I put on some cheap fog lights from Walmart under my front bumper. These
are turned on via a relay hooked to my headlight dim power line.

These cheesy little 55 watt fog lights turned out to be dramatically
brighter than my headlights.

So, I started looking at my headlights. I saw a little reflective cup
covering the bulb. I wondered if the reflective surface of the interior
of this cup was still good. I removed the bulb and looked into the cup.
It was totally black and powdery looking inside.

This headlight assy is glued together and I could not open it. So, I put
in a screwdriver and bent this cup as far down into the lower headlight
assy as possible. I then cleaned the black paint from the front of the
headlight bulb and reinstalled it into the plastic headlight assy.

The difference in lighting between the headlight that I had not modified
and my newly changed headlight was huge. I had considered replacing the
55/60 watt bulb with a 80/100 watt replacement. I did not do this for
fear of melting the plastic headlight assy and I would also have to
install yet more relays to power these new amp hogs.

I offer this as a cheap way to improve the lighting on these old cars.

BTW if anyone has successfully used 80/100 bulbs, please comment.

 

Michael wrote:
> I put on some cheap fog lights from Walmart under my front bumper. These
> are turned on via a relay hooked to my headlight dim power line.
>
> These cheesy little 55 watt fog lights turned out to be dramatically
> brighter than my headlights.
>
> So, I started looking at my headlights. I saw a little reflective cup
> covering the bulb. I wondered if the reflective surface of the interior
> of this cup was still good. I removed the bulb and looked into the cup.
> It was totally black and powdery looking inside.
>
> This headlight assy is glued together and I could not open it. So, I put
> in a screwdriver and bent this cup as far down into the lower headlight
> assy as possible. I then cleaned the black paint from the front of the
> headlight bulb and reinstalled it into the plastic headlight assy.
>
> The difference in lighting between the headlight that I had not modified
> and my newly changed headlight was huge. I had considered replacing the
> 55/60 watt bulb with a 80/100 watt replacement. I did not do this for
> fear of melting the plastic headlight assy and I would also have to
> install yet more relays to power these new amp hogs.
>
> I offer this as a cheap way to improve the lighting on these old cars.
>
> BTW if anyone has successfully used 80/100 bulbs, please comment.

high wattage bulbs are illegal - the light output of head lights is
limited by law. if the reflector/light path is crudded up, that's a
different matter, but illegal bulbs are not the solution.