lighting question

I am building a head board for my sons bed out of a pick and pull grille assembly from an XJ. Here's the question. I want to power the headlights so he can read by them. Will they burn out if i wire 120 volt straight to them? should i look for a 12 volt plug in transformer or just try to find some regular 120 volt house hold lights to put in place of the headlights? Sorry, i know it might not really me a modified tech question but any help would be appreciated.

just swap out the bulbs for some 12v ones.

sdigs said:

I am building a head board for my sons bed out of a pick and pull grille assembly from an XJ. Here's the question. I want to power the headlights so he can read by them. Will they burn out if i wire 120 volt straight to them? should i look for a 12 volt plug in transformer or just try to find some regular 120 volt house hold lights to put in place of the headlights? Sorry, i know it might not really me a modified tech question but any help would be appreciated.

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Unless you put in low-power bulbs, you're going to have to get a largish 12VDC power supply (or just mod a couple of headlamp housings to take regular household bulbs - just make sure they're well vented.)

Figure current this way - A = W/V. So, a 55W headlamp bulb (dip beam) will want 55/12 or ~4.6A per bulb. If you can find something smaller - say, a 30W bulb, you're still looking at 2.5A/bulb to feed them.

If you go with a modded housing, I'd probably not go past 60W per bulb (household - 1/2A @ 120VAC,) and make sure they're well-vented.

Or, just "blank out" the headlamp ports in the fascia with plain glass, and put bulbs behind that. Or frosted glass?

The attendant problem you'll have with the headlamps is that they do tend to focus the beam - if he's just using them for reading lamps in bed (you did say headboard, no?) then perhaps a 15-20W appliance bulb behind a headlamp lense will serve?

Feel free to experiment - and I, for one, would like to see pix when you're done!

I would not try that for you and your son's safety! They will "burn out" for sure! (and possibly your house)

However, I did once see a restraunt who used a car as a prop. They found a way to very carfully dremel out a hole in the back of the glass headlight, which after cutting out the old filiment and associated base, were able to fit a small, low watage 120v bulb in through the back. however, if you don't care about it being round, I would just get a couple small enclosed lamp sockets with wires already attached, and go from there with a couple small, low wattage lightbulbs. I would not try using a transformer to power real headlights, as it would need to big quite big and get very hot to supply the current needed.

Cool project though! Good luck!

Best way to do it is remove the headlight assembly and put in a piece of plexiglass. Then wire up two light sockets for household lights. If you can find them get the sockets for the small bulbs not your normal sized 60/100w bulbs. Mount that behind the plexiglass and wire them together and then into a switch and that switch to a grounded plug that can be plugged into the wall.

Edit: You could also use something along these lines.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=120373-337-30SBAT&lpage=none

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'm thinking some thing household and low wattage behind plexiglass now. It might be a month or two but i'll post some picks when i'm done.