Ok guys, I’m fighting for my life to see at night, let alone in the rain with the stock flip up headlights in my Firebird. What is the best option to replace the headlamps so you could actually see??

 

The cheapest and easiest thing to do is get LED fog light bulbs. Screaming Chicken, Auxito, and Super Bright LEDs have good bulbs. I don't even have to use my pop-ups.

 

You can also use the LMC Truck LED headlight conversion housings and bulbs. There are a couple of threads on here about it.

 

LMC and cheap Ebay LEDs are a huge improvement over stock. I've never been flashed by a passing motorist for them being too bright and never been pulled over after driving past a cop at night.

 

I didn't even have THAT much trouble seeing with the tungsten filament T3/Powerbeams that came on my '74, and yours would be halogen. Are you sure the bulbs are clean and giving full output? Just getting fresh bulbs might make a big difference.

 

Doing that is the quickest and easiest way to blind other drivers. The reason it seems to work is because the stock fog lights are for decoration only and have absolutely no beam pattern control. In fact, the factory replacement bulbs are listed for "toy" fog lights. A true fog light has a sharply cut off beam pattern designed to cut under inclement weather and therefore doesn't illuminate much distance, making them a poor substitute for headlights. Without that controlled beam pattern, the factory fog lamps, when outfitted with more powerful bulbs, will throw a lot of light just about everywhere - which will make it easier for the driver to see things, but will also cause a lot of glare for oncoming drivers. Replacing those lamps with true fog lights (something that's fairly easy to do) won't help because you lose the distance capability (although they're great in rain or fog).

As RPM WS6 has suggested, replacing the sealed beams would be an inexpensive option. Halogen sealed beams don't last forever, and they gradually get dimmer over time due to evaporation of the filament. They are designed to last about 1,000 hours of use, so if yours are original they would be well past that.

Granted, sealed beam headlights have never been the best... you should try driving an older car before the mid-70s when the sealed beams weren't even halogen. Projector lamps are the best, but converting can be difficult and expensive. There are LED sealed beam conversion lamps available which are plug-and-play and a big improvement - just be sure to buy a name brand like Hella rather than some no-name lamps on ebay. The quality of the reflector design is very important here. The LMC Truck conversions are also a good choice although they take a little more work to set up because of the flip-up headlight design.