[69f bird]

I reviewed the old posts, but was hoping there may be additional choices out there, and more recent experiences.

I want to upgrade the headlights on my '69 Firebird, but I do not want to modify my new wiring harness. I don't necessarily need the brightest solution, but I do need a significant improvement over the conventional T-3 style headlights.

So, any suggestions for both the low beam and high beam headlights?

Thank you!

[north]

The logical first step up is a set of later Halogen lights, they are just bolt in.

[JLMounce]

I have the Dapper Lighting 575's in my 69 with OE glass and classic halos.

These are extremely high quality products and the are indeed plug and play. They come with adapter harnesses that simply plug into your factory headlight harness. If you opt for LED bulbs as I did, you don't need to do any crazy relay modifications, they actually run on less power than the factory sealed beams.

There is a catch with this setup on the 69 Firebird however. There is a support beam for the nose that sits directly behind the inner headlight buckets and would traditionally be your high beam. This prevents you from being able to install the projector and lamp for that light. The solution is to have the 575's setup with the outer lights as a bi-xenon that will provide both your low and hi beam. The projector housing is then removed from the inner light and it is there only for visual effect, it has no actual function.

You can do these lights without halos at all and they look very close to an OE style sealed beam light. The only thing different is the fluting ends in the middle where the projector and light are housed as to not scatter the beam.

I can tell you these things with the 30 watt LED are stupid bright. They easily best the factory lighting in my 2014 Jeep.

If you decided to go this route, you'd just need to call up Dapper and let them know what you're after. If you purchase their 575's direct from their site you'll end up finding out the hard way that they don't just fit.

[69f bird]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I spoke with Mark at Dapper today (Jason, he says hello!). We decided on replacing just the outer lights with the hi/low 30w bi-xenons, no halos, OE glass. I'll put two new standard sealed beams in for the inners. This should give me a near stock look, but with much better lighting. I'm trying a couple of their LED 1157s for the taillights as well.

Once installed, I will provide pictures. I much appreciate everyone's inputs!

[JLMounce]

Only thing to note is I had to run my diodes in reverse polarity for the high beams to function. Their directions talk about that, but considering we both have factory wiring, I'd probably install the diodes they provide for the main connector reverse to start.

Had the car out for the first time in the dark yesterday with the new lights and it's a fantastic difference.

[69f bird]

So here are my results:

First I tested the circuit...about 11.5 volts at the headlight connectors with the engine off, and 13+ with the engine at idle.

I installed 4 new standard Sylvania headlights for my baseline. They were better than the old bulbs, but still just so-so.

I have now added the Dapper lights only the low/high outers. I am very impressed with the difference! See the attached photos, where the "old" is with the new Sylvania lights, and the "new" is with the Dapper low/high beams.

Install was very easy.

Thank you for everyone's suggestions!

[JLMounce]

Yup the difference is pretty awesome! Glad you like them!