Yellow headlights bugbear, is it me?

[Stinkwheel]

We all like a certain ‘look’ on out retro and classic vehicles. We all know about a full pineapple VW or similar with the usual scene tax items of roof rack, fake patina etc etc 

but when did something like the rather quaint legal requirement of French vehicles to have yellow headlamps, like this 2CV below, turn into full scale VW lickers and the like adding it into their ‘scene’ look? Like the golf also below? 
 

I make no apologies for being a French  car fan and the associated look at times, but why adopt something that isn’t part of your vehicles look? For effect? A windup? Being oblivious as to the origin and use? 
 

feel free to tell me to shut up or naff off, it’s been one of those days 

 

[Six-cylinder]

When you took your British car to France you used to have put yellow headlight covers on them or you would be flashed by angry French men.

I added yellow fog lights to my GS just because I liked the look.

[LightBulbFun]

3 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

When you took your British car to France you used to have put yellow headlight covers on them or you would be flashed by angry French men.

 

I believe they also had some sort of beam deflector built into them also?

 

 

 

 

I do agree, the things people stick yellow headlights/bulbs into can get a bit silly at times!

[Spiny Norman]

It used to be the case that if you went to France and drove around with white lamps at night you'd get irate Frenchmen flashing their (yellow) main beams at you so on a period Froggymobile I think the yellow looks OK, but the law in France was changed in 1993 to full EU compliance for white lights same as everyone else so on anything beyond that date they're wrong. Like black and silver number plates on 80s cars here.

[Stinkwheel]

True and valid points from all, I guess I just wondered why it seemed to have been hijacked. But the answer is obviously, because they like the look, that’s fine. 

im also old enough to remember that driving in France with white lights was a bit of a no no and would get your moaned or flashed at for sure. 
 

[Six-cylinder]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I believe they also had some sort of beam deflector built into them also?

Yes right hand dipper was included with the covers my dad used. Also yellow temporary see through paint was available in small paint on jars.

[PhilA]

21 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes right hand dipper was included with the covers my dad used. Also yellow temporary see through paint was available in small paint on jars.

We had a small bottle of Holts paint-on selective yellow rattling around in our mk1 Fiesta for years after we went to France in 1985. My old man scraped it all off as soon as we got back. I remember the black triangles stuck to the lenses also to prevent glare.

Those were the days. I don't have a problem with the scene adopting the look, but a lot use a thin foil which is totally the wrong color (see: the Golf), usually far too green. 

 

Phil

[busmansholiday]

The frogs introduced yellow lights before WWIi so if you drove around at night with white lights in WWII you were obviously a German invader and fair game to be shot at.  Think they still felt the same for a long time after they were liberated.

[EyesWeldedShut]

I was back and forth a lot in the 1980s and picked up a pair of French H4 bulbs that transpired to just be normal bulbs with a yellow glass cover that clipped over the bulb.
You can (apparently) still get them. I did run my R5GTX with them in for a time and I think they were still in there when I flogged it.
It did cut down your out of town night time vision a bit but, given that we all thought 90HP was the mutts nuts, nobody was going anywhere particularly fast in any case.
https://ecas2cvparts.co.uk/products/yellow-glass-cover-for-our-phb12-bulbs-h4-p45t-flange-will-also-fit-h4-with-p43t-flange-other-vehicles

I have a feeling that the foil tints could trip an MoT failure?

[sierraman]

I recall finding a bottle of Holts Amber Lamp in my dads stuff when he moved house. Presumably from trips to France in the 90’s. I’ve seen it done on cars that definitely weren’t about when the French insisted on the lamps being tinted. Not sure why this is to be honest, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t picked up on the test but it’s probably one of these fads like having the number plate on the dashboard which seems to be prevalent. It would be like shelling peas for the police pulling them over coming out of car shows doling out fines for not displaying a number plate correctly. 

[Austin-Rover]

I've got a set of the glass clip-on covers to turn a normal H4 to selective yellow. Last seen on the left hand drive Maestro. 

I prefer to have yellow fog lamps but I find these days getting decent quality bulbs is a real chore. eBay is just full of LED shite or yellows that are clearly not the correct type. 

 

[skoda_fan]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

Off topic of headlight colour (I'm ambivalent about yellow lights) but that looks great. First time I've seen one that isn't NHS blue and that colour makes it look quite funky imho.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I use 'em coz they're cool. They also make the road signs go yellow, and that's fun. 

