VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt 6 volt headlights

Being new to owning an antique car,I drove my 33 Master at night.It seemed to be hard to see with the 6 volt headlights.Is this to be expected?Just curious.

If the silvering on the reflectors is good and the grounds are good so as to produce a nice white light. Compared to a modern car - forget it. They won't compare unless your out on a dark road with no other lights around....Then at least you can tell they are "on".

Thanks,thats about how it looks.

In A word (which isn't exactly my style) - but, in a word - - -
Yes.

Bill.

Hi Bill,

JUST BECAUSE YOU RUN 6 VOLTS DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO TOLERATE POOR LIGHTS

Had a similar problem with my 28, had the refectors resilvered and tried as many different types of 6 volt globes as I could find, then on a suggestion tried 6 volt Quarts Halogen globes approx 25 years ago, and have never looked back. Lights are excellent.

Regards

Ray

You can also get your reflectors coated with vacuum sealed aluminum from UVIRA and on 6 volts your headlights will be as bright as sealed beams.

Hi Junk Yard,

Can you tell me more about this vac process, who does it and their contact details.It sounds very interesting, and would you have it done instead of resilvering to refectors that require a reco.

Regards

Ray

As I understand it, the vacuum sealed process was developed for use in space on satellites, telescopes and etc. This same space age process was converted for use on headlight reflectors for antique cars by UVIRA. With this coating the reflectivity on the reflectors remains at 90% forever. However, when a reflector is coated with silver, its reflectivity is about 95% but the silver immediately starts to tarnish and the reflectivity drops to about 50%.

I had the process done on my 1930 Chevy reflectors and it is terrific. The vacuum sealed aluminum is better than silver and the headlights are as bright as sealed beams. In reality, there are only two coatings that should be done to reflectors for maximum reflectivity.....the UVIRA process or silver.

Here is the contact information:

UVIRA Inc
310 Pleasant Valley Road
Merlin, OR 97532-8871
Phone: (541) 474-5050

I believe that the cost to coat reflectors with this process is around $75 per pair.

Thanks Junkyard.

Cheers

Ray

You bet and have a great day!

Thanks Junk Man....real good info.

Actually because of the relatively easily oxidation of aluminum, removal of oxygen is critical to a smooth reflective surface. I suspect that the process used is vacuum deposition where vaporized aluminum condenses on the surface to produce the desired surface.

Remember that the reflectors must be nickle plated first before shipment to have them vacuum plated. Price when I checked recently is $75.00 the pair.

Thanks Ray,

I was not aware of that

Regards

Ray

Skip, aren't there 6 volt halogen bulbs out there, perhaps at The Filling Station or for use in older motorcycles?

Sending irreplacable headlight reflectors via Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, etc seems like a huge leap of faith.

With the vacuum sealed process halogen bulbs are not necessary, and it would save an additional burden on the generator as well.

I would not recommend sending the reflectors via the Post Office since they may never be seen again. However, either UPS or FedEex would be a better carrier because of their tracking systems...but it could still be risky.

I have been running the Halogen bulbs for 25 years, no problem with the genny, but what I have been told by the company doing the vacum sealed process is that because of the work they do for Uncle Sam they are not allowed to export. So if I want to have the job done it would have to be sent to some one over there who would forward on to me. As he told me "The Govt must be worried about being invaded by a bunch of vintage cars with bright headlights".I know there is a justifiable reason but!

Regards

Ray

There is a kit from Chevs of the 40s that has the halogen bulbs, harness, mounting and a new reflector. The original reflector has to be trimmed a bit to accept the clip in new assembly but apparently it works quite well. I saw it applied to a late 30s headlight in a magazine.

By the way, I would assume that changing to halogen requires a relay, correct?

Hi Old216,

My 28 system is 6 volt with a new wiring harness, and no I did not require a relay in converting to 6 volt Halogen globes. The only mods I did was to run a third wire through the condut to make sure I have a good solid earth to the chasis, and remove the resistor from the light switch as I have a low beam in the globe instead of dulling the old globe. A lot of the old timers said I might crack the headlight lense, but no problem in 25 years, even in sudden rain storms.

Regards

Ray

Well I'm not sure if it will help,but I just bought a pair of origional NOS headlight lenses.I figure they should be clearer than the ones on the car and might help.What do you think?

I converted my lenses to clear glass 35 years ago, and it still did not give me a safe or confident light. That is why I followed on shortly with a 6 volt quartz halogen conversion.

Regards

Ray

I use foam sponge type O ring material to seal the reflector to glass instead of the square section cork.I silvered my reflectors at great expense. The foam type material was used by a builder to seal the expansion cracks in concrete floors.