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Sealed beams - Land Rover Series 3 fettling


N Dentressangle

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I find owning a set of corroded sealed beams strangely irresistible.

 

Beer tokens and postage offered.

The glue failed on my halogen "sealed beams" fed-spec lamps in the Renault. I threw the old ones away but there is a picture in my GTA thread somewhere about it.

 

Picked up a new pair for peanuts off the clearance rack at Walmart.

 

Phil

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Call it corrosion, call it tarnishing, call it losing the initial reflectiive properties, the fact is that they degrade over time (note that others above have made the point that a new sealed beam meaning a new reflector is a good thing).

 

But what do I know; I've only been messing around with them for 25 or so years. Obviously my eyes deceive me, and I bow the the superior knowledge of all things automotive that you obviously posess.

 

I know that you find contradicting everything on here as some form of game but I, like Saabnut, find it pretty tedious.

 

Okay, let me say it in a way even the intellectually challenged like you should understand:

 

I would like to buy a pair of tarnished sealed beams from you, please, and I offer you a bit of money for them, obviously not a stupid amount, and I will obviously pay for the postage.

 

I have not owned a tarnished sealed beam in 45 years and would like to have a pair for my collection.

How anybody could possibly interpret this appeal as contradicting everything or suggesting superior knowledge of all things automotive is beyond me. Seriously. Maybe you should take this up with your therapist. On the NHS, i.e. me.

 

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Edited by Pillock
Edited by Pillock: No need for the personal abuse, we get it.
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I was followed on the M25 by a Defender fitted with LED headlamps like the ones on this page.

 

They looked fucking hideous, but after paying 10 times the price of normal headlamps I should hope the driver could at least see where he was going.

I saw an old 90 with them on the other day - it looked both startled and embarrassed
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as explained in my previous post

 

a real/proper sealed beam lamps reflector wont tarnish/corrode unless the lamps broken and air has gotten in somehow

 

however one thing that some might perceive as such is, remember they are a tungsten lightbulb

 

and im sure you are all aware of how tungsten lightbulbs blacken over time from evaporated tungsten being deposited on the glass bulb

 

well the same thing of course happens in a sealed beam lamp, and the reflector can blacken from this as well (although how much this happens in an automative lamp im not sure, as I dont have any in my collection sadly) and some may perceive it as the reflector tarnishing etc

 

I hope this helps clears things up a bit :)

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LightBulbFun, I begin to understand your fascination with the devices failing at the speed of dark.
For decades, it was just a nuisance for me that I had to remove one light here and put another one there, just to make something even the septics grasp legal on another continent.

I'm baffled that I now am surrounded by dolts who can't tell a 7 inch sealed beam from a 7 1/4 one.

Mind you, I'm the one accused to be a smartarse when it comes to cars, not the ones that still have to learn what we already forgot.

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ahh the fun of US car regulations :)

 

IIRC they demanded sealed beams for a long time, and really dragged their feat in terms of what a head light could and could not be (I remember seeing my first rectangular sealed beam, from a friends S10 pickup, that was funky LOL)

 

going by how you used to own a Pontiac Straight 8 did you spend time living in the states? :)

 

 

 

I understood it the first time around, thanks.

 

Cool :) , I just wanted to clear things up a bit, because you and Beep are both correct sort of :) (Beep could well have corroded sealed beams in his shed, and how your right that a working sealed beams reflector wont ever corrode)

 

im also trying to keep things amicable here by clearing things up and helping people understand things better :)

 

 

Call it corrosion, call it tarnishing, call it losing the initial reflectiive properties, the fact is that they degrade over time (note that others above have made the point that a new sealed beam meaning a new reflector is a good thing).

 

But what do I know; I've only been messing around with them for 25 or so years.  Obviously my eyes deceive me, and I bow the the superior knowledge of all things automotive that you obviously posess.

 

I know that you find contradicting everything on here as some form of game but I, like Saabnut, find it pretty tedious.

 
I do think in this case Junkman may have been genuinely curious about them :)
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OK then, sealed beam fetishists. Here's the Lucas lamp on the LR:

 

YE6QGo5.jpg

 

and here's the Unipart version on the o/s: 

 

K8SfyxN.jpg

 

obviously not fitted as I now have to buy another fucking headlamp bucket in Bristol today. Bollocks.

