50-year-old lights in a 50-year-old car are not what you’d call impressive. Dapper Lighting 575 LED headlights offer a simple and easy upgrade package, for around $500, all-in. Our 1971 Oldsmobile 442 muscle car has been restored, along with some present-day upgrades. Lighting was one of the remaining hindrances that made you cringe when the headlights came on. It may have been the fact that only 1, out of 4, headlights even worked.

Removing Old Lights

Dapper Lighting 575 LED Headlight Upgrade

In with the New Dapper 575

The Dapper Lighting 575 is a direct replacement for the old T3 5-3/4″ headlights from the 60s and 70s. These Dapper 575 LEDs look great while still providing a classic look as well. The old lights, if all 4 worked would pull about 20 Amps, and all this current runs through the 50-year-old light switch and wiring. Furthermore, at best, the old headlights performed dismally. The new LEDs only draw about 1.4A each and perform much better.

In addition to the Dapper LED projector light, we also opted for the classic switchback halo.  We wired the halos to a “key On” source, so when the key is “On”, the halos are on. These act as daytime driving lights, which wasn’t available in 1971. The ‘switchback’ term refers to the halo ring offering a white light and an amber light which can be wired separately. This allows you to hookup a turn-signal or marker light for the amber color. This also overrides the white light, so when your turn signal is on with the lights, the amber flashes.

Dapper 575 LED

Installing the Dapper 575 LED Lights

Installation is a breeze due to the “pigtails” Dapper included with the LED kit. These pigtails plug directly into our existing headlight plugs and then plug into the LED socket. This installation, without hooking up the Halos, was as easy as just changing out a bad headlight. The halos were very simple as well, but they do require new wires to be run.

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Final Thoughts

Dapper really made it easy with the 575 kit. The lights include line-up tabs just like the original T3 lights, so they sit correctly in the headlight buckets. The chrome backing and clear lenses offer a classic look, but also with current features as well. We love ours so far, and we plan to do some further customizing. Our package costs about $540 and the lights include a 5-year warranty.

Click the link to find out more on the Dapper Lighting 575 LED Headlights.