Just found this board and have been reading past posts but have not found quite the answers I'm looking for. I have a 32 yr old car and I'm looking for a good replacement for the 7" sealed beam headlights. I have rewired the car with a "It's-A-Snap" wiring harness and I have wired in headlight relays with 12ga wire. The alt is a 105 amp Motorcraft and once I fire the car up I should be getting around 13.5v to the headlights. I'd like to go with a headlight that is clear glass but uses a replacable halogen bulb. I'd like to have headlights that are as good as my newer cars (2000 and 2001 MY but not HID). Anyone know of a good replacement/conversion? And, does it sound as if I have wired the cars safely?
--J
This message has been edited by herman_sho on Dec 28, 2004 11:27 PM
E-code lighting pattern is rather consistent (narrow specs), but a DOT pattern has a lot more application tolerance. In general, an e-code pattern has more foreground light, a wider beam, a definite upper cutoff, with an upsweep to the curbside of the road for reading signs. There are DOT-compliant patterns that look very much like the typical e-code lights, but generally don't have as much foreground light, a narrower beam than an e-code, with an upper part of the beam that seems to just fade, "out there", and has lower allowable light intensity requirements than e-code. Both types have advantages; I once lived around Seattle, and it seemed that maybe 1/3 of the vehicles had e-code lights, which I suppose was attributable to the frequent rain & fog out there.