 

Anyway, it's lucky I don't have any hint of OCD as the lenses are quite different. The Lucas one is kind of what you'd expect, whereas the Unipart one looks like some kind of kaleidoscope.

 

Weird, huh?

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For fucks sake, I DID NOT DOUBT THAT AGGRESSIVE DOLT'S WORDS FOR A SECOND!

I JUST WANTED TO HAVE A PAIR OF THOSE!

 

God, please let it rain braincells. Aim them at BeEP, because he is in most dire need of them.

Yawn. The junkman act is getting really tired these days, 2/10.

 

Slagging people off on the dark wob is a really classy move too.

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Aaaanyway...

 

Thing of beauty and wondrous usefulness picked up from Moss in Bristol this morning:

 

QI1zAWT.jpg

 

I do like Moss, and I like buying stuff from them because it keeps them in business, but I wonder how they keep the lights on in the physical shops. I will be very pissed off when places like this and Christian Autos in Kingswood disappear. A kwality bit too, better than the Ebay tat on the other side. Must be from a different Chinese factory.

 

I cleaned up all the wiring at the junction behind the grille, too. All glass papered, tightened and tidied, so now all is good:

 

heeeRoa.jpg

 

Well, as good as you'll ever get with fucking sealed beams... 

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OK then, sealed beam fetishists. Here's the Lucas lamp on the LR:

 

YE6QGo5.jpg

 

and here's the Unipart version on the o/s: 

 

K8SfyxN.jpg

 

obviously not fitted as I now have to buy another fucking headlamp bucket in Bristol today. Bollocks.

 

Anyway, it's lucky I don't have any hint of OCD as the lenses are quite different. The Lucas one is kind of what you'd expect, whereas the Unipart one looks like some kind of kaleidoscope.

 

Weird, huh?

 

interesting stuff, do you have a picture of the markings on the back?

 

that would give me some more info and potentially let me date them too :)

 

I do have some 300W PAR56 (7 inch) Stage lamps, which use the same glass as automotive lamps, (right down to where you can see the unused bump for the 3rd pin) it will be interesting to compare glass patterns :)

 

lamps sizes are generally rated in 8th of an inch, so PAR56 means the lamp is 56 8th of inch across LOL (and yall complain about metric and imperial :mrgreen: )
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I'll have a look tomorrow.

 

You'll be pleased to know I found that one of sealed beams I took out of Mrs D's Mini was an identical pattern Lucas to the n/s lamp, so I swapped it into the o/s of the Land Rover. Oddly, the other Lucas taken from the Mini was a similar 'stepped' lens pattern to the Unipart from the Land Rover, so they now reside as a pair.

 

I've still got two halogen Autopa Chinesium lamps which are too sodding big, mind you.

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I do like Moss, and I like buying stuff from them because it keeps them in business, but I wonder how they keep the lights on in the physical shops. I will be very pissed off when places like this and Christian Autos in Kingswood disappear. A kwality bit too, better than the Ebay tat on the other side. Must be from a different Chinese factory.

 

I used to wonder that too when sat on the M32 getting into work. Then I bought an old British car. They're certainly not the cheapest (http://MSC.parts are a fair bit cheaper) however I figured I save money as no shipping costs and I can buy stuff when I need it right then. Also they have 12 months return period if parts are unused.

 

Very handy if you own one of their supported marques. I can get far more same day for my MGB than either of my modern cars!

 

I think people travel far and wide to go to the local stores. Especially when needing big bulky items and not wanting to risk damage by the couriers. Or just wanting to see the item first.

 

My only gripe is that they've changed their times to late opening on a Tuesday and got rid of the Saturday morning opening. I much prefer going on a Saturday morning to get everything I needed for the weekend than when working, trotting down at lunch time.

 

Didn't know about that place in Kingswood. What sort of things do they do? Proper rummage out the back for NOS Lucas parts and the like?

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Sweeping generalisation/ I do wonder if people confuse "the amount of light required to drive safely" with "the amount of light other cars emit therefore I need/want too" /sweeping generalisation.

