[steve392]

I'm looking at upgrading the headlights on my '41 Willys. Currently I have the unit marketed by Willys Replacement Parts that consists of a plastic bucket which mounts to the fiberglass body from the inside and a metal reflector cup that mounts to the bucket with three adjustment screws/springs. Installed in the reflector is a halogen H4 bulb. Covering the whole assembly is a separate glass lens. Photo attached shows the setup with the glass lens removed.
Although the headlights are fairly bright, I would like to do better, both in brightness and light pattern. I've started looking at LED replacement bulbs, but most of them have a rather large heatsink or cooling fan attached to the back of the bulb. Depending upon the dimensions of the bulb, I may get one to fit but I'm not sure this is the way to go.
Another option, and the one that I'm leaning toward is the Holley Retrobright lights. These are essentially a sealed beam unit with interchangeable LED modules.
My only concern with these is that i'm essentially using two lenses to direct the light, the lens that is part of the sealed beam unit and the separate Willys lens.
Does anyone have experience with putting a sealed beam behind another lens? There's plenty of other models that use a lens, such as the '37 Ford, etc. so I'm sure its been done. I'm thinking that the second lens will disrupt/disburse the sealed beam pattern and produce an unacceptable pattern.

 

[steve392]

They're not as bright as I would like. Not bad, certainly better that a regular sealed beam. I'm in rural deer country, and there's almost as many deer here as peope. I don't do a lot of night driving for this reason and I want all of the help I can get. The major plus in changing out to a more modern setup is that the beam is much wider, lighting up the sides of the road better. Unless the Willys glass lens negates that....
I've watched a few youtube videos from this company:

www.headlightrevolution.com

A lot of good information on their videos, I'll give them a call and get their opinion of a lens in front of a sealed beam, but I think I know the answer. I'm also looking at just installing the best halogen H4 bulb. Osram Night Stalker is supposed to be the brightest out there, but the width of the beam is more critical.

 

[steve392]

Update:
I made some phone calls, both to Holley and to Headlight Revolution and asked their tech department about putting another lens over the sealed beam headlight.
Holley had no information on it, and could not give any guidance regarding the beam pattern but didn't think it would work out well. No one had asked that question before. Headlight Revolution had the same response: no has asked that before, but the beam pattern would definately be changed by the second lens.
Headlight Revolution did recommend an LED bulb that would fit, but the LED's all have a large heat sink and fan assembly on the back of the bulb that wouldn't fit inside the plastic bucket. Probably running these LED's would require re-working the bucket for fitment and adding cooling/ventilation holes. Not going to do that.
So, for now I ordered up the brightest, farthest reaching H4 halogen bulbs that I could find, make sure the alignment is correct and leave well enough alone.
Steve