67 Mustang HID headlights/Halo install

Hi! dne’ here with another mod to my ’67 Mustang coupe! I thought a set of these HID/Halo lights from www.Prostreetlighting.com would really dress up the front end! The sealed beams are so, “old school”, whereas these lights will light up the road and look great!

 

 

First we need to back up and take a look at the sealed beams that most cars came with earlier on. I can imagine the eye strain back in the day(night) while driving. What am I talking about! I drove with those old sealed beams! 😉 Nice looking Mustang! I built it! OMG!;)

 

I never realized how dim and yellow these lights are!

 

Here below, a comparison between the two, sealed beam on the right (like I had to tell you), HID on the driver’s side.

 

Here on low beam, you can just make out the yellowish beam from the sealed beam on the right, whereas on the drivers side is a bright white light.

 

 

Here the high beam has totally lit up my neighbor’s home, and that’s just the HID from the driver’s side!;) However, just don’t use the high beams around town, might piss someone off! You still see the yellowishness(is that a word?) on the right side.

 

 

Let’s take a look at the bulb generating all this light and its assembly: and problem solving;)

The tip of the pen points at a spot which should give clearance to the bulb housing. With the spring retainer removed, it was a little difficult to remove the regular bulb these lights came with. Where the tip of the pen is pointing, that should have been flat. It was a little testy getting the old bulb out, won’t be using this bulb anyway.

 

Here on the new housing for the HID bulb, I used my Dremmel with a thin cutoff wheel and modified it to fit better.

 

On the new bulb housing, I used my dremmel with a thin cutting wheel to shave off a little bit to clear that one spot. Didn’t I say that already?

 

 

HID bulb on the right~ the other bulb to be discarded is just resting on the ballast for picture-taking.

 

 

The bulb can relatively easily be separated by twisting it apart, so if the bulb should ever burn out, it can be replaced. This also allows for installation of the rubber boot.

 

 

The boot can now be kind of pulled back, then insert the bulb into its socket by a simple twist, then fold the boot back down for a good seal.

 

I assembled mine on the kitchen table~;)  Don’t worry, Gary(husband) doesn’t mind!

 

With the old sealed beam removed, looks to be adequate room for the back of the new lights, wrong, however the depth was fine. I was actually kind of worried about that.

 

 

However, the rubber seal on back of the new light is larger in diameter than the hole in the headlight bucket where it’s supposed to go! No biggy:) We run into stuff like this, you just fix it!

 

 

In making the hole larger in the headlight bucket to accommodate the new light, I had to enlarge the hole in the headlight bucket.  I just happen to have a hole saw to make the perfect sized hole! Unfortunately it didn’t work as planned and wound up cutting it the rest of the way with my dremmel with a thin cutoff wheel. I’ll have to reconsider this on the other side!

However, I did get the hole enlarged and I did paint the raw metal and cleaned the roughness up too. You didn’t think I’d leave it like that do you!!

 

 

To make the next hole enlargement, I used my air nibbler. This is a remarkable tool as it does what it says, it nibbles away at the metal and does it quickly leaving behind little finger nail looking clippings. Fantastic tool for cutting sheet metal!

 

I made a very nice hole enlargement in a 1/4 of the time the way I did it before! Right tool for the job! I believe these can be bought at HF for a reasonable price.

 

 

Headlight comparison and the Halo:

Hey, how about a comparison between old and new! How could I forget! I just turned 59~ I have the right to forget a little here and there~ right!;)

 

My oh my~ that new light looks great and it’s not even on my Stang!

 

 

Let’s talk about the Halo for a second or two as that’s why I was drawn to these lights in the first place!

The halo is basically composed of two lights on each new light, thus 2 grounds/2 hot wires to make it work. I connected it to my parking lights. As pretty as the green is~ it’s drowned out by the HID lights when they’re on:( But with the headlights on, you can’t see the green anyway, not no way, not no how!

 

I pulled the wires together and used 2 shrink wraps to insulate and protect the wiring.

 

There may have been a better way to run the Halo wiring, but this will have to do. I should have put a grommet, but instead I just wrapped enough shrink-wrap and electrical wire, there should be no chance of wires shorting out.

 

On the driver’s side, that screw in there had to be removed. It’s a close fit for the back of the new light, but doesn’t touch that metal part in there.

 

uh hum, here’s a pile of tools I accumulated during the installation, not counting what went on on my work bench. How did I wind up with 2 hammers on the scene?lol

 

 

The Ballasts for the HID and installation:

Here the passenger side ballast is attached by some screws. It’s nicely installed in an inconspicuous place which won’t be seen! I’m so clever!;)

 

Same goes for the driver’s side, just a little variation in where it was mounted. There’s plenty of wire to mount it.

 

Here shows the length as there is plenty of lead wire, etc.

 

 

Wrapping up for the “finish”~ we never finish!;)

All I have left to do is adjust the lights, then put the trim rings back on.

High beam:

Low beam:

Trim ring back on complimenting the nice “headlight”. That’s nice!

Crazy bright white light! Love it!

I have a headlight relay kit coming from Speedway motors. That will supply direct 12 volts to the headlight ballast vs going through the headlight switch. I’ll add that on here after I’m done and probably make another blog on that.   Oh oh, I have a set of green ground affects/effects(?) from Prostreetlighting too (call Randy for advise and prices @ 619-477-2935), but I’ll wait for a nice day to put the Mustang up on my Maxjax lift to complete that task.

As usual, I hope this has been informative and a little entertaining! Please subscribe to my Classic Cars and tools! Your car enthusiast~ dne’

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Update! I received the Headlight relay kit from Speedway motors and installed it today. It’s quite easy, the most difficult part is deciding where you’d put the 2 relays and running of the wires.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Headlight-Relay-Harness-Kit,58825.html

Here the two relays with the YLE on them are secured with some screws.

 

There’s plenty of wiring to get the job done. I suppose on a much wider car/truck, all the extra wiring would be necessary, but the Mustang is rather narrow.

I decided to shorten the loom which leads to the driver’s side.

 

So, pulled out my trusty soldering gun, cut, spliced, soldered, then used some heat shrink insulation.

Heat shrink is the coolest stuff, just heat it and it shrinks!

Honestly, there’s not much to say about the headlight relay, I thought it was going to be a more thought involved, but didn’t take long at all, but I had the grill already out. I think it’s a worthwhile upgrade for sure. It just relieves stress off of the headlight switch and puts 12 volt right at the headlights for brighter lights!

Thank you for visiting Classic Cars and Tools!  dne’