 

 

 

The amount of light required to drive safely in a Ford Puma basically means about 15 minutes per day. 

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heres one of my GE Medium Flood 300W PAR56 lamps, you can quite clearly see the unused 3rd "hole" (not actually a hole) that would be populated with a pin if it was an automative lamp :)

the pattern on the front is all the same through out, I imagine as its just going for a medium flood there not aiming for any specific beam pattern/shape just something thats uniform

 

post-25614-0-80188600-1552698135_thumb.jpg

post-25614-0-28350400-1552698150_thumb.jpg

 

(if you wanted to get silly, they do make these in 12V form LOL)

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Didn't know about that place in Kingswood. What sort of things do they do? Proper rummage out the back for NOS Lucas parts and the like?

 

It's a Land Rover parts specialist, but as I guess so much stuff is common they might be of use to you at some point. They're open on Sat mornings as well.

 

It's a very old school place, run by a guy with an encyclopaedic LR knowledge, and yes, he does disappear into the back somewhere to rummage and find the bit you need!

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As I said, this gets used for trialling with my local club:

 

https://www.ccroc.club/

 

Generally all you need to compete is the same stuff as the LR would need to pass an MoT anyway, as well as carrying stuff like a rope and hi vis. All the rules are set down by the Association of Land Rover Clubs (ALRC), with plenty of stipulations about which bits you're allowed to modify and upgrade and what has to be standard.

 

They recently tightened the regs on fire extinguishers, so I bolted this lovely red shiny thing in this morning:

 

qiLDVj5.jpg

 

Mmmm, shiny.

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Junkman, I don't think BeEP took you seriously with your offer to buy some headlamps. No need to go straight to the abuse though, eh? I've edited the personal stuff out, feel free to have a go at me.

 

BeEP: I think Junkman wants to buy some headlamps, despite you not thinking they're very good. I don't think he minds.

 

 

*sigh*

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Not quite sure why Pillock bothered fiddling with the posts and what he hoped to achieve?

 

1) I'm sure BeEP doesn't need protecting by modding posts

2) BeEP has already seen the posts anyway and most who were interested in this sort of thread have read them too

3) Just risks unnecessary argument by editing

4) Conversation and thread has already moved on and this has just brought it back up and to the end of this thread

5) Why did the posts need straightening out anyway? It's a bit late if the aim was to stop any argument!

 

So well done to Mr Pillock in potentially derailing this thread again. Thanks! :thumbsup:

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heres one of my GE Medium Flood 300W PAR56 lamps, you can quite clearly see the unused 3rd "hole" (not actually a hole) that would be populated with a pin if it was an automative lamp :)

the pattern on the front is all the same through out, I imagine as its just going for a medium flood there not aiming for any specific beam pattern/shape just something thats uniform

 

attachicon.gifImage from iOS (59).jpg

attachicon.gifImage from iOS (60).jpg

 

(if you wanted to get silly, they do make these in 12V form LOL)

 

Back in the mists of time when I was building nightclub light and sound, nearly all of the lamps were repurposed from their original market.

 

Par56 clearly started life as an automotive sealed beam design, Par36 6v 30w parallel beams were originally tractor headlights and Par64 28v 250w parallel beams  were commercial aircraft landing lights.

 

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Back in the mists of time when I was building nightclub light and sound, nearly all of the lamps were repurposed from their original market.

 

Par56 clearly started life as an automotive sealed beam design, Par36 6v 30w parallel beams were originally tractor headlights and Par64 28v 250w parallel beams  were commercial aircraft landing lights.

 

and the 6V 30W pin spot :)

 

http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20Sheets/IN%20R%20GE%2030PAR36VNSP-4515.htm

 

however the PAR56 designs did not come from automotive applications initially :) (well the mains voltage PAR56 lamp originated from flood lighting applications, but im not sure what the first PAR56 lamp was overall) http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec%20Sheets/TH%20RA%20Thorn%20PAR64%20CP60.htm

 

but your right that the entertainment industry does have a fascinating history of repurposing and adapting lamps to their applications when no off the shelf lamp exists :)

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