OK, heres the deal. I am 67 years old and have been a car freek and rodder all my life (first car at 16 was a 1937 Ford Tudor w/303 Olds). My pop had sweet cars all the time and traded about every 3-6 months. My pop loved the old windshield shades and often had to use a prism on the windshield to see the stoplights. I have a 32 Ford Tudor and am just tired of leaning over to see the stoplights, so I remembered that pop had used these prisms when I was little and lo and behold, they still make them. So I buy one and now I discover that I have no idea how the thing is supposed to mount on the windshield. I know I am not having memory problems but I'll be danged if I can remember how he mounted those things. I am sure that they were on an arm that screwed to the top of the dash but mine is this suction cup thingy. Please help an old man figure out how this thing is supposed to mount. Yes, I know the suction cup goes on the windshield but which angle do you use the prism. I thought this would be semi intuitive but it aint!
While looking through the fine automobiles for sale in the classifieds here, I spotted a stoplight prism thing in one of the pics of this super fine car. Look at how its mounted. BTW, i was fiddling with one at the swap meet last weekend trying to figure out just how it worked. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514359
Hey Cruisin30: My dad had one in his 55 Ford. If I remember correctly (I was 5 years thru 9 years old) his used the suction cup. He had it in the upper left corner of his windshield then angled to see the traffic light. When he traded for a 59 Ford, he forgot it in the 55. He never did stop beefing about losing it. Where did you find yours? I'd like to have one just in the memory of my father. Hope I helped.
I bought one and couldn't get it to work so I painted my air cleaner shiny black and I look at the reflection. good luck
I don't have one but if I did I guess I would just play with it at a light until I found what I was looking for and mount it that way. I think they go skinny end down. Probably not much help, but the price was right. LOL!
Model A Ford and other suppliers carry them... for example.... http://www.thehotrodcompany.com/shopnow/show_dept.asp?dept_id=5&filterkey=mir
the king of dice has the kind you want i have one on my 50 chevy with a visor if you check his web site he,s in vig. i have his phone # home if you want i,ll get it for you just tell him teddy sent you king of dice 12 hazelwood dr urbanna va 23175 e-mail [email protected] they are at calise this week and hersly next week the kind they have bolts to the dash or window frame for about 25.00 and they look like the old ones
In my A coupe, I mounted it in the lower left corner. I drilled a hole in the windshield pillar trim, and mounted it to the trim. Yes, skinny sidedown
I have one in my 30 tudor mounted on the left side of my dash rail. The top is chopped 4 1/2". It works good most of the time depending where the traffic light is in reguards to where you have to stop. This one has a threaded end and a nut to to hold it in place. I had one with a suction cup that I tried in different places and found the lower left worked about the best. The first one was about $10.00 and came from Speedway. The one I have now was about $40.00 from a vendor at the Turkey Run. Both worked about the same.
I have a '34 roadster and mine is suction cupped to the windshield just left of the rearview mirror about an inch below the top of the windshield. What you have to do is sit behind the wheel; pick a spot outside the car at about where a traffic light would be (like a tree or a sign ) and move the prism around the windshield until you find a place where you can see the item thru the prism and yet have it out of your line of sight while driving. It takes a little time and fine adjustment but once you find that "sweet spot" you'll never drive without one again.
I saw these on an HHR (Chevy) forum. I might try one on my sedan or my wife's roadster. http://www.lightinsight.com/
Thanks for all the input. I guess the only real way to do it is to experiment with location and angle. I see from some of the posts that some are mounted with thin side down and some seem to be just the opposite. Thanks again for all the help.
Don't expect to get an accurate image of the stop light. You get a distorted reflection that is easy to detect the color of the light. All you really get is a red or green distorted image but that is all you need to know. I had mine on the lower left. The GM originals were usually mounted in the center. They work well once you figure out what to look for. I gave up on my suction cup model. It never stayed in place for long. Every time I drove the truck I had to find it on the floor and lick the cup again. I don't know if Super glue would help but I found an original GM unit. I still need to mount it though. Stick it on the lower left of the W/S out of your sight line and then check it out at the next light. The fish eye will pick up the color of the light and you will see that it works. They don't really need to be aimed.
I gave up on my suction cup model. It never stayed in place for long. Every time I drove the truck I had to find it on the floor and lick the cup again. I don't know if Super glue would help but I found an original GM unit. I still need to mount it though. Mineral oil will hold suction much better than saliva...boy that sounded bad! LOL!
Don't expect to get great results from one of those cheap plastic things with a suction cup. The better glass ones made just like the old fashioned stoplight finders may work great down low, and give you a reasonably good image of the stoplight above, but the newer cheap plastic ones will work only if you mount them way up high and look very closely for a color change of the fuzzy little red dot you can sometimes focus on- if it is aimed right. In my Stude I have to have TWO of them to catch the normal stoplight locations, and then when I see the color finally change, I take the safety precaution of ducking my head down for an instant to verify the actual stoplight color so I don't let a neon sign nearby trick me into pulling out into traffic when I shouldn't. For the locations that work on my pickup, picture my windshield- a two-piece, and look at the 1/2 of the glass that is the driver side glass panel. I have one located high up at about the 10 o'clock position on the windshield glass (about 2-3 inches down from the extreme upper left corner of the glass panel), and one about the 12:30 or 1 o'clock position (almost straight up from where the shift knob of a column shifter would be, then straight up to the top of the windshield glass). Since the rubber suction cups are a joke that will keep dropping the stoplight finder on the carpet every few days, I pulled out suction cups and stuck the little wire brackets directly into the windshield weatherstrip to hold them. If your weatherstrip has trouble holding them by the wire without slipping (mine stay put without help), you can squeeze in a little dab or rubber cement or clear silicone in the crack by the wire and wipe the excess to make it invisible. You may want to experiment with ideal locations that actually work with your car before commiting to any location. In bright daylight, stop your car somewhere on the pavement, look closely at the distorted shadows in the plastic. Well stare at it actually. Sometimes you can make out the distorted image of the top of a sign or telephone pole or something. Use that image to get an idea of how it works, and how to aim it. Then pull up to some light where you know you can stay a few moments. Try to find a location on your windshield for the plastic gimmick that will show you a lit up dot somewhere on it. I never seem to find a usable image or "information" anywhere other than in the curve of the crown. I see a colored dot that tells me the stoplight color. No amount of adjusting or experimenting with positions has ever given me a good image in the main glass area (a friends antique glass light finder shows a very good image of the actual stoplight in his, but my plastic one won't). The best that my cheap plastic ones have ever given me are a few colored dots AFTER I had carefully adjusted them, and conditions are just right. So far I have NEVER found a good low-mounted position (like the dash-mounts you see in old pictures) that worked with the cheap plastic versions, so don't let the "traditional" pictures confuse you. You have to get the good kind if you want to mount it low.
One model is reproduced fairly accurately, I think the Fulton shown above. What you need is a real Fulton if possible, as the glass prism works better, and a modern repro or other source for a suction cup that isn't petrified.
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