I have my car running satisfactorily, I went out on a test drive last night down a road without street lights. The output of my headlights was feeble. They are the old fashioned filament lamps that our grandparents used to use in their driving days. Back in the 1960's. I have tried to use Halogen bulbs in the past, but reverted back to filament bulbs because the current draw for the halogen bulbs caused my headlamp switch to start smouldering with smoke. I have since replaced the lamp switch. But I am fearful of using Halogen bulbs in my car because of the current draw? Is it affordable to put in LED headlamp bulbs? There was some recent controversy concerning putting modern lights in old cars?

what you need to do is buy or make a relay harness , this takes the power direct from the battery and takes the load off the old wiring and switch with the added bonus of some extra voltage

 

heres an example here theyre somewhat universal so maybe need to alter some wires length  or you could make one

 

disconect the dim dip resistor if you get the relays 

  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254481073999?epid=2307181404&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item3b4041074f:g:AGUAAOSwUmheHYnn&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACoPYe5NmHp%2B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSg3Ye8yTWgOW7pmE1t838do6zZKHmMo%2FqmD8q0xKqNLQaTXoHA83cptVvewcCryw5nKUrEozqmp2nBUIDgoanY9Oq0h8DjkdT3aWMxn9jK9lb3gYiFzBhkKAQ2pIocb5ydl%2BZESulHAtBdzpJC8m1Kq4wx7vjH8PKwNaF02q8dbM9NK7JT%2B7WSmXWKh5YYloiVomIH6l4UN5Rn8BdQkst2T1NUqGkJKmAwDQ8Iav2EnwouOSffgtQ%2FRTK%2F82tYZYEc8YRrEtIIgovZ%2F1ZnTEVI%2Fx731pOu9%2BDhBKXUZpvmiFiNzI3p88bISUc%2FQEX2Kyh12jJmHrLIm4ClbRWlDrfkzB%2Batuv6Nvfk%2BCJMVhvNvNN4TOQmuvTmMnXQ0o1Wc8e9CUbyjtz43k3AWol5xiLFlYhuu3zhE0hwHt45yydX41A%2BK2pzADSnByDNxeXhlfv%2FkrRauwCefbCYRoXjaHJI9Dz2rZoS1fmKKNlZeFM1uPxs38afZeImPzqoCxaxjtwIwIYWqdYcfbvEeimaTdlfPm%2BHFkAXymJuoL1gHUcNrSzmXaDwYNQ6W%2FIOJVJkKL%2Blr7uSOqd9RRFcDFHh0nyhSSsISeXApNhvwKSjG7YV7TJmD7uR4gw%2BgDmHu5FXo9NF9Gd6BkGpibZNt1iI%2FrqpI2QGw436RohAVe60rx%2FlHUDg%2F9wJhRceo0i5XLyuRyCs6KZFYV%2Bbw9PNVjpFZuIc%2FNtemXqAdrdUMeRJpQ2KM6hE1GXHkXfz%2BxTT%2B78cQZHIjoRr1LM23tT7F9U%2BYKi8yagYGJEvTQp9S%2BBvXP%2B9NOiUPQfWup4h5XBwOlR7yNUWGzf6ZL89T6w9z6vigFsRA%3D%3D|clp%3A2334524|tkp%3ABFBM-vuG1p5f

more reading and diagrams here 

 

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

1 hour ago, Gary Court said:

 Is it affordable to put in LED headlamp bulbs? There was some recent controversy concerning putting modern lights in old cars?

 

The current MOT regs state that LED's retrofitted in the headlights would mean an instant fail, but like most parts of the test it's down to the individual testers interpretation of the rules, So halogen with the relayed power supply as suggested above would be the best option 

led will also give a terrible beam pattern the fluted glass lense ....if you had projector lamps and clear lenses maybe they would be acceptable ...but yeah not fit for use on uk roads