My 356 is a 59 cab, but with a Super 90 motor. The headlights are very dim, as is every other light on the car. I think I want to convert it to 12 volt, and install the brightest headlights, tail lights and dash lights available. I'd feel much safer at night.

How many here have done this and what, if any, snags did you encounter? How long did it take you? Would you do it again knowing what you know now? Where's the best place to get the parts?

I have read this good article:
http://www.356registry.org/tech/6-12%20 ... ersion.pdf, but still have questions.

thanks in advance.
Mitch

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Mitch Covington
Tallahassee, FL

Recently there was an auction for a 12V voltage regulator that looked just like our 6V units.

What we found out was the guy was taking old 6V cans and putting new electronic guts into them. This remanufacturing process gave you a brand new voltage regular that looked correct all the way to the yellow sticker.

I don't remember the guys name, all I remember is he is in Santa Ana California. He had a BIN price of $299.

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Yikes! $300 for a regulator?? Since the Super 90 is not original anyway, I'm not that concernced about looking so original with the regulator. I haven't priced out my list of parts yet, so hoping you guys can give me an idea of what things cost as well.

Thanks Roy!

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Mitch Covington
Tallahassee, FL

I asked the same questions and if you are not into concours authenticity but into driving, go to Zim's and look through the list for 6V to 12 V conversion. I am in the middle of this myself right now and will have more questions as I hit the wall like "I got the wiring harness and found a couple of relays like the ones on the picture you had on that link" but the new wiring harness does not show me where they go and how to hook them up, but I still have to fish the wiring harness through the tunnel so that is the horse before the cart. I also bought the new high torque starter at Zim's for that conversion.

Mitch,

I had the same problem with a 6-volt 65 356-C Coupe. Following suggestions obtained in the old Registry Email List, I elected to keep the original 6-volt setup, and followed the steps outlined for renovating the existing system. This involved cleaning ALL electrical contact points which were cleaned and buffed to bright metal, replacing all ground straps with new ones being careful to bring to bright metal the points where they were mounted, cleaning all electrical contact points at the battery and cables, cleaning all the contact points in the fuse box and on the various light bulbs and other electrical accessories, in effect cleaning and buffing to bright metal every electrical contact point I could find. The effect was amazing! My lights are as bright as a 12 volt system. There's no getting around the problem of the small rear tail lights at night. For that I added a bright third-brake light. Today there are also 6 volt led lights available for the tail lights that are much brighter than stock 6 or 12 volt tail light bulbs. Bottom line, no money expended for an expensive 12 volt generator or regulator, no need for all new light bulbs throughout, no need to find an elusive 12-volt windshield wiper motor or some voltage conversion accessory to bolt up under your dash somewhere.

CW

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Charlie White

Mitch,

I agree with CW. Keep the 6V, clean all points of contact, especially the grounding points, and you are good to go.

Rob

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Its a matter of taste or necessity. Since mine was converted years ago and then was dismantled and put in boxes, mine was more 12 volt than 6 volt so I just continued that way. It does not have to cost you a fortune if you really want to do it. While I am here, OK, I need a battery 12 volt. Optima seems the favorite. What model of Optima battery for a 1962 B converted to 12 volt?

Thanks Charlie! Don't know if you remember me, you gave me good advice when I was buying this car...

You guys make good sense about leaving it as is and just cleaning contacts... that's certainly worth a try before making the conversion. If I can just get bright headlights, it'll be much more tolerable. The parts would be pushing $1000 from Zims, if my math was correct.

thanks again.
mitch

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Mitch Covington
Tallahassee, FL

You should buy Joe Leoni’s headlight relay (HLR) kit, $90 from Bill Block (http://blocks-books.com/BLOCKS-BOOKS/356_Electrics.html, who sells Leoni's kit for him. Be sure to specify 6V.

This system uses the existing wires to the headlights for both high and low beams, but instead of passing the high current through the headlight switch (the stock configuration) and high beam/flasher contacts of the signal light switch, these switches now only activate the high & low beam RELAYS you just installed, which then pass the high current to the lights. This prevents burning the contacts in the high beam/flasher part of your signal light switch and in the headlight switch. The shorter path/higher current delivery means brighter lights.

For max brightness, the ground wires (one for each headlight, usually brown color) attached to the body on the far left and right sides of the battery box area should be disconnected, cleaned with a wire brush, and refastened. If you also install H4 halogen 6V headlight conversion units ($30/pair from NLA, Ltd. plus $16.95 per H-4 bulb x 2), and your lights will be as bright as any 12V ones out there--except maybe for some of those blinding blue laser-like things (blue ion??) on some modern cars.

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Dave Wildrick
Houston, TX
#10230
64C coupe
65C coupe

I agree with Dave's suggestions. After my system redo, I installed H4 halogen 6V headlight conversion units in my 356-C. What a difference!

CW

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Charlie White

A grand sounds about right if you go that way. I already had the generator and condenser at 12V and the engine bench running so with no starter, regulator, battery and many other parts, it was easier for me to go forward as 12 volt.

OK! This sounds perfect, I'll get that relay and new halogen headlights. That web site has no phone # or way to contact the seller. I'd like the stuff FedExed, but there's no option for that either.

Do you know how to contact the seller?

Great suggestion, thanks a million.

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Mitch Covington
Tallahassee, FL

BNR Electric, Van Nuys CA. 818/442-9082

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Interesting: the Santa Ana area code certainly isn't 818; mostly 714....

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Zim's has these also, but the price difference is dramatic, they get about $58 per light, but at NLA you can get the entire pair for just a few dollars more than that. Zim's is Hella brand, not sure about NLA... I'd happily pay more for better quality, but on the other hand that's about $60 difference... can anybody explain the discrepancy?

Zim's:
http://allzim.com/acatalog/6_Volt_H4_Se ... ments.html

NLA:
http://www.nlaparts.com/store/headlight ... -1366.html

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Mitch Covington
Tallahassee, FL