Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

For those that have converted over to a 12 volt system, whose headlights have you used that are hid with turn signal. Thanks.

Other than the switching to 12v, which I believe very few have done, I don’t understand what you are asking. What year is your car, for instance.

A year mention is definitely in order as there are differences if the prewar car originally had separate headlight bulbs or was one converted in that prewar time frame to sealed beams vs a more recent conversion.

On cars with separate bulbs, BigKev has a 12v conversion in his 37 because of the Jag motor and was still able to use modern mfg parts to keep headlights and parking lights plus add turn signals in the original headlight assy. If he doesn't see your post and provide an answer you might check thru his rather lengthy project blog and see if numbers are mentioned. He did post a photo of his setup on another persons thread and there is a mention of a supplier for some of the items and other followup info on page 2 of that thread.

If you are talking about wanting to do a sealed beam conversion, I don't think there is any way to keep the parking and turn signals inside the original headlight assy but several have done a more recent sealed beam conversion and then added the turn and parking lights in a small external housing hanging below the headlight bucket or mounted on the fender. Depending on year, if you still have the separate bulbs the optional accessory Packard fender light housings apparently can be very hard to come by but several who have been unable to find an original for their conversion have used an aftermarket motorcycle turn signal housing that is very similar in looks to the mid 30s thru 40 Packard headlight assy.

You can use something like this to adapt your current reflectors to use modern headlight bulbs:

Speedway Motors

Mine were already done when I got the car.

But I did replace the parking light socket with a larger one that would accept a dual filament amber bulb. This retained the parking light function but also gave me bright turn signal that are hidden when not used. I used this kit for that:

cwmoss.com/products/headlight-reflector-turn-signal-socket-kit-1937-41

Obvious you'll have to adapt wiring and also run the wiring for the turn signals themselves as the factory harness will not have that extra wire on each side.

39 Packard Six 1700