So, with Visa card in hand, I called Gennie Shifter----

The "winters project" came a long way this morning---and me sicker than a pig with a damn chest cold!!! BUT---I have a question----Is anybody else out there running one of these types of bar from Gennie Shifter??? I have the new bar setting in place, and when setting in the holes that were already drilled, it is setting "dead nuts" level from side to side.---Problem is, it seems that the "cups" that hold the headlights are rotated too far foreward.---yet I have about 1 1/2" clearance between the front grill bar and the inside edge of the new headlight bar, which seems about right. I could probably correct a bit of the "cup rotation" issue by loosening the fender support bars and swinging them back towards the rear of the car at the top, and drilling new holes in my front fenders---but that creates one Hell of a pile of pain in terms of bodyworking and repainting the front fenders, for the very small ammount of rotation it would buy me. I took one of my Kingbee headlights and set it in place, and with a bit of judicious trimming in the area where the bolt goes thru the round bart on the bottom (see picture), I will be able to rotate the headlight into the correct position without moving the headlight bar at all, or screwing up my painted fendsers.---Just wondering if anybody else has been down this road.---Brian.

 

I'm gettin old, and kinda stoopid---but---It seems to me that somewhere in the last year, I seen a thread either here or else over on Clubhotrod where somebody was complaining about exactly the same thing---the cups on an aftermarket headlight bar being rotated incorrectly. It could be that all the bars Gennie Shifter makes are "out" by a few degrees, but one thing for Damn sure---theyr'e never going to admit it. They even put a disclaimer in the instructions which basically says---if our headlight bar doesn't fit your car, it could be caused by distortion from boxing your frame, fender support brackets installed incorrectly, manufacturing tolerances, Blah, Blah, Blah----our bar is made to original Ford specs in the mounting flange area--Don't come whining to us!!! Still---the bar is a beautifull peice of work, and its not so far out that its a disaster. If I can bring this off without having to repaint my front fenders, I'm going to be happier than a pig in mud!!! I don't mind having to do a little creative trimming on the headlight pots, Hell, I don't even mind if I've got to whittle out a couple of tapered shims from stainless to get a perfect fit bertween the flange on the bar and my fenders. Its going to look beautifull, and as someone else on the board said (I think it was Don shillady)---There really isn't any such thing as a "bolt on and walk away" aftermarket hotrod part.---Right!!!

 

My dad went thru this when he put a 32 grille on his A pick-up. He learned that NONE of the hed light bars and fender holes line up very well. Lots of loosening and makin' it work when you would think it would just bolt up. Persevere, persevere, persevere. Or prevese, preverse, perverse. I never can remember.

 

So---A word of warning to anyone considering this change---There is something wrong with the rotation of the cups on a GennieShifter Vee'd and dropped headlight bar---A friend of mine over on Clubhotrod.com sent me a picture of a Brookville Roadster he is building with the same GennieShifter lightbar on it, and the damn cups are wonky on his, same as mine---they are tilted about 22 degrees (measured with machinists protracter) off horizontal. This is not insurmountable, but it is definately a fault with their product.

 

Lol, sorry man. I already got one that spends a lot on clothes and shoes. Good luck though. And on a serious note, it looks like your project is coming along really nice.

 

maybe it's designed for '32 lights... the bolts come out the bottom/ back at a different angle than the King Bees, I believe.

 

Brian if I remember right the stock a bars have the cups tilted also. I know that the cups on my fake socal stainless mounts on the roadster and the coupe i sold this spring are tilted and even have a left and right cast in em so when they are on the right sides you can adjust the lights. Ill look at mine closer this evening. Im going with 28-29 a lights on this car just like i did my coupe..
Dave

 

No, I don't think thats right---If you take a look at the picture of my A with the stock headlight bar on it (without lights), (post#28)the cups set pretty well level. ---and the KingBee lights fit it perfectly and had a full range of adjustment. I know I did a bit of tweaking to that bar to make the ends fit my fenders perfectly, but nothing that would have caused the cups to rotate 22 degrees.---And the literature from GennieShifter states that this bar is for model A fords with a 32 style grillshell.

 

Ok ive also got a stock a bar hanging in the garage so im gonna look at both my socal style mounts and the stock bar this evening just for kicks.
Dave

 

This picture shows a KingBee installed on my new bar and tipped back as far as it can be tipped, without me doing a bit of "relieving" in the area around the spherical bottom of the headlight cup, to let it tilt more. Actually. this sin't as bad as I thought yesterday---I just checked with the machinists protractor, and the face of the headlight cup is only 5 degrees off vertical. some minor trimming of the area I showed in one of my earlier posts on this thread should let the light swing into the true vertical, which will be close to where it should be.---Brian

 

