I am starting to put this beast together and I am looking for advice on how to put a headlight in this coupe. Sealed beams are out of the question because of the oblong shape. My manual shows nothing. There is a reflector that goes inside the headlight bucket and it has holes in the center that I don't know what they are for. Any help as to how to assemble this is appreciated.
The 3 holes around the center hole in the reflector is for a special bulb that has the 3 lugs that fit the reflector. Try polishing the reflector with some silver polish. Nothing too aggressive as it's plated with real silver. The problem is the bulbs are only about 32 candle power, so not up to today's standards. You could make a bracket to mount a sealed beam bucket behind the stock lens, that would be your best bet.
First pis is the bucket. Second and third is the reflector. That should probably be recoated. That will take a bulb socket. or bulb with clip. This lists as the correct bulb. https://www.ebay.com/itm/176459655406 Strangely, there is a current listing on ebay for a sealed beam conversion. As you can imagine, those are probably fairly rare, but not high demand. https://www.ebay.com/itm/306431609776 1939 Plymouth KD Conversion Seal beam Headlights W/light Up Glass Jewels Nice This is a nice used pair of lights , very soiled ok paint nice jewels 6v seal beams good items to upgrade with or replace, stored inside for decades. Email me with any questions. EDIT: Yes, I think they are ugly compared to stock, but rare, brighter and easier to get bulbs.
I have a similar conversion kit but that is not the look I want. I will try to locate a 12v bulb that will work with the three attachments.
My father had a 39 Plymouth coupe which he turned into a convertible. Since he wanted fold away headlights he used a pair from an OT Ford sedan.
I used 3 prong Halogen bulbs in the '34 Dodge truck headlights on my old Sedan Delivery. The Dodge headlights had the metal reflectors and I simpley enlarged the reflector hole and screwed these in with 3 small screws. The old reflectors weren't that good so I ended up running on high-beams most of the time...they worked fine...lightyears (get it?) better than old 12v bulbs.
Thanks Hotrodjack that looks like the ticket. Do you have a link or part number by chance? Thanks Joe
When I had my 39 Plymouth, the reflectors for the square headlights were both junk. Being the hack I am, I recruited a pair of the plastic halogen headlights from a Chrysler minivan (mid 1990s) and cut the front of the plastic lens off. Then I hacked up the reflector from that plastic headlight until it fit into the 39's bucket the way I wanted it. Once I had the fit I wanted, I tacked 3 mounting tabs inside the bucket so that I could run mounting screws through the minivan reflectors and hold them into the position I wanted the "new" reflectors to sit. Everything fit nicely inside of the 39 headlight bucket. The glass 39 lenses fit over the plastic reflectors great and attached with the factory mounting set up. To replace the halogen bulb, you had to remove the lens, remove the reflector, then remove and replace the bulb, then install everything. I believe I also incorporated a turn signal reflector into the mix as well, either below, or above the plastic headlight reflector with pretty much the same process, because the minivan reflector was a bit too short to fill the entire space. But that was several years ago and the car is long gone.
Sorry Joel, that was 15 years ago...I can't remember what I had for lunch today. I walked into my local Advance Auto Parts store and they were hanging up in the "lighting section". Shouldn't be hard to find them, or similar 3 prong ones, in any auto parts store.
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