1972 Road Runner/GTX restoration

Smellslike1974 · Post by **Smellslike1974** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 5:50 am

man thats clean,look nice.

72RoadRunnerGTX · Post by **72RoadRunnerGTX** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:05 am

On the road again

rr6pak · Post by **rr6pak** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:03 am

Lookin gooood, Doug

mopar71 · Post by **mopar71** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:42 pm

Looks great,What type of headlights do you have on it,they look too clean to be the old GE's.

72RoadRunnerGTX · Post by **72RoadRunnerGTX** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:02 am

Very observant, No they are not sealed beams, they are Hella European Technology High Performance Headlamps(that's what it says on the box). They use H4 and H1 bulbs and require an upgrade to the wiring including the installation of relays. I made this mod to my 70' RR back in the day, since then I don't think any car I've owned has had sealed beams in it for more than a week or so.

dragman440 · Post by **dragman440** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:03 am

I wanted to go to that extreme, but then I would be afraid to drive it. Looks Great!!

rr6pak · Post by **rr6pak** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:26 am

72RoadRunnerGTX wrote:Very observant, No they are not sealed beams, they are Hellaâ€™s â€œEuropean Technology High Performance Headlampsâ€(thatâ€™s what it says on the box). They use H4 and H1 bulbs and require an upgrade to the wiring including the installation of relays. I made this mod to my 70â€™ RR back in the day, since then I donâ€™t think any car Iâ€™ve owned has had sealed beams in it for more than a week or so.

Looks great, Doug. I need to put those kind in my car. What kind of "upgrade" did you do to the wiring?

landon1 · Post by **landon1** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:40 am

how do they work - like brightness in comparison to originals....i added cuda-style road lamps to mine so i could see at night, but when i get to it, i think i'd like to have something bright so i wouldn't have those lil lamps up front

it also looks like you have at least the front bumper re-chromed...how much did that cost you?

72RoadRunnerGTX · Post by **72RoadRunnerGTX** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:38 pm

Hella was/is the OEM lighting/electrical supplier to the European car manufactures. In Europe back in the 70's & 80's, if it had round headlamps, these are the lamps the BMW's would have from the factory. They were illegal for use in the states at the time, (according to the labels on the box, still is, for off-road use only). Although no brighter than some of the high-end lighting you see running on the road today, I guess, back then American drivers couldn't handle them and needed government protection against them. My 03' Astro came with a lighting system similar in design to these, just with a stylized lamp reflector/housing.

The H4 and H1 bulbs are quartz-halogen available ranging from 55-100+ watts. Sealed beams, what 15-20 watts of lighting? The control of the light pattern is more precise with basically two lines, one horizontal and another angling up to the right, light pattern below on the road and shoulder. High beam, it's almost daylight.

Wiring? There are two points of concern with the stock wiring.
1. Voltage drop, I am in the process making a new headlamp harness that ups the wire size to 12 gauge. The lamps will have a dedicated ground as the stock wiring shares the headlamp grounds with all other lighting up front.
2. Current draw, relays will be installed near the starter relay to redirect the higher current away from the other parts of the stock headlight circuit. The bulkhead connectors, fuse block, dash wiring, headlight switch, high/low beam foot switch would all suffer an early demise if this extra current were allowed to pass through them.

I hope to have completed my wiring mod this week-end, for those interested I will post some pictures next week. In the meantime, when I was researching if I could still get these headlamps, I ran across several sites on the internet that had instructions for installations like this. Keyword search "Hella headlamps", you should hit on a ton of info. BTW, best price I found was at Summit Racing, about $54 ea. for the headlamps.

Bumper, That's an NOS piece I picked up a while back, the flash on the camera highlighted all the micro scratches from sitting in its box all these years. This bumper has the holes for the rub strip in the middle, I plan to have them filled then have it re-chromed at some point.

72RoadRunnerGTX · Post by **72RoadRunnerGTX** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:21 pm

Well I managed to finish the wiring mod today, here are some pics of the process and end result.

471Magnum · Post by **471Magnum** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:44 pm

72RoadRunnerGTX wrote:Very observant, No they are not sealed beams, they are Hellaâ€™s â€œEuropean Technology High Performance Headlampsâ€(thatâ€™s what it says on the box). They use H4 and H1 bulbs and require an upgrade to the wiring including the installation of relays.

I used these lamps along with relays on my '69 Charger. They worked awsome.

FWIW, they are just standard "E-code" lamps that are designed to european specifications. The beam pattern is completely different from the FMVSS (and CMVSS) pattern required in North American. Technically, they are legal for "off highway use only", but I won't rat you out.

The flat lenses do look a little funky, but that was never a concern on the Charger with the concealed lamps.

mopar71 · Post by **mopar71** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:38 pm

Great Mod, I have H4's in my toyota, and they are bright! I bought the super white I think they are 100w. The older cars seem yellow compared to these.

rr6pak · Post by **rr6pak** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:27 pm

I like the look of the headlights. I'd like to do that as well, when I get to that point.

72RoadRunnerGTX · Post by **72RoadRunnerGTX** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:20 am

Finally, no rain in the forecast here in Seattle, it's time to get the car into the shop and align the front end. So happy I chose replace the original upper control arms with Just Suspension's tubular SS pieces. All desired angles dialed right in without having to compromise anything. The car drives better than any Mopar I can remember driving.

rr6pak · Post by **rr6pak** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:31 pm

72RoadRunnerGTX wrote:Finally, no rain in the forecast here in Seattle, itâ€™s time to get the car into the shop and align the front end. So happy I chose replace the original upper control arms with Just Suspensionâ€™s tubular SS pieces. All desired angles dialed right in without having to compromise anything. The car drives better than any Mopar I can remember driving.

Doug-Do you have the originall K member in the car and just changed out the Upper Control Arms? Have you thought of the AlterKtion as an option?