Hi!
Can anyone recommend the best headlamps for a Mark One (GB). We live in the New Forest with no lighting and lots of wandering ponies, donkeys and deer on the road!
These are a good option
“Ultimate” is a bit of sales speak. People have liked these lamps because they look cool and are JDM, but there has been no objective review of them. These are Freeform headlights and Stanley (Raybrig is their consumer aftermarket brand) licenced the techn ology from Trucklite, who came up with the idea for Peterbilts etc.
In a conventionl headlight, beam focus it through a glass lens, and traditionally, Cibies were the bees knees for good beam cutoff, with the actual light projection being down to the bulbs you used. Hella were a close second. You can’t get these in 7" H4 RHD beam anymore. There are Indian companies making lamps with the Cibie moulding (Neolite brand), but the crystal is thinner, making tem more prone to cracking (cracking when cold water hits a hot glass surface). Autopal are also Indian and are copies of Hellas.
Freeforms move the beam focus to a moulded bowl; the mirror is now focusing the beam, meaning the crystal can be clear, and plastic. Which is great when you are putting on a million miles on a Peterbilt. Raybrigs use the same approach as the Wipacs (“Crystal Clear”)sold by MX5parts. Those Wipacs were used by JLR on the last old Defenders. I haven’t seen any proof that when using the same bulbs, Raybrigs are any better than Wipacs. The Polycarbonate might be bullet proof, but its soft. On the Mk1, with the headlights up, you will see a rubber flap. I’m not sure exactly what this is supposed to do except some pathetic attempt to wipe a muddy (hard) glass lens. Most that 70% of the time a MX5 is used, its in daytime, and the lamps are down, with this rubber piece contacting the mid point of the lens.
Running Freeform lights for well over a decade, I noticed a couple of things. Dirt bakes to the polycarbonate. And the flap does a job of wearing a line on the lamp itself. After 25+ years, that lamp assembly is a bit worn. There is a lot of movement in the headlamps when down.
I ditched the Freeforms a couple of years ago. There were on the market LED alternatives, some costing upto £1000, which I am sure are superior to old style H4s (LR Defender upgrades will fit the MX5). I didn’t like the aesthetics, even though literally no one would see them. Did my research, and brought Lucas 328s from David Manners; its a traditional headlamp, about as good as you are going to get with a traditional construction now. I combined these with Philips RacingVision bulbs and changed the old plastic connectors for ceramic Ring RBH003 items (the old connectors were corroded and the housing brittle due to heat).
If you have Eunos Roadster halogen sealed beams, these will be a massive upgrade. If you have UK spec Koitos, then a reasonable upgrade, as its possibly your 30 year old mirror is past its best. But many imports when they arrived here had Halfords no brand sealed beams fitted. These aren’t halogen (they were Triumph Spitfire application), and were in fact a downgrade. But a lot of imports arrived in the country with already changed headlamps, either Raybrig, Stanley or PIAA, so if these, its worth just looking at a bulb upgrade.