 

[carlo]

An entirely sensible motoring decision by the French, we need them back even more now with the current ridiculous level of intensity in modern headlights.

Perhaps they should consider a Frexit and bring them back.

[busmansholiday]

The other thing to consider is that yellow lights are nearly monochromatic (ie single colour). That gives you two advantages;

firstly that yellow is the peak response of the human eye so vision is better,

secondly because it's monochromatic the reflection due to fog is greatly reduced (no prismatic effects).

 

[richardmorris]

I had a set of clip on covers for the bulbs that I used in my cx when in France. Looked cool, but cut down the already inadequate light output.

out of stock, but these….

https://retrospecparts.com/shop/citroen/yellow-glass-cover-for-halogen-headlamp-bulb/

 

[Six-cylinder]

I have a pair of yellow front fog lights ready to fit to the Peugeot 404.

[155V6]

My Dad always used to fit yellow bulbs to the old Renaults he used to run in the seventies & eighties.It was always good when we were waiting for him to pick us up from somewhere at night,you could tell his car straight away.

I think there are probably some yellow bulbs amongst the hoards of stuff we cleared from his house recently in order to sell it,there were definitely this pair of lights which the hoarder in me has kept 😎

[Matty]

1 hour ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

I use 'em coz they're cool. They also make the road signs go yellow, and that's fun. 

 

Oh that's a bit special. Having a moment here if I'm being honest.

[Rusty Pelican]

My 65 Singer has yellow fog lamps , well the bulbs are yellow and thats how they came 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Because I’m cool I used to paint my fog lights yellow, using Stained Glass Paint from Hobby raft. I can’t remember when I stopped, probably when I went almost 100% German about 8 years ago.

Heres one of the last I remember 10 years ago.

[Surface Rust]

I remember painting my dad's 240 headlamps yellow in the '80s ahead of the family holiday in France.

I intend to fit some yellow bulbs to my Acadiane, but I reckon I can get away with it on that as it is LHD and has been imported.

[FakeConcern]

I was sure I had a pic of my first car, a Mini 1000 wearing those clip on yellow beam deflectors, but I could only find this pic of it which doesn't show them.

However I did find a pic of my 1275GT with the same clip ons fitted in Germany.

 

Back to the point of the OP, when I belonged to the Citroen C4 club, several members painted the fog lights yellow despite being too new to have needed it, but at least they were French.

I now belong to a Volvo C30 club and several members have painted the fog lights yellow because they think it looks cool.

[willswitchengage]

I used to run yellow bulbs when I had BXs, mainly because I was a lot younger then and thought it was 'cool'. Brightness was little different to normal bulbs.

I find it looks silly when I see it on other cars though - just a nother lame scene thing.

Was it ever a thing for french cars in the UK to actually use them?

[155V6]

Just wondering,what would happen if you had yellow headlight bulbs & also wore those driving glasses with the yellow lenses? 😜

[richardmorris]

9 minutes ago, willswitchengage said:

I used to run yellow bulbs when I had BXs, mainly because I was a lot younger then and thought it was 'cool'. Brightness was little different to normal bulbs.

I find it looks silly when I see it on other cars though - just a nother lame scene thing.

Was it ever a thing for french cars in the UK to actually use them?

No.

[Joey spud]

I've covered the driving lights on my old Toyota with yellow film and it does improve their effectiveness in fog as the light doesn't bounce back as much.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

26 minutes ago, 155V6 said:

Just wondering,what would happen if you had yellow headlight bulbs & also wore those driving glasses with the yellow lenses? 😜

They'd call you mellow yellow (quite rightly)

[willswitchengage]

33 minutes ago, 155V6 said:

Just wondering,what would happen if you had yellow headlight bulbs & also wore those driving glasses with the yellow lenses? 😜

Ali G wore them, safety first.

 

[wuvvum]

7 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I was back and forth a lot in the 1980s and picked up a pair of French H4 bulbs that transpired to just be normal bulbs with a yellow glass cover that clipped over the bulb.
You can (apparently) still get them. I did run my R5GTX with them in for a time and I think they were still in there when I flogged it.
It did cut down your out of town night time vision a bit but, given that we all thought 90HP was the mutts nuts, nobody was going anywhere particularly fast in any case.

I have a pair of those in my bulb stash.  They were fitted to the Volvo 240 estate my dad bought in the mid '90s - they were a bit shite so they got replaced with white bulbs but he kept them as spares.

8 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I added yellow fog lights to my GS just because I liked the look.

Yellow foglights actually work better in thick fog than white ones.