I pick up a pair of nice head light buckets with the lenses. I think one has the bulb in it the other dose not my question is can you put a sealed beam in the buckets, or do I rebuilt them, and about the wire harness to the light I am not sure about that, there it a female plug on the bucket if some knows about them I could sure uses some info. In the the Plymouth manual dose not show much about them the 1938 has head lights on it but not the right ones these head lights would make the car complete. Please if any body have some info thank you yours truly Jim Clark
I can answer part of your question. Back in the mid-1960s, J.C. Whitney/Warshawsky used to sell sealed beam adapter kits for pre-1940 autos. The 1965 Warshawsky catalog lists a kit fot the following Plymouths: 1935, 1936-37, 1938 and 1939.
Possibly, you could find one of these kits for your '38 on Ebay, or at a car parts flea market.
Pat O'Connor
Mid to late 1930's reflector style headlights 101.
The U.S. Government passed a law in 1939 that beginning with the '40 model year, all vehicles manufactured in the U.S would have sealed beam headlights.. The sealed beams proved to be so popular that aftermarket manufactures scrambled to come up with retro fit replacement sealed beams for all of the thousands of pre 1940 vehicles.
Actually the original equipment reflector headlights were not that bad if they were properly maintained. Maintenance required the periodic polishing of the reflector which was a form of silver plating that tarnished just like fine silver plated dinner ware. The reflector headlights also had cork seals which had to be carefully maintained so that water could not enter into the assembly. In 1936 the major car manufactures, Chevrolet, Chrysler and Ford, to name just a few, all adapted the same style of bulb. The common bulb is what is termed, a prefocused bulb, it is made to work in conjunction with the prisms in the lens.
The reflector style of headlights can be successfully rebuilt by having the reflectors replated, there are several Companies around the U.S. that replate reflectors. The wiring and connections of same should be repaired and/or replaced to insure good working order.
Converting to sealed beams is also an option.. Watch eBay for conversions for the '36-38 DPCD cars, they should all be about the same. Another option is to look for is a set of sealed beam headlights for a '40 Dodge pickup. The pickups have a very similar headlight bucket to the '37-38 DPCD cars.. We use to convert the headlights on '35-36 Fords to sealed beams using '40 and later Ford truck lights from a 1-1/2. The truck stuff would bolt right into the '35-36 Ford headlight buckets.
It is not a good idea to try and mount sealed beams behind original lens.. The light is defused incorrectly in lieu of being directed onto the roadway.
If you convert to sealed beams, good wiring and the application of a headlight relay in the system is a must.
Through the years I have converted many early cars to sealed beams.... My '39 Plym had been converted to sealed beams, I watched eBay like a hawk, after three years of watching I found a complete set or original head lights for a '39 Plym. The units were in as new condition, complete with the wiring and fender buckets. The units were found by a man in his uncles barn in Connecticut.. They were most likely removed in favor of a sealed beam conversion.
What about converting to the use of halogen light bulbs? Have any of you had any experience with that. I have a 39 business coupe with nice headlights intact, but I want to go to something brighter.
Quote from: 1939P8 on February 16, 2011, 01:46:27 AM
What about converting to the use of halogen light bulbs? Have any of you had any experience with that. I have a 39 business coupe with nice headlights intact, but I want to go to something brighter.
Following the advise of several magazine articles and fellow car "nuts", I converted the stock headlights on my '39 Plym conv cpe to halogen lights. The conversion requires a halogen bulb kit which I purchased from a company in Portland OR. The reflectors had to be modified by enlarging the headlight bulb hole to 1" to accept the halogen bulb holder. OF COURSE THE MODIFICATION RUINED THE REFLECTOR FOR FUTURE USE WITH STOCK BULBS.
The halogen lights are very bright, however, they do not illuminate the road with a directed beam. On low beam they shine down on the road right in front of the vehicle, on high beam the light is defused all over the place.
As I mentioned in my earlier posting to this topic, the problem with the halogen bulbs is the design of the original prisms in the lens.. I converted my headlights back to the original style bulbs, which required having another set of reflectors re-plated, however, I used 12v "Bright Bulbs" which I purchased from Painless....Bill
Hello everyone Dose anybody know how the lens come out I took the chrome strip ring off but the lens not coming out I don,t know if you need some sort of suction cup to remove the lens? or what any suggestions thank you
I believe you push in at the top of the lens then pullout at the bottom (or the other way around).
you push in the bottom , then pull out from the top, and yes a suction cup will probably save you a broken lense
Sounds like it is the same procedure as for 1936 lenses (see Elmo's post). It's also a good idea to have a thick piece of carpet on the floor below the light (or remove the lens over grass) in case your hand slips (been there, done that).
Pat O'Connor
thank you I try that tonight thank everyone
Hello everyone, I did get head light apart, I took the chrome ring off and stuck a knife between the head light bucket and the Lenci and it pop out it is on springs,
. Now I am asking about the reflector is there any one that know it the reflector can be re coated, or some company that does that job thank you Jim Clark
Quote from: 1938P6 on April 03, 2011, 08:09:32 PM
Hello everyone, I did get head light apart, I took the chrome ring off and stuck a knife between the head light bucket and the Lenci and it pop out it is on springs,
. Now I am asking about the