HEADLIGHT UPGRADE '62 Thunderbird

[62roadster]

Has anyone upgraded their old sealed beam headlights with more modern LED, HID, units other than halogen sealed beams? I would like to do this but the 1st problem I see is that these type of units wont' fit the headlight buckets without some sort of modification, cutting, etc., and the ring which holds the bulb to the bucket may not fit these newer units either; any suggestions would be appreciated,,,thanks

[doubleload]

If you’re wanting to upgrade because the standard headlights seem a little wimpy, try this first.
Remove one high beam from the mount leaving the plug connected. Turn on the headlights. Pull the connector plug back enough to expose the 2 pins on the headlight. Determine which of the 2 pins is bringing power to the headlight. Run a wire directly from the positive terminal on the battery to the exposed powered pin. This simply bypasses the wiring harness.
When I did this, all 4 beams showed an increased brightness. Enough of an increase that I didn’t order the aftermarket beams.
Good luck.
Rather than replace the harness, the simple solution is to supply power to the headlights directly from the battery through a relay.

[62roadster]

Thank you, I'll try that,,,

[doubleload]

I connected the 12volt hot lead to the headlight pin but it’s easier to tap into the harness at the plug on the drivers side next to the regulator. This plug has a single green and red wire coming into the plug and double green and double red wires going out to the headlights. The green wires are for all 4 headlights and the red is only the outboard lights. This all works assuming your harness is the same as my hardtop.
Let me know your results?
I’m planning to use two relays, one for the low beams and one for the high beams.
Caution. Considering the unreliability of today’s electrical components, I suggest wiring in the relay parallel to the stock wiring. This way if (when) the relay fails, you have the stock system still connected as a backup. Both of my old cars have some ancient relays that still work but new replacement stuff fails.

[arunice]

Yes. I bought h4 bulb accepting headlights off fleabay. Had to modify the a bit so they were orientated correctly and slapped some led bulbs inside. They're glass.

The bulbs have cooling motors so had to cut a little room in the backside of the housing.

Its all hidden and looks factoryish.