I am leaning to HID headlights, this is a broad band and many options .
Has anyone went this route in there C3
I would like to hear about it
Thanks

 

www.danielsternlighting.com/



dont waste your time with hid lights contact Daniel Stern for his advice he is a lighting guru. i just upgraded the wiring and used h4 housings with some Osham bulbs he sells and he has stuff for the high beams too. i won't influence you by telling you exactly what i used. lets just say driving at night is fun, and i will have a hard time driving beyond my lights

 

Lots of good info. Thanks for the site link.

 

these outdo the H.I.D lights any day

 

A set of good, name brand (Cibie, Marchal or Hella) E-code Halogen lights with Osram European bulbs and improved wiring (to improve the voltage presented to the bulb) will give your C3 all of the light you need to drive fast while not blinding on-coming traffic.

 

While those are probably great lights, they will not outperform a proper set of HIDs with projectors. There is a reason all of the high end manufacturers use them over halogen.

 

I agree here.... the key is to use the correct hid housings like projectors.... too many bubbas out there stick hid bulbs in non focused halogen housings and blind everyone on the road... they give the hid technology a bad rap.
I put projectors and good white 6,000k (white not the distracting and less useful blue) hid bulbs in my truck and the difference was night and day.
Plus they use much less power than halogens while putting out more than twice the lumens over old halogen technology.... some halogen bulbs now use some of the gases to give the light a brighter whiter color temp but they are still a filament bulb. I've tried some of these. But its like comparing a 300 w incandescent light bulb with a 250w metal halide... no comparison.
Quality made Hid is superior and that's why all of the higher end cars are coming from the factory with them now.

 

If I'm looking to just pop out my old bulbs and put in new, brighter ones, is this the way to go? Also, how much of the headlight wiring would have to be replaced to improve the voltage?

 

As Vette427-SBC states you cannot beat a proper set of HID's with projector lenses....no way.

With that said, I have had (4) Hella Euro Lead Crystal Lens lights with 55/60 watt lows and 100 watt halogens since 1983 on my 78...yes 1983! I rarely drive the 78 at night much but when I do it is portable daylight...albeit a halogen bulb, not the brilliant white light of HID's. The lights fit in the 78 buckets with very minor modification but do require a relay on the high beam side due to the 100 watt bulbs pulling more amperage than the stock headlight switch can handle without triggering the built in circuit breaker in the switch.

The headlight lense is the most important aspect of any lighting system, not necessarily the bulb intensity, especially with halogens. I have 2 HID conversion systems I use on my DD, one a 2008 Chrysler 300 and the other on a 2001 Pontiac Grand prix. On the 300 since it had the same projector used on the 300's with factory HID;s, the conversion to HID's was easy. On the the GP which has a crap plastic lense for halogens non projector, I went with this:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com

The system requires that you open up the factory light housing and fit their high quality projector lense into the factory light behind the the plastic cover....The result is unbelievable!!!! Lot of work but well worth it for a car I drive every day, often at night. The difference between the factory headlight with halogens and the HID projector is incredibly great...they are that good. The retrofit source allows HID projectors on any car using the factory headlight housing!

As for upgrading wiring with aftermarket HID kits..not needed since the HID require a voltage spike to start the HID but only pulls 35 watts when on...all wiring with 20 amp fuses is provided.

 

Thanks for the link jb. I just emailed them asking what they would recommend for my '72. I don't drive often at night but when I do I would like better lighting.

 

Who makes the projector lens on your car and which HID kit did you use? Even though my Hella Euro lead Chrystal lenses are pretty Darn good, you have me thinking about the 78 lights again...which up to recently were pretty much state of the art for auto headlights...pretty good run 30+ years.

On my 300, I have had German made McClough HID's which have now been used on 2 Chrysler 300's (2005 AND presently 2008)...this kit cost $300 back in 2006 when I put them on the first 300...just goes to show AGAIN..you get what you pay for. The retrofit source projector/HID kit was $279 for the GP and these lights are better than the 300 since the projector from the retrofit source is a higher quality than the factory 300 projector.

 

On another forum someone doing a restmod on his '75 added bi-xenon projector with halo headlights from sickhids but they cost $1500.

 

Daniel Stern Lighting, the guy to talk too.

 

Daniel Stern Lighting is great for high quality lead Chrystal lenses like Cibie (my Hella Euro Halogens are the same quality BTW). I am interested in round Projector 5 1/4 lenses for the 78 like I asked above for use with HIDs which are superior light than any halogen can produce.