I love Brass, Came cross this Vintage Brass 287Ex Big Beam on ebay that's in a pretty bad shape in terms of
peeling paint rusting components etc, however, the solid brass construction make be believe that beneath
the ugly skin, there might be a beauty inside.
The Before Photo: The Ugly Vintage duckling
I thought it might be cool to HID it? With some stock HID components laying around from my
various 75W HID upgrade mods, I decided to give the Vintage Big Beam a Modern Make-over.
With some grinding, I reduced the H3 HID's plastic stem to go inside the stock
bulb holder.
The stock switch was rusted out, I installed a Judico 10Amp switch in it's place,
while re-used the stock brass mounting rings. (Stock metal stem for switch mounting was bored out
mounted over the Judico switch stem after some grinding to reduce diameter).
The switch was wired to cut off power directly from battery (Not a good idea to install switch at the bulb end,
as turn on Volt is super high 20Kv). As a result, 4 wires had to go through the hole vs. originally just 2).
The Ballast was mounted to the underside of battery Box cover with a recycled broken vacuum cleaner
rubber belt, using the two factory handle mounting screws.
Making the battery carrier: I used two radio shack Dual C cell battery holder,
cut in half, stretched spacing to fit 26650 mounted to a piece of wooden board: Waiting for JB Weld to dry::devil:
Finished battery holder hold 3x26650 IMR: 12V 4000mAH, since the 35W HID draws about 4 Amp or so,
this will last about an hour, plenty run time even for practical use. Those orange wires are resistance mod,
i.e. resistance by-pass wires. As the cheap battery holders spring has enough resistance to heat up
melt plastic if too much current were passed through. Since only 3 x4V 26650 IMR were used,
two are at underside one on top for stability.
However, the system can also be used run with 4x 26650 3V LifeP04,
(Some re-routing will be needed to use the 4th battery holder that's currently being by-passed)
The light was wire blasted to get rig of the peeling paints to show the bare brass under, Finished, yeah!
The H3 HID was actually mounted in from the reflector side, in such way the the top edge of the
black stem is on the reflector side, this was necessary to bring the arc chamber into focus:
Side:
Rear:
Let there be light
peeling paint rusting components etc, however, the solid brass construction make be believe that beneath
the ugly skin, there might be a beauty inside.
The Before Photo: The Ugly Vintage duckling
I thought it might be cool to HID it? With some stock HID components laying around from my
various 75W HID upgrade mods, I decided to give the Vintage Big Beam a Modern Make-over.
With some grinding, I reduced the H3 HID's plastic stem to go inside the stock
bulb holder.
The stock switch was rusted out, I installed a Judico 10Amp switch in it's place,
while re-used the stock brass mounting rings. (Stock metal stem for switch mounting was bored out
mounted over the Judico switch stem after some grinding to reduce diameter).
The switch was wired to cut off power directly from battery (Not a good idea to install switch at the bulb end,
as turn on Volt is super high 20Kv). As a result, 4 wires had to go through the hole vs. originally just 2).
The Ballast was mounted to the underside of battery Box cover with a recycled broken vacuum cleaner
rubber belt, using the two factory handle mounting screws.
Making the battery carrier: I used two radio shack Dual C cell battery holder,
cut in half, stretched spacing to fit 26650 mounted to a piece of wooden board: Waiting for JB Weld to dry::devil:
Finished battery holder hold 3x26650 IMR: 12V 4000mAH, since the 35W HID draws about 4 Amp or so,
this will last about an hour, plenty run time even for practical use. Those orange wires are resistance mod,
i.e. resistance by-pass wires. As the cheap battery holders spring has enough resistance to heat up
melt plastic if too much current were passed through. Since only 3 x4V 26650 IMR were used,
two are at underside one on top for stability.
However, the system can also be used run with 4x 26650 3V LifeP04,
(Some re-routing will be needed to use the 4th battery holder that's currently being by-passed)
The light was wire blasted to get rig of the peeling paints to show the bare brass under, Finished, yeah!
The H3 HID was actually mounted in from the reflector side, in such way the the top edge of the
black stem is on the reflector side, this was necessary to bring the arc chamber into focus:
Side:
Rear:
Let there be light
