I came across a Halogen light bulb kit on EBay. It has two headlights parking and tail light bulbs. I heard along time ago that Halogen bulbs burn hotter than conventional bulbs. But Halogen bulbs burn much brighter.
My car has the original fabric covered wiring that was used in 1955. Has anyone converted to halogen bulbs? Did it do any damage to the orignal wiring?
Any responses are appriciated, and thanks for your time.
I have quartz-halogen bulbs in my headlights. But I selected ones that draw the same power as the original and I have a reproduction wiring harness that is in good condition so the situation is slightly different. For the same power a quartz-halogen bulb will put out about 40% more light than a conventional incandescent bulb, so I thought it was a good idea to swap bulbs even if the same wattage.
I don't know that I'd use them in an enclosed space made of plastic though because of the heat. Not an issue for my car, but it might be for a car from the 1950s.
To be on the safe side and assure proper performace of the Halogen bulbs, it would probably a good idea to run them through a relay or pair of relays. The would take the load from the power source remotely from the switch and the long circuit to the lamps. Then you would actually lessening the load on the headlamp circuit through the original wire/s. as the relay/s draw very little current during operation.
The relay/s could be mounted to pass the high load power through the junction block, or mounted on the lamp side of the junction block and run to the lamps directly from the relay/s with new wire up to the requiremets of the job. Wattage draw is wattage draw regardless of the appliance. so a 35 watt incandecent lamp requires the same amt of power as a 35 watt halogen lamp. But as noted the lamps converts those watts more efficiently to light and heat.
What ever you do make sure your lamps have excellent grounds and other connectors.