I have taken several pictures to show how far off the 1955 Chevy headlight bezel is from the 1954 Chevy fender. I love the look of the 55 Chevy car headlight bezel on the 53-54 Chevy cars. I have searched a few threads where people have posted pictures, but there is not enough detail in the pictures to help guide me. The biggest issue I see the 55 Chevy bezel is a smaller diameter than the 54 chevy headlight bezel. My questions are: Should I start by aligning the 55Chevy bezel at the bottom of headlight ring that is stamped on the 54 chevy fender? Kind of like this: This picture doesn't show how far away the bezel sides are from the stamped ring of the fender. Here is a shot of the headlight ring of the fender From the two sides that flare out of the fender, I will bend the solid bar starting and ending at those points and go to the top of the bezel. BUT, what should I do about the bottom area below that flared lip of the fender? What headlight do you guys run when you use the 55 bezel on your 53/54? I know the 54 headlight can be recessed back and such. But the diameter seems a little smaller than what would properly fit the 55 bezel. Am I wrong? Here is what the bottom would look like if I use the 54 Chevy headlight and bucket in its stock form with the 55 Chevy bezel Your advice is greatly appreciated
Check out the work FuManchu has done on Roger Mirets Chevy. This should give a very good idea of what is needed, pics on the first page. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=543805
holy mackerel. never saw that one. one of the best blends EVER in the miret chevy! that aside, grab a set of 55 fenders with the buckets, eyebrows and all that and cut and graft to fit. then your just left with what to do with the fender detail... i think the example above is the hot ticket.
I would like to see it done using parts of the '55 fender as well. I can't think of a car built with the 55 fender.??? anybody got a pic?
Actually 55 Chevy fender repair panels have too large a radius for 53-4 Chevies. The eyebrow looks too thick to work on those fenders. I put a set on Kustom7777's car a long time ago, used 3/8" tubing to make the hood over the headlight. Then made filler paieces to make the transition, slightly curving them as they go forward, as well as the matural fender curve down. The body lines, you need to cut them and taper them to nothing as they approach the headlight ring. No big deal, a cut-off tool and welder makes short work of it.
Hey, I'd start by leveling the headlamp door with the fender's flange where the headlamp mounts . Be sure the door is at a right angle to this flange, and the fender's end. Use washers or bits of cardboard to shim the door into alignment, and tape the door to the fender's end. Now you can see just what will need fillers pieces made from 18-19 gauge steel, and where you'll need to make relief cuts to blend in the door to the fender. I'd cut some cardboard ( donut box works well ) templets out, and trim them in the shapes you'll need to fill in the gaps, to fare in the door to the shape your after. Larger pieces of metal mean less welding, but smaller pieces of metal may be easier for you to shape. Mark out those areas that need relief cuts, to blend in the lines of the 54' to the 55's fender, and with a thin cutoff disc ( I don't need to talk 'bout the use of goggles, do I ?) make those cuts back far enough to form the metal. Remove the door and grind back the paint a good 12'' from the fender's end. Cut out the metal bits you've traced from the templets, replace the door to the fender's end, and shape the metal to fit the fender. You can use round stock 1/4'' or 5/16'' to shape the flange over, or just shape the flange with a dolly & hammer, your call. Hammer those areas with a dolly back up that you made relief cuts to, and tack weld the new metal into place. remove the door, and finish weld and shape as necessary. Remember, the more metal you actually shape vs. just fill in with plastic filler, the longer the job will last. Fill, sand & shape using the door as a guide to form the fender's end. If you deside all the above is too much work, and wanna go with '55 fender ends & graft them onto the '54 fenders, good luck finding complete, dry '55 fenders They rotted to shit out here in the west too! " Humpty Dumpty was pushed "
I have definitely seen this thread. I love the metal work this guy did. Been done! I have also seen it done to a Shoebox Ford too. Someone on the Hamb has pictures. I found it when i Searched What is the "door" that you keep referring to? Do from what it sounds like. I need to make relief cuts in the metal on my factory fender to pull it and get to the same shape as the 55 Headlight bezel. Is that correct? If you look at the picture from Fumanchu below. It LOOKS like the 55 headlight bezel is not Concentric to the circular shape on the 54 Chevy Fender. Meaning: it looks like the bezel is alittle offset so that the bezel matches the fenders edge on the outer edge of the fender, but NOT the inner edge of the fender. Are the picture decieving me? Offset is to the right of the bezel as you look at this picture. In this picture it looks like the bezel edge is matched to the fender edge Please note: I am not criticizing Fumanchu at all. I am just trying to learn his work and determine how I am going to approach my project.
