? Different sockets as well?
Personally I go for Lucas PL 700?s, like the tripod and period look, but read a lot about doubtful quality etc. Which ones, respectively which supplier can be recommended?
Example: http://www.holden.co.uk/displayproduct. ... e=54520293
Or other recommendations?
Many thanks and all the best
Peter

[Heuer]

Peter

There is usually only one manufacturer of such items with several suppliers so the quality is likely to be the same. There are two types of this lamp available - the original spec P700 which has the 'spiders' holding the reflector and the 'faux' P700 which is a modern headlight with the 'spiders' glued on. More info here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8496016/Lucas%2 ... dlamps.pdf
Be aware the P700 looks really good but not really suitable if you intend to do much driving in the dark!

[Peter B.]

Hello David,
thank you for that information, regarding the Lucas headlights. I?m aware that the tripod might/will have an influence upon the amount of light you get, but willing to take this for the looks of it. Holden offers special H4 bulbs from Osram, that claim to offer 90% more light than ordinary H4 bulbs, so maybe this helps covering up something.
According to their website it should be an easy swap. Is this something others in this forum can confirm? Other socket/terminal needed?
Many thanks
Peter

[Heuer]

Be aware that the early E-Type's were fitted with P700 headlamps, the PL700 are a later model. Most obvious difference is in the badge - round Lucas on the P700, shield on the PL700.


I am not sure you will find any top quality repro versions of the Lucas P700 Tripod and any that take halogen bulbs are going to have suspect lighting qualities. You could try and search out some 7" originals as they are not that rare and decent ones come up frequently on eBay. At least you will get optically pure glass rather than stuff made from recycled wine bottles A word of warning though, you cannot use halogen or other modern bulbs in the originals as the lens, focussing shield and reflector are not correct.

As far as I can tell none makes P700 reproductions, they are all PL700's - check out the replica AC Cobra Forums because those owners seem to love 'em.

Edit: It seems they do reproduce the P700: http://tinyurl.com/c9um64j but they aren't allowed to say 'Lucas', just P700 on the badge.

[adam]

The PL700s are the original lights for the 3.8s,i got an original pair of e bay.The bullbs can be up rated with halogen bulbs, but have to be the right length,i think paul goff sells them.If you use the three pin conector from the sealed beams use a p45 type base for the bulb hope this helps.

Adam

[Peter B.]

Hello Adam, hello David,
thanks for your input, will take care of the bulb length and hope to find some decent repros or original ones on ebay.
All the best
Peter

[adam]

Hi Peter stafford vehicle components sell repros of the PL700s

Adam

[osgii]

so this could be an option?
http://www.s-v-c.co.uk/product/7--tripod-assembly/

[wol916]

Last time I visited Heritage Jaguar parts had lots of origional nos PL700's in stock all LHD so no good to me.

http://www.heritagejaguarparts.com/

[Peter B.]

Hello guys,
thanks for the input, ordered some from SVC, so we?ll see how they look like. The heritage parts would have been nice, but too late, for the moment. Take that road, when the "new" one are not looking satisfactory.
Regards
Peter