Upgrading a car to go faster, turn better or stop quicker has been done since cars were invented. If the first car went one mile per hour, there was some guy tinkering in his garage to get the car to go two miles per hour. For just about every aspect of a car, there has been easy upgrades or modifications available. Headlights are one of the rare items on a car that haven’t seen a ton of upgrades throughout the years. Headlights originally started out as a candle powered lantern and have progressed into powerful HID lights. For those of us with classic cars, there is now an option to add a modern upgrade to our cars without fabricating in new lights. 

Ground Up stepped up and now offers halo headlights for classic cars. From the factory, the headlights are generally a sealed incandescent bulb. These replacements look like a factory sealed bulb but actually have a halogen bulb inside the enclosure. There are also halos inside but the headlights appear to be 100% stock when turned off, like a factory incandescent sealed bulb. But underneath the glass sits a halo ring that is hidden so nicely that even the most well trained eye would likely pass them over. With a simple flip of a switch, the halos glow like a modern car. 

Installation

Installation of these new Ground Up halo headlights was a breeze. Since they are a stock replacement, they fit exactly like a stock replacement bulb should fit. To start, we removed the headlight bezels which are attached with three screws on this 1966 Chevelle. From there, we popped the headlights out of the bucket by removing the adjustment spring. After disconnecting the wiring, we removed the chrome ring that holds the bulb into the bucket. 

Incandescent Vs. Halogen

Both incandescent and halogen bulbs are based on the concept of two parallel metal wires transmitting an electrical current to a tungsten filament that connects them, heating the filament to a point where its heat is reflected as light. Both types of light bulbs also put a glass housing around the wires and filaments to amplify the light that is produced.

The major difference between an incandescent bulb and a halogen bulb is the gases that each produces within its glass bulb. The purpose of gas production is the same in that it is meant to slow evaporation of the filament and keep it from rusting. Both incandescent and halogen bulbs go dark when the filament wears out. Incandescent bulbs fill with a mixture of 93 percent argon and seven percent nitrogen, both of which are inert gases. A halogen bulb adds a halogen gas, such as iodine or bromine, creating a chemical reaction that regenerates evaporated tungsten and puts it back on the filament, helping to extend the filament’s life and therefore the life of the light bulb.

From here we pulled out the new bulbs, looked at how they would fit, and where to run the extra wiring required to power up the halos. The wiring for the halos is two small wires per bulb with a small box attached to them. What was the easiest and cleanest install method was to have both sets of halo wires run through the core support via the low beam hole. This put all the wiring on the engine side of the core support, where we could easily tap into power. 

We decided to finish up the outside first by reattaching the factory wiring, the chrome rings, and securing the bulb into the bucket. After reattaching the adjustment spring, we simply attached the headlight bezels. The only thing left to do from here is wire in the halos. 

There are numerous different ways to wire up the halos: through a switch, with the headlights, in a hot-in-run position for daytime driving lights, or with the running lights. Each way works and gives you different levels of control for turning the halos on and off. 

We decided that instead of running additional wiring inside the car and having to plumb another switch, we would just tap into the running lights. This would allow us to pull the headlight switch to the first position to light up the tail lights, dash lights and now the halos. 

In order to install utilizing the running light circuit, we had to tap into the running lights that power the turn signals. Referencing a wiring diagram we picked up from Ground Up, it was easy to spot the correct purple wire that powers the running lights. We simply spliced and soldered-in the halo’s wiring. From there, we tucked away the small green modules out of sight. At this point we had only installed one side of the lights, so we could do a side by side comparison to install the second side. 

Here you can see the halo wiring running through the core support through the low beam hole.

Lighting The Way

Testing out the brightness of just the low beams we could see a huge improvement. The halogen bulbs themselves were much brighter than the factory incandescent lights. From here we flipped off the headlights and turned on the halos. 

The halos lit up nice and bright and will be highly visible when driving down the road, even during the day. They do give off a pure white light, as opposed to the yellowish tint of the halogen bulbs. Overall these were a great update to this ’66 Chevelle. The car has some more modern touches, that play really well with the halo headlights. For those with a closer to original car, these are still a great way to add a touch of modern flare to your car without being over-the-top noticeable. The improvement in upgrading to a halogen bulb is worth the swap, let alone the awesome halos. 

From start to finish, the installation only took an hour even with us taking our time to snap pictures. This is a job that can be done at home in your garage with a basic set of tools, which is what we did. These are designed for the 1964-1970 GM A-Body applications but could be used in any car that has 5-3/4″ quad headlights. 

Not only do these halos give your ride that extra cool factor, but the increased brightness with the longer lasting halogen bulbs makes driving at night that much safer. This upgrade was truly a bolt in and wire up process! 

Waiting in the dark, ready to pounce the competition.