do these taillights make my ass look big?

Heres a bigger pic of the ass end of mine.
You can find the lenses pretty cheap on ebay, but the bezels are a little harder to come by.
You may be able to find those off a parts car if needed.
They are about 8" long and about 1 1/2" wide.

 

i like the new trunk line but i think the lenses are too heavy. great job though, keep at it!

 

I agree with the `56 Chevy lenses.
The only thing against the Stude parts is that they are straight aren´t they? I think it´d be a real shame to lose the curve on the end of the fin, as it matches the curve at front of the fin and on the pillarless window frames.

Those Comet parts could also work. I´ll photochop something later.

 

maybe flip them so the narrow end points up like the fin on top of the quarters

 

I was thinking the same thing try putting the point up into the fins a bit

 

Here is the old sketches I did for Jim. I kinda like the Comet lense. If you did the 59 lights, maybe scale them down a little bit with the same shape. I went through this stuff thinking up how to do my 51 Chevy, I changed my mind a million times and ended up using stuff I had sitting around anyway. It's fun seeing everybody's ideas!

 

I like the '58 Plymouth tail lights. They look like they belong there, they're the right scale, and they're suitably anonymous.The '59 Chevy lights will always look like you grafted '59's on it they're too easy to identify, and way too big.
I'm building a chopped and sectioned '50 Ford with radiused wheelwells, early T-bird chrome wire wheels and huge whitewalls with a 331 hemi.

 

I´m thinking you´ll have a hard time getting the Plymouth lenses to fit - they are straight and the fins are curved - both outwards and backwards.

 

Yuck

 

Heres a quickie with the Comet lights. I´d still go with round lights, FWIW.

 

looks like an Asian Alien from outerspace. !

 

Yup!

 

Looks like a box with fins. Too boxy. Maybe its that straight metal contour line that goes fin to fin. Wouldn't it look better with that line eliminated and the trunk have a curved contour going down toward the bumper.

 

That's funny.
I've been told that it looks like a pissed off alien, from the rear at night, before.

 

het cory,,thanks for posting those again,,ive gotten a BUNCH of ideas from your drawings///

 

Customcory, those are real cool concepts.




I like how this one works. I think it has to be made from scratch with rod and plates so it has the right proportions. Using those stock 59 chev bezels, well, they are just too thick and heavy looking.

 

Put bullits where the round lights are and some round lenses in the bumper guard?

 

thanks for all the great ideas guys,,,when i posted this, i figured it'd disappear to page 20 in a day,,,surprised me to see it go this long...i've enjoyed seeing and hearing your input,,,,i have some things to think about, not only with the taillights, but some of the other details of the car as well....

i have decided the car will not be hardtopped..
if the car was chopped more radically, the hardtop would work,,since it's a relatively mild chop, i don't feel the look of a hardtop does much to improve the looks of the car.

the car definitely needs more lowering,,there are already 4" blocks in the back and 1" spacers in the front,,,,another 3" all around would look about right, i think,,,

i like the look of the radiused wheelwells a lot,,i like the look of the skirts too,,,im really torn on this one,,,a couple of friends saw the car and said it'll look like a gasser with the wheelwells radiused,,,i don't think so, i think it'll have a similar look to bill hine's bat,,,....ive always run skirts on everything,,but i must admit, i am giving this a lot of thought,,,,,when it comes down to it,,don't know if i have the balls to cut the wheelwells like that,,,i'm usually pretty fearless with the saw,,,but in this case it kinda scares me....

ive narrowed down my choices for the taillights to the following: canted 54 chevy with lee bubble lenses, 58 plymouth wagon, 57 studebaker, one offs made to resemble the 59s only smaller,,,,,not sure i want a lens inside the fin, because as james pointed out, the back of the fins are curved,,,,,

here are a few pics i took today,,i pulled the car outside and snapped off a few shots..

 

good idea,,but i already have my exhaust coming through the bumper guard,,probably hard to see it in the pics though

 

I vote for skirts also, sometimes one's first gut feelings are right.

Even though those bubble skirts are a great design, especially how they match the side trim, I vote for the simple small skirts. Reason being those bubble skirts are equal in visual mass to the fins. I think they will be competing visually, maybe even overpowering the fins for attention. It's better to have one thing be the main focal point of the car. In this case the fins.

 

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!

 

Damn this car is gonna be so bitchin!!! I am glad to hear you decided to keep the post, it looks much better with than hardtopped.

 

As the cop in Veronica Mars said "time to go see the wizard and get some guts" PLEASE! lose all tear drop Chev crap and do this version with the extended fins, round taillights (how about 60 Dodge?), and the BEAUTIFUL radiused wheelwells just like it looks in the photoshopped pic.

 

...

 

wow,,,for real?,,that would be cool...

 

I have a 59 biscayne out back ,you can cut the back end off of it.

Im sure you could weld it on there