^^^ That's interesting....I have some 52 tail lights in my stash of pulled parts from the parts cars Ive gathered over the past 4.5 years.....
Just doing some spitballing. I know I'm jumping all over the place but I'm using this as a journal of sorts. I saw this car and really liked the headlight treatment, and the rolled pan under the bumper on this car. It goes along with the smooth look I'm after. I think the guy told me that the bumper was off a Corvair and it seems the headlight treatment was from a Ford Thunderbird. It was about a year ago so I forget to be honest.
The grill mesh is 58 Ford car. The headlight look 57 Bird but those are Pot Metal and can' be welded in place.
Can they be mounted inside the fender and then smoothed over on the outside with seam sealer? At some show many years ago I talked with a fella who had a 47 or 48 Chevy (car) and the rear fenders were done that way. They looked welded in and smoothed out, but he said in case of a fender bender the seam sealer could be dug out and the fenders unbolted. Never tried it myself; just passing along something I heard a long time ago.
Personally I don't much care for the Hooded lights look and to me Tunneled lights always remind of Nipples on a Pole dancer. They never seem to both be pointing the same direction. I'm with you on clean and smooth. Believe it or not on my 51 Vicky I actually used 50 Chevy rings. I don't remember the exact number now but when doing that part of the job I actually moved the stock light hole in the fender to get the transition to the ring smooth. After welding it was just a kiss with the grinder and a File finish and prime. No filler at all.
What I've learned is, never say it can't be done. There's a million ways to skin a cat. Personally I would never even try it but that's just me. To Old to change my ways now.
Pist you do have a way with words! Rmonty I'm conservative when it comes to style and like to try stuff that the viewer has to think about. I would like to see or build a Chevy PU with a 57 Chevy passenger car nose, not a passenger car made into a PU I never thought they looked quite right. On your car how about a 55 chevy headlight/parking light section grafted on to the 51 fender. I don't know, just thinking. Pat
Just doing a quick check, those fenders are pretty pricey. I would have more in 1.75 sq ft of headlight sheet metal than I paid for the entire Sedan Delivery body. I recently acquired an English Wheel so making something up isn't out of the question. This is a "custom" after all, isnt it? I have a good stash of fenders so who knows what could happen..... This is all looking ahead pretty far...I still have to get the door jambs sorted out, get the top welded in, etc.
While I like this minimal style of lights we seldom take into consideration todays kind of Drivers and driving conditions. Not that I'm a paranoid person but until you've been rearended when driving in 35 mph traffic and have to do a panic stop we seldom even think about it. I have and I do. Now I want my lights to be seen and be Kool, not an easy thing to be done. Way down low and sucked in don't interest me anymore.
I looked around a bit last night and didnt find these, but I got distracted and went off to do something else. Thats good to know if I decided to go that direction.
I dont remember if I posted it here, but 10 weeks post-op on my shoulder surgery, I got rear-ended and it set me back in rehab to the point i was right after surgery. It took several months to get caught back up so I totally understand what you are saying.
Ordered in some 1950 Pontiac tail lights this morning from a HAMB'er. Now it is a matter of deciding where to place them. They will be tunneled, not sure how deep though at this point. Decided to go with those as they look smooth. The Buick tail lights looked like what PnB mentioned about the nipples on a Pole Dancer. Hahaha!! Too sharp on the ends and just weren't smooth looking. And sorry to steal an avatar picture from someone, but there really is NOTHING wrong with these....they just don't really fit the rear end of a 1950 Sedan Delivery
Speedway sells a kit to tunnel 50 Pontiac tail lights. Or at least they used to. Might save some fab time.
I'll find some exhaust pipe or roll up some sheet metal. Shouldn't be too hard to come up with something to work. I will check out Speedway to see what they have though....thanks for the heads up!
I agree! As for the pre made buckets that atch posted they look short. May work on a flat panel but if you move up on the fender and get into the curve your end result probably won't be what you want. In order to get this style light in good alignment you need to make a fixture that mounts on the flat base moves out and away from the body and across to the other side connecting both buckets together and at the same angles. Apparently that's something most doing that style install never figure out, hence my Pole Dancer comment. I burnt up a lot of Dollar Bills before that connection came to me.
The Jalopy Journal