This is the tech article I used when I did mine http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290555
I used a set of 55 fenders and grafted them it was pretty simple but it's tough to find a usable set of donor fenders that are within a reasonable price range. The headlights on a 55 are mounted lower in the fender than a 53 or 54 this gives the top of the eyebrow a thicker look. I think it looks better sharper so you really end up hand making the entire top section anyway. If I was to do it again I would probably just make them entirely myself.
I have seen this thread and talked to the O.P. But the thread doesn't really discuss what is done to make the bezel center to the headlight openning. Looks great! Did you use your factory headlight bucket for the 1954 car? Is that the 1954 headlight? What did you modify to make the headlight mount so nice and flush/ Your one of the guys I was thinking of. I agree. the eyelid is easy to just make rather than grafting in an entire fender.
The buckets I used were from a 57 the guy that I picked em up from at the swapmeet said. I ended up shaving the lip from around the bucket off and mounting it from the backside of the fender to get it more flush with the bezel. I did weld a peice of 1/8" rod around the bottom of the headlight area on the fender to flow the bezel in a little better with the fender. Here is a pic of the rod, not the greatest but the only pic I have.
I am going to start working on this again tonight, I hope. I am going to start by grind/cutting off the flange that is on the headlight bucket. Then mount it from the inside to see how it all looks from there. Then I will temporarily mount the headlight bezel and work from there. I will update with pictures as I progress. Thanks
Here is a rough cut of how I have the sheetmetal piece laid out. How's this look in regards to it's location? Here is how the headlight is mounted. I cut off the flange from the headlight bucket so that the headlight bucket would mount flush to the fender. BUT, the way it is pictureed I have 3 washers between the headlight bucket and the fender. I used these washer to help get the headlight in the correct location of the 57 Chevy bezel. This is the way the sheetmetal eyelid is wrapping around the 57 headlight bezel. KEEP IN mind that the sheetmetal contour of my fabricated eyelid is currently flush with the 54 Chevy fender. BECAUSE OF this there is a gap in some areas between the headlight bezel and the sheetmetal eyelid What i did here was bend the sheet metal eyelid out to stay flush with the fender contour. You can see the largest gap for this layout HERE IS WHERE MY QUESTIONS START Do I use my bent steel rod to fill the gap between the headlight bezel and my sheetmetal eyelid? as shown: I thought the purpose of the bent rod was to create a radius on the edge of the sheetmetal. Is the rod used to do this AND fill in the gap between the headlightbezel and sheetmetal eyelid? Any final advice before I start welding away and finishing this up?
Hey, Er, um, I thought we started out talkin '55 Chevrolet headlamp doors, not '57? Are they the same part? BTW, a headlamp door is an older term for what you have called a bezel, to me a bezel is a jewelery term, not part of an automobile Yes, you can use the round rod to both form the radius of your part, and fill in the gaps. I'd use whatever works for you, but sometimes just a flange turned over the edge of a dolly is all that's called for, and quicker than the round rod route. Be sure to remove that paint material from the working site prior to any welding. Some of that material has the flash point of gasoline Did you ever finish the quarter panel on this project? " Humpty Dumpty was pushed "
Make sure the rod is above the headlight bezel so that you can remove it from the front of the car. I made the mistake of bending the rod in front of the lip of the bezel and now it is a pain to assemble and also replace the headlight.
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