Quick and easy one guys...I'm getting ready to french the headlights on my '49 Ford. My question is what's the difference between '49-'51 Merc rings and '52 Merc rings? I mean besides the earlier rings being over $200 for the pair and the '51s under a hundred...
49-51 rings are 1-piece chrome or stainless and the headlight sits flush. The 52-53 rings are 2-piece, painted outer with a stainless inner ring, and the headlight is tunneled the width of the inner ring. Hope that made sense. Mick
This is whjat you need. 51 Merc headlight rings are die cast metal and won't work. https://www.ebay.com/itm/162937621112 Make sure you read all this info. https://www.google.com/search?q=how...rome..69i57.9441j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
That's one of the kits I was looking at but then I saw one that was listed as '52 and was 80 something bucks. That's what made me ask
The 1952-54 Mercury headlight rims are made of steel. The inner rings come chrome plated, or the preferred stainless steel. For stock purposes you can use the readily available retaining wire fasteners. For frenched headlights you don't use them. a good way to fasten the inner rings is to weld / braze 2 brackets to the headlight bucket at the 3:00 and 9:00 positions. Drill corresponding holes in the retainers, and use oval head screws to fasten the inner rings to the brackets. This makes for a clean and neat set up, with easy removal to change the headlight bulb if needed. 1952-53 ford headlight rims are also steel, but with a small peak at the top. Not 1954 Ford headlight rims as they are pot metal.
I actually planned on not using the stainless inner rings. Would that look alright or will it not fit as tight to the light? I figure the stainless ring is really thin so it should work, right? What I should've asked is as far as the two aftermarket kits, is there a difference in them size wise between '49-'51 and '52? Like, will one fit my '49 better than the other? They both look identical to me
I don't think there are actually two different kits they are just named differently but they are all based on the '52 rings. The one posted above with the Ebay link is the '52 style even though it is called '49-51.
K13, that's exactly what I needed to know. So will they look weird without the stainless inner ring? I don't want them tunneled more than maybe a half to 3/4"
This is nice way of frenching head lights on a shoebox that looks natural. There are some kustons that have their frenched head lights project out so far it that it looks odd. First ten minutes is all that is needed and then dismiss the rest.
The inner stainless ring is conical. Getting wider at the front. The outer steel ring is approx 7 7/8" inner diameter while the deepest edge of the stainless is approx 7 1/4" so there is substantial difference
That video is pretty much exactly how I want to do mine. I thi k the type that gets wider at the front is a different style, isn't it? The type I'm looking at is on the right
The specs I gave you are for the '52 like on the right. The inner ring is not straight. And has a rolled over edge at the front of it.
Oh, yeah I noticed that. So if I didn't use the stainless inner ring it would leave a gap? I guess I can paint the stainless. I wonder why they even sell the pair of outer rings without the inner stainless if it doesn't fit right without them?
Here are a couple of pics of my Merc with frenched 51 head light rings. One pic is from 1956, another pic is from Car Craft 1957 and the other is a little more current.
You are confusing the stock 1951 mercury rings and the frenching kits that are available which are based on 1952 rings. The stock rings don't have an inner stainless ring. They look like this. If you don't want the tunnelled look why don't you just use the stock ford rings to french them?
With the stock rings the bulbs stick out which is what I'm trying to do away with. My original plan was to get '51 Ford buckets and trim rings and run it like that but I don't want the chrome. I guess I can french the '51 Ford rings if they're steel, but then I have to fight getting the chrome stripped off and by the time I buy the buckets and trim rings I'm into it for the same price as one of those kits. That merc job is pretty much exactly what I'm going for so I guess it's kind of tunneled but not much at all. When I think of tunneled I think of this, which I don't want
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