Hi all,

I'm one of those people that likes research all my options before buying something..

Currently in the process of "researching" 7in/178mm H4 Headlights WITHOUT parklight option. I'd like to keep the classic style lense rather than changing to an alien looking LED.. What direction should I be looking? Hella? Narva? Etc etc...

Thanks in advance.

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1964 MORRIS 850 - POST ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE CAFE RACER INSPIRED.

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1098 +0.40
266 Kent Cam
GR Flat top pistons
HS6
1.3:1 Roller tip rockers
Stupid high CR

I ended up choosing the Wipac Quadoptic units, mainly as they have a nice curved profile that suits the front of a round nose mini. You can get them with or without the parking lights. Some of the other units you can buy have a flat front on them which looks really strange on a round nose

Wipac unit on the LHS of the car in this photo


Here are my old H4 units, you can see how the lens sticks out past the chrome retaining ring and looks a bit weird

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I run the Wipacs too.
They have provision for a park lamp but you don't need to use it. Mine have a plastic plug there.

Edit
I had a set of Hella H4 previously and the beam cutoff on low beam was rubbish, high beam wasn't so hot either.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Cibie do a 7" housing without the park light. With some decent globes (Osram in my case) and 14 volts up 'em, they're the best headlights of any of our four cars!

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Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Choose two.

If you can find a few old cars in the local wreckers ... yeah right a lot of older cars had 7” round light units. Newer (old:) units will be sealed beam but separate bulb units used to be quite common ...and modern H bulbs use the same physical/electrical connections....

I used to have a set of such bowl/lens units from an old Land Rover with modern halogen bulbs that worked quite well. Eventually the reflectors were getting a little toooo tired so I replaced them with modern Hella units. Theses have a slightly less convex face than shown in the photos above ... but I don’t spend much time staring at them....

Interestingly, both these and the original Lucas units on an 850 down in the shed, sit exactly like those in Timmys photo.... one sticks out a bit further than the other...

IMHO , if you value originality, head for the scrapyard. Otherwise modern lenses and shiny new reflectors will give better performance. And, if you can, make sure you get glasss/metal units. I’ve seen modern high powered bulbs do nasty things to modern plastic housings......

Cheers, Ian

I'm with Stuwey. Have Hellas on 1 mini but they aren't quite as good as Cibie. Cibie have a very even spread of light on low beam, then a good spread further away on high beam as well as a pencil beam into the distance.
Definitely try the Osram globes ("Nightbreakers" ??) with whatever lights you choose. The Osram globes improved the old Camry lights too.
Cibie have curved lenses similar to original Lucas; come with or without parking light. Downside is they have become very expensive recently.
Don't have any experience with Wipac although they have been around for a long time.

The H4 housings in my car came from a 80s Honda City at the wreckers for something like $9 each - they are a very similar shape to the original sealed beams, and don't have the parker.

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Sapphire Blue Deluxe spread across three parts cars, two sheds and a driveway...

I went with the Wipacs too because they look more original etc. and give the best pattern out of the ones I tried over the years (haven’t tried Cibie, but not a fan of Hella). I also fitted a pair of Stedi H4 LED bulbs. Simply fantastic lights.

And since it hasn't been mentioned yet, it's really worth putting some relays in if you haven't already. Not much point putting in new bulbs when you're already down a couple volts. Relays will make big difference to your headlight brightness.

+1 for the relays. Essential if staying with H4s IMHO.

Do the Cibie have the correct profile like the Wipac so that they look correct ?

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By some miracle my original Lucas sealed beams are not too bad. These shots are Early morning approaching Alpine Way recently. Car still runs a generator too! A lot has to do with clean connections I think.




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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

It depends on which model Cibie. My old lights above were Cibies

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Can you run the Stedi LED bulbs on a positive earth mini ?

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Find a job you love and you will never have to go to work !