[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [New Search]
All of the H-4 conversion lamps, I listed, I have sources for and have seen most of them on cars and trucks. That is how meticulous I am when finding my data out.The complaint that I heard from a VW guy about Hella was that the casting in the glass had some imperfections, maybe when pulled out of the mold. These imperfections are noticed in the beam pattern. These were German. This guy first found this out when he read an article on the internet that mentioned this, so ever since when he turned his lights on it knawed at him to see the imperfections. No one knows something is not perfect until someone points it out which is bad, especially for a perfectionist. Some peoples perfection approaches Cibie or Marchal and they only follow these well known main brands. I heard good things about Bosch too. The most perfect casting I have personally seen were Wagners from Brazil and they had all the VW bug/type 3 attaching hardware like springs, brackets and adjusters etc... all stainless steel with machined brass adjusting screws, the back of the reflector looked like dark blue porcelan, the crystal lens looked "whiter" and clearer than the others, the casting was so perfect and sharp that it almost looked like cut glass, it even had a city light and H-4 bulb included. These made the "good" brands look like cheap quality. The seller even hooked it up to a battery and sent a sharp crisp beam to a dark wall and showed me the uniformaty of the beam. The only problem is that he had only one light left so I waited and this was sold. Later I found out that his source could no longer find these. This was a mom and pop VW store in Mexico that were selling these for 23.00 dollars. He is still looking for them but thinks something happened to the manufacturer. Wagner USA has no information on the company that uses their Name in Brazil. Has anyone ever heared of these ? Does anyone have a source for these? In Mexico there are very similar ones with all of the same hardware, like springs, adjusters etc... but the material and quality does not approach what I saw in the Wagner unit, they cost the same too. If you see the cheaper ones you would probably think they were of very good quality. But if you saw the Wagner first you would see all other units as cheap. It's kind of like a child that has a small lollypop and saw another childs giant lolly pop and cries when he sees his. I kind of got spoiled after seeing the Wagner, it was the bigger lollypop. The ones I am now considering are the American e-code units made by IPF. These are for offroad only because they are e-code, they do not come with city lights but they sell something called MAGIC BULBS that glows 10 minutes after one turns the light off, Kind of like delayed shutdown that uses no power but phosphoresence that glows blue or green for ten minutes. These lights use the regular 55/65 watts but put out an equivalent of a 110/150 watt light so no extra wiring is needed. A hella adapter for city lights is also avaialble that requires no drilling but goes in before installing the H-4 lamp. Offroaders are more discriminatory about lighting than most people because to get to their offroad destinations they must drive far. Upon arriving, at the wilderness there are no street lights or other lighting on the dirt trail, it is usually pitch black. I heared many American offroaders are prefering this brand because of the extra thick tempered lense designed to resist road debris and water cracks during high heat operation. The reflector is double coated and the pattern is very sharp. Sellers say that these make the Hellas look dim. Thats their opinion. Not only the sellers mention this information and its strengths but also offroaders have placed articles about these, so I will try these out if I cannot get the Brazilian Wagners. Has anybody seen those Brazilian ones? I will let you know what I get and how they work. I will order those magic bulbs right now just to have them first, got to see that cool blue afterglow. LEON MARTINEZ 1969 SQUAREBACK EFI/AUTO SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Search old messages on the Web! Visit http://www.vwtype3.org/list/