Headlamp beam deflectors
Discussion
shed driver said:
What do other classic owners do?
I put the car in front of the garage door and switch on the headlights then with a roll of insulation tape I apply a strip to the headlight that eliminates the kick up towards the nearside which is what upsets the drivers in europe and what beam deflectors do.Never had a problem or been flashed at night in Europe.
FlyVintage said:
Long before specific headlamp deflectors were available, we used to mask the headlamp in the already present kick up marked area. This is the only photo I could find . But you get the idea.
Used to do the same when the zone was clearly marked on the outer lens of the headlight glass - when cars and bikes moved to plastic lenses with all the beam pattern done inside the headlight on the reflector - I adopted the “headlights on” in front of the garage door approach to find the triangle that needs maskingAs a plus point over beam deflectors the insulation tape is a lot easier to remove than beam deflectors which seem to use a really powerful adhesive
Little tip I discovered when doing exactly as described above: I found some self-adhesive aluminium tape, used for heat reflection. Using this increased the output of your headlights as it reflected light back into the headlight reflector better than black duct tape / insulating tape.
GadgeS3C said:
I have a set of Cibie/Valeo 7" headlamps that can be switched from RHD to LHD with a slider for the bulb. 10 minute job to swap them over. Obviously a bit of tape is quicker. Sadly I don't think they make them anymore.
A few modern cars have the facility to shut off the nearside kick with a lever in the headlight / mercs come to mind and it’s quite handy I forgot to flip it back once on my SLK and failed an MOT (easily fixed and to be honest I was surprised I hadn’t noticed before)
shed driver said:
What do other classic owners do?
And I don't intend to remove my GB from the boot!
I have a set of right hand dip 7" headlamps for my Bristol and just swap them over before I go. Doesn't take long (I've sometimes done it in the queue for the ferry, although that means you need to take your UK lamps with you on holiday) and then there's no issue with loss of light from tape and they are exactly the same as a normal LHD car driving on the right.And I don't intend to remove my GB from the boot!
Regarding the GB/UK requirements, I have a black on silver UK sticker from here, which looks more period and less stark than black on white and has not been objected to by foreign Old Bill yet. There is no issue with keeping GB letters as well. It might be worth taking a correct black on white UK sticker with you just in case you get a jobsworth who wants it done by the book.
Are you meant to fit deflectors? By the letter of the law, yes.
Do you need/is it worth fitting deflectors? Probably not.
1. How much night driving will you be doing?
2. How much non-motorway rain driving will you be doing?
3. How upgraded are your headlights?
I drive my classics in France most years and have never fitted deflectors as almost none of that is at night/very little in the rain - and even converted to Halogen my headlights are hardly Death Star laser beams and less dazzling than 'correct side' Xenon and LED ones.
I do keep a set of deflector stickers in the car though so if I did ever get stopped could play the "Je suis désolé. J'ai oublié!" caed.
Do you need/is it worth fitting deflectors? Probably not.
1. How much night driving will you be doing?
2. How much non-motorway rain driving will you be doing?
3. How upgraded are your headlights?
I drive my classics in France most years and have never fitted deflectors as almost none of that is at night/very little in the rain - and even converted to Halogen my headlights are hardly Death Star laser beams and less dazzling than 'correct side' Xenon and LED ones.
I do keep a set of deflector stickers in the car though so if I did ever get stopped could play the "Je suis désolé. J'ai oublié!" caed.
I do bother as I'd be rightly annoyed with a foreign car driving uncorrected lights over here so I don't want to be that person over there. I often finish up driving at night anyway, and there could be any number of other reasons to use headlights. Most (all?) Scandinavian countries require dipped headlights at all times of course, so for touring there I would strongly recommend adapting your lights.
tog said:
I do bother as I'd be rightly annoyed with a foreign car driving uncorrected lights over here so I don't want to be that person over there. I often finish up driving at night anyway, and there could be any number of other reasons to use headlights. Most (all?) Scandinavian countries require dipped headlights at all times of course, so for touring there I would strongly recommend adapting your lights.
I live in the SE so am used to continental vehicles with non-adjusted headlights coming the other way.Skyedriver said:
In the "old days" headlights used to have the outline formed in the glass - maybe that was sealed beams?
IIRC pretty much all cars did in the glass headlamp era didn't they? My Jaguar XJ40 has the 'fish tank' style of headlights and they have the outline formed in the glass.Many French cars' headlamps had a flat beam pattern i.e. no kick-up on their nearside so didn't require adjustment or masking when driving on the left.
If that idea had been adopted in the UK there'd have been no need to do anything to headlamps when crossing the Channel. Lucas had the solution here pp17-18 : https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/imgytr/pdf/lucascourse7...
If that idea had been adopted in the UK there'd have been no need to do anything to headlamps when crossing the Channel. Lucas had the solution here pp17-18 : https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/imgytr/pdf/lucascourse7...
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