Problem Resolved---10 minutes with a file and my Dremel tool. I removed 3/16" in the area shown---See before and after pictures. I took out 3/16" of metal from the area shown---This lets me tip the headlight back untill its setting right. IC2 nailed it pretty good---I think I'll take out a full 1/4" just to "make sure" that I have a bit of "overtravel" if I need it. Once everything is rewired and tightened up is NOT the time to find out I needed to take out 1/16" more.---I will post more when I get the fender brackets and start that part of the project.---Brian
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Well thats fucking great I offer my help and you just grind the shit till it fits Thats what hot rods are all about. I forgot to look at mine anyway. The wind is blowing about 40 here and I just went to the garage and finished taping the roadster for primer so it won,, u lost .. I cant paint till the weather breaks cause the harley and the tool chests will be outside when i throw paint.. Glad you solved your problem ..
Dave

 

Dave---Always happy for advise and another mans viewpoint. sometimes I get so on top of things that I fail to see the obvious---

 

Looks like thats the case...nice job of fixing the problem.. now if ya lose the little king bees and get a pair of big 32 lights on the front and it will REALLY look good... JMO of course!

 

Well--Somethings happening---Got a call from Canada Customs today asking if I expected a package coming from USA. I said yes, and they said okay, just checking!!!

 

Today the first set of original fender braces arrived. These are the ones that I traded the original headlight bar for. Sorry for the quality of the picture----They are in amazingly good shape for something 78 years old. The holes for all of the fasteners are in good condition, not elongated or torn out. There is surface pitting, but certainly nothing that will impair the functionality. They have a few rather "interesting" bends in them, that probably did not originate at the factory. I fully expect a long and rather tortuous ordeal in making them fit what I have, but Hey---thats what oxy-acetylene is for. I am still sicker than a dog with cold/flu and have a torn up shoulder muscle to boot, so whatever happens isn't going to happen real quick. Now, tomorrow I have to box up the headlight bar and UPS it down to California---

 

This is going to be one of those times when I wish I had steel front fenders and that they weren't painted yet. Pretty hard to get under painted glass fenders with the hot wrench and persuade the supports into the "perfect" shape. I foresee a lot of "bend it to where I think its right, off the car---wait for it to cool---bolt it on, see whats up---take it off heat and bend some more"---you get the picture!!!
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---I probably will make some form of template. The 3 key areas are #1--where the bracket attaches to the frame #2--where the bracket touches the inside of the fender at the headlight bar holes, and #3 at the outer lip of the fender, where there is a single bolt. Since the aftermarket braces that are on there now do fit well in those 3 areas, I will remove them one at a time, and bolt them to a steel frame (which I will build from scrap I have laying around) using the 3 base bolt holes. I will bolt peices of steel to the other 2 critical areas higher up on the fender brace, and when they are securely bolted in place, I will weld "bridges" to them from the steel frame. Then when everything has cooled, I will unbolt the aftermarket brace and remove it. ---Then I will bolt the original "new" fender braces to the same 3 base bolt holes on my welded steel frame, then heat and bend then so that they match up to the holes in my weldment. This should get things "very close". It is a kind of reverse template, but I have used this method before on similar projects, and it works very well.---Brian

 

Sheesh!!! What a hassle!!! You all remember, I bought a second set of fender support brackets of Ebay. I had let my Paypal lapse, because I just never use it. So---I paid with a personal cheque. And then---eventually I got an email back from the seller saying "American banks will not verify Canadian cheques"--they are going to have to snail mail to Canada to verify the cheque. So---I answered and said "Thats okay, I'm not in a rush, let them verify it by snail mail. And then---I got an email from the seller saying "The bank has informed him that the cheque will have to be mailed to the Central Commerce Bank of USA for verification---and that there is a $40.00 fee for that---and then it has to be sent on to the main Bank of Canada which requires another fee." All this for something I "won" for $60.00 So---Then I went back in to Paypal and re-registered. And then---I paid him through Paypal, and it was done in 10 minutes!!! This entire fiasco was my fault.---I never had such a problem trying to get rid of my money
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Well----I am totally blown away!!! The second set of fender braces that I purchased, thru ebay just arrived, and My God---They are just like brand new. It appears that they have never been heat, beat, or tortured---even very little pitting. I bought them from somebody called "jt" in Kansas City, and after a little dance caused by the inability to get a Canadian personal cheque cashed in USA, I paid thru Paypal, and they were promptly shipped the same day. this is the second time I have dealt with ebay, and I could not be more pleased.

 

I had a problem with the headlight bar on my '29. It wanted to sit lower on one side. I put levels across the fenders, I put levels across the frame. I put levels everywhere. Still couldn't get it to sit right.
It turned out to be the frame horn where the fender support bolts on, had a slight twist to it. You couldn't tell by looking at it. But by being off a tad at the frame, threw the support off quite a bit at the top.

 

I just phoned Hortons in Milton Ontario, to enquire about a set of Halogen style headlights that would be direct bolt in replacements for the 7" sealed beams in my 7" Kingbee headlights. (Heck, I figure, if its all apart anyways---:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: ). Anyways, a set complete with the proper bulbs from Speedway Motors will cost me $88 plus tax and shipping. I don't do a lot of night driving, but when I do---there are a lot of wild critters on the highway around here. I,ve seen the havock wreaked on a glass full fendered roadster that hit a porcupine!!! It would be nice to be able to see them well enough to avoid them----Brian