Hi Guys

Been reading up on the sealed beam mod but i cant figure it out. I understand that you use a bucket like what was in say a HK Holden and the sealed beam sits in that and then the ring slips HK Holden ring sits over the sealed beam and screws to the bucket.

But how do you hold the bucket into the VW Chrome ring and also how does the two headlight adjustment screws work.

Here is a pic of my 73 Beetle headlight.

you need all the mounting hard ware out of an old holden or similar and fix it to the headlight bowls

a better choice is to get some semi sealed vw lights as used in 75 on

sealed beams are a pain in the arse as you have to replace the whole headlight insert if one of the filaments blows and they also have no parker which is needed for vws

If you use the T2/Golf/T1 semi sealed headlamp units they mount on 3 brackets in the guard bucket,then use either the original chrome housing with the adjusting screws removed or a couple of new ones without the adjusters to cover them. These lights are available at a reasonable price from most VW suppliers. If you can't find any give me a call. Cheers Les

Sealed beam bucket assemblies from Morris Mini Minors fit easily and well.

I recently fitted two to my 1970 1500 Beetle. They cost $88 complete with a matched set of sealed beams.

You need to trim the rubber sealing grommet in the Beetle headlamp hole as the Mini Grommet gets in the way.

You need to make up a couple of small angle brackets which you need to pop rivet to the lower right side of the hole as you look at it, to have three places to hold the Mini buckets in the hole.

Make sure that Mini buckets are in the centre of the Beetle hole, remove the big long screws on the chromed VW cover and it will fit nicely. To adjust the headlights the cover needs to be removed.

If you have a small area in your sealed beams for parking lights, get a couple of plastic tail light globe holders from a modern car and fit them by attachng them with self tapping screws to the inner frame, or get a couple of small white lights and fit them to the front of the mudguards. They must not be more tha 400mm from the outside edge of the car.

Les

Your option sounds good, these brackets, are they also available or can you take them off the T2/Golf/T1 and weld or rivet them into the 73 original bucket. Also, do they have a decent park light in them as well.

Thanks Trev

My 75L bug is now running these semi sealed beam units. It originally had the normal VW headlights, but I got the semi sealed beam units quite a few years ago. I found that my headlight buckets already had the brackets in them, I just had to bend them out to use them I will try and get a photo of them tomorrow.
A lot of the semi sealed beam lights take a normal quartz-halogen globe (with the 3 tongues on the base), so for quite a few years, I have been running 140/100w lights. I reckon they are much better than the lights on the 94 VR6 golf that my wife had, and even better than the lights in her current 05 V5 Bora.

hope your running relays with some heavier wiring with wattage that high jeff,

ive melted stuff just with 110/80W

clinker, the vw semi sealed are a bolt in job on late model bugs, the mounting brakets are already there
thats all i run with 100/80w artic blue xenons and like jeff said they crap all over most modern car lights

george has them for $79



or the ugly 3 chamber ones with foglights for $59

Jeff and Joel are right,the brackets are already in the guards,this is a much better option than messing around with sealed beams which will probably screw onto the same points. The other advantage as Jeff says is that you can use the plus 60 or better globes Cheers

Yeah Joel, I am running extra relays. I have had them for 10 or 12 years now with no problems except the occasional rock through the lens.

You guys say it's a bolt on job for late beetles...what about early ones. Do need to adjust, tweak or modify existing housings....I have a 62 and a 58 ??

Troy

the question is whether you have the mounts in the head light buckets, if not you will need to add them.

What about the adjustment, what do you do for screws.

Trev

the mounts have their own adjustment screws on it. do not do what i have seen and use the adjustment screws to fix it in place and then wonder why it doesnt stay put.
im currently running the 3 chamber units with narva plus 50s they make night in to day.

If for some reason your 68 and on guards didn't have the mounting tabs, I don't reckon it would be that hard to bolt or even pop rivet or screw some angle brackets on. I meant to take photos today and forgot, so I will try tomorrow.

Hi

I did the conversion on my daily, I was running Narva +50s they were much better than high wattage halogen bulbs and don't need relays etc, I used these in Hella H4 semi sealed beam units.

I'm going to go with some Narva Arctic blues next.

To convert to sealed beams in an early car you can actually buy US spec headlights that will hold a sealed beam unit, putting better headlights under another set of lenses defeats the purpose.

The fully sealed beams aren't much good, better of with the semi sealed beams.

Steve

I finally got a chance to take photos of my semi-sealed beam headlights and the mounting tabs in the headlight bucket. As you can see, it is a fairly simple arrangement.
I hope this helps.

Picture is worth a thousand words.

Thanks heaps guys, have read so many posts on this subject but it was never really clear on details, now with the explanations and those pictures, its all completely clear and by the looks of it, very easy, even if i have to make the brackets.

This should be a how to sticky

Thanks again guys, great help

I've always used Hella semi sealed beams with QH H4 bulbs now Xenon +50s best headlamps i've ever seen...

but I do My own basic thing putting the lights in early ford buckets and attaching them to the chromed VW ring bolts

so to adjust the lamps I have to take them off the car.. lol

H4 sealed beams weren't bad but seem to crack more easily than semi sealed beams...
the lights will still work but are illegal because they are cracked... but if bulb blows -chuck them away..

LEE

Hi

I was looking through a Narva catalogue today and spotted these sealed beam bases.

Steve