Best upgrade for 98-02 Firebird/TA Trans Am 92x150mm sealed beamns H4701/H4703 ?

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haha1234

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The 4.5 gen 98-02 Firebird and Trans Am have those stupid 150mm sealed beams

The early 4th gen Firebirds have the 165mm sealed beams H4666, there are enough options there (GE Nighthawk, Hella E-Code, JW Speaker, etc)

The early 4th gen Camaros have the H4351/H4352 sealed beams. And the late 4.5 gen Camaro has non-sealed beam headlights that use 9005/9006 bulbs

I know with their trucks, the front ends are easily swappable. So my question is, is it just as easy to swap front ends in the Camaro/Firebird?
 

-Virgil-

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There's almost nowhere to go but up, so you could buy two each of the first two items on this page (which are reasonably good...obviously skip the blue bulbs and other trinkets), buy two of these and two of these bulbs, wire it all up as per this (arranged so as to keep the lows on with the highs), and aim carefully as per this advice and wind up with a creditable upgrade without spending anywhere near the cash and time it would take to swap front ends, if that's even possible on those models.
 

Mr. Merk

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There's almost nowhere to go but up, so you could buy two each of the first two items on this page (which are reasonably good...obviously skip the blue bulbs and other trinkets), buy two of these and two of these bulbs, wire it all up as per this (arranged so as to keep the lows on with the highs), and aim carefully as per this advice and wind up with a creditable upgrade without spending anywhere near the cash and time it would take to swap front ends, if that's even possible on those models.


From experience I can tell you that the bulbs recommended do not fit in a Firebird. I did this exact mod to my father's 2002. The housings worked but require a straight based bulb. The 90* bulbs will not fit, at least not without hacking up the headlight bracket/bucket. It was still an improvement even without the 9011/9012 bulbs installed. A 4-hi mod would've made it even better.
 

-Virgil-

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Mr. Merk said:
I did this exact mod to my father's 2002. The housings worked but require a straight based bulb. The 90* bulbs will not fit, at least not without hacking up the headlight bracket/bucket.

I've known people to modify the headlight bucket to accept the 90° bulb. None of them found it to be a "hack up" or a big or difficult mod (basically: make the hole big enough to clear the 90° bulb!), and they appreciated the results.
 

Mr. Merk

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I've known people to modify the headlight bucket to accept the 90° bulb. None of them found it to be a "hack up" or a big or difficult mod (basically: make the hole big enough to clear the 90° bulb!), and they appreciated the results.

I'm sure some time with a Dremel would've provided the desired results. I wasn't prepared for that at the time, and he doesn't live local to me. Ended up with engine failure and recently punted the car.
 
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