Is this idea too street roddy? or would it work for a mid to late 60's vibe , full fender A build? Im looking for pictures of this done, Yes I did a search, it came up empty.. frenching the stock A tail lights into the steel rear fenders I thought about sinking them in about half the depth of the lights cup im sure its been done before..im not going where no man has gone before..right?
if i were to french any tail lights into the rear fenders of an A , they would be `39 tear drops . here are mine not frenched
I would but this is common.(please dont misunderstand me they look great).but i already have nice OEM Ford Tail lights...
Not what you're after, but I've seen taillight stalks shortened. Looks pretty good. Frenching the A lights would look good and be different. Why not french them the depth of the cup with only the chrome/stainless lense retainer ring above the fender surface?
they would set level so more of the top would show than the bottom, but only very slight due to the curvature of the rear fender im sure this has had to be done before..i cant be the first guy to think of this.. ive seen the short stalks...to be honest..I dont like the coat hangers on the backs of my fenders..full length or short.. they look easy to hit and bend the fender would like to stream line the back of the fender and tuck things in a bit
you will have to make a bucket of sorts , like these from Good Times Productions for `39 tail lights. be careful and not go too deep ,or they may rub on your tires. you may have to section the tail lights for clearance..on my `28 tudor with unfrenched `39s they have rubbed the tires a couple times . i need to section them a bit
Since they're round lights, I would think a chunk of exhaust tubing with a flat piece added to one end would make a workable bucket, or you could just cut a round hole in the fender, set the A light inside of it, and weld the A taillight bucket directly into the fender at the depth you want, then you can plug the bulb socket into the back and screw the lens/bezel on from the front. I don't think it'd be tough.
Just sink em in the fender like you were thinking.. They function like stock and you can get at the front and back side.
yep im going to do it..I like the idea..i will be surprised tho if it hasent been done before...i know im not that much of a pioneer
What about just creating a sort of flat spot on the face of the fender, put the lens on the surface with the cup actually behind the fender? The image of a 'flat surface' that comes to mind is something similar to what would be in place on the front of a fiberglass fender/nose when the headlights haven't been cut out yet. Or would that be recessing it in farther than you're thinking?
you will not have enough room to put the cup behind the fender..with the car lowered and the tire almost filling the fender well there will not be much more room than maybe to sink it on with a recesed "frenched" mounting cup, more than about 1.5" maybe 1.75" at the most..and still have room for the tire to move freely thru the suspension travel with out it decking the back of the light housing the back of the housing of the Duolamp is about 2" in depth..the light will have to stick out of the fender a little bit..and with the curve of the fender the light will show more at the top than at the bottom in order to keep the light level.. I will probably set it back in about 1.25 to 1.5 inches..or what ever the tire will allow and mount it in a frenching type recess..that way i can remove it of necessary to maintain it
Ive done a couple a c-dans and there isnt a lot of room,,,, measure carefully. There really isnt a lot of room for the 39 teardrops but they fit. The better ones with the lamps on the side of the housings (39 teardrops) work a lot better. Dave
well before i go cutting up a very nice set of Tudor steel fenders Im going to make sure i have enough room..or i will just try to flatten out an area the size of the tail lights cup and try to be happy with that..maybe the fact that i havent seen it done and over 500 HAMBers have looked at this thread and not one showed a picture of it done..is beging to make me doubt myself
A slight recess is cool, so many over do the depth. As stated here, you could bring the bulb in from the side or bottom to keep it from sticking out the back.
Id really like to see this photo shopped.. The reason being is its a stock round tail light right . There isnt a lot of fender width on an A C-dan to put a round light in the middle and make it eye appealing to me where as a 39 light looks way cool. Im tossing up the challenge for someone to prove me wrong on this but for me it just doesnt work frenched half frenched whatever.. Dave
Im on board with this..any photo shoppers wanna take a stab at this? i would like to see it too..kinda give me a "go no go" feel for it..