How can you add a little bit of technology to your classic car?  There are options to add modern HID headlights and give your car a distinctive look that shows your true appreciation for exceptional automobiles.  After the HID headlight craze hit with modern cars that use H4 style bulbs some innovative products have hit the market to allow classic car fanatics to join in on the fun.

For classic cars that used a sealed beam headlight you were pretty much stuck with a standard halogen headlight bulb.  Fortunately that is no longer the case.  On the market now are adapter bulb housings that are meant to hold H4 style bulbs.  This means that you can now integrate HID headlights into your lighting system through the use of a HID conversion kit and a headlight housing adapter.
photo credit: exxodus

These HID conversion kits will include all the items that you require to make use of H4 style headlight bulbs, ballasts and ignitors. One part that may get somewhat messy is converting your old headlight connector into a H4 connector.  Most auto parts stores carry the adapter that is needed to finish off your connections.  Just pick up a set of these adapters and then splice the adapters into the existing wiring harness.  Be sure to take the extra time carefully strip the original wiring, being sure to leave as much of the existing wiring intact as to make sure that you leave enough slack to make your connection most sturdy.  I also suggest that you dig out the old soldering iron and rosin core for a good solid connection.  The last thing you want to do is hit a pothole and find that one of those cheesy crimp connectors has come loose and leave you flying blind because your HID headlight has gone out due to a faulty electrical connection. You can read more about HID conversion kits in this previous writeup:  What are my HID conversion kit options?

Now that you know that these are available for your classic car, you are probably wondering where you can get them. Fortunately there are several outlets online that will give you choice of different size, shape and color for the sealed beam replacement housing.  Once you have the housings then you will need to make a decision about which direction you are looking to go; standard H4 bulbs or make the jump to a full HID conversion kit. Either way you will not have to replace an entire sealed beam headlight again.  You’ll also get the bonus of brighter headlights with many more options available to you.  Another word of caution, be sure to seek out a HID conversion kit that is marked DOT approved and also includes either a DOT approved card or sticker.  This will help ensure that the HID headlights that you are running are street legal and keep you of traffic court.  A second bit of advice is to be sure that you align your headlights.  Please take a look at the article that I have written about how to to do that:  How to properly align headlights.

Now your classic car is no longer relegated to have old, expensive dim headlights.  You can add HID headlights and make your car look awesome even when the sun goes down.  If you take your time and do thorough research and you will certainly find the best HID conversion kit to give years of worry free lighting.