Hot Rods What are these cowl lights from and how do you get them apart?

I got these cowl lights at a swap meet this summer, thinking that they would make really cool signal lights on the front of my 1927 track nose roadster. I was planning on constructing a front mounted nerf bar on the front of the roadster and having these cowl lights mounted off to the side as signal lights. The center of these cowl lights look to be cast iron with two side pieces of stainless steel ( one is the front light ring) pressed onto the main cast cowl light body. Does anyone know what make and year of car these cowl lights came from and how on earth would one get these cowl lights apart without damaging the stainless parts?The stainless rings look to be recessed in far enough to make it very difficult to get these cowl lights apart. I would have to get these lights apart to install new bulbs and wiring, and paint and polish would be on the list as well. Does anyone have any experience with these lights or any ideas as to disassembly? Thanks in advance.

 

I don't now what they're from, but they are very cool. Try unscrewing the glass reflector to get them apart...? Or, try unscrewing the bezel on the clear lens...?

 

Most of that style turn counter clockwise to take apart. Go slow.

 

Cool to be sure! I would soak them in your favorite penetrating oil and try unscrewing the bezels. As above, go slow.

 

Soaking in penetrating oil is a good idea, it will not hurt anything inside because it will all have to be replaced anyway to use them.... BigO

 

Nice little lights. At least their not rusted together . Probably stuck due to 90 years of dust in the threads. I had a similar pair and after a week in a can of penetratingoil there was movement. Drained the oil out and dismantled them in a bucket of hot water. In the water the dirt and grit will disperse and not fill the thread when you turn the thread back and forth.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to take everyone's advice and soak these lights in penetrating oil for a couple of weeks and then see if I can get any movement on the bezels. 34 Gaz,that is a good idea with the bucket of hot water and maybe I can get these old threads to break loose.

 

It's really hard to tell for Ole Coke Bottle Bottom Lens Stogy but is that a Hubcap shaped Forward Clear Lens with a Blue Dot backside...

Has to be in an old Accessory Catalog...but heck it could even be an OEM part.

 

Stogy, yes these lights have a curved front clear glass lens and actually a red cut glass backside. No one has ventured a guess yet to what these cowl lights came from but to me they look like they could be early Buick or Nash or they could be entirely something else. I got these lights at the Bothwell swap meet, this past summer.

 

Most cowl lamps mimic the headlamps and those look a lot like 1926 Peerless cowl lights. Just a wild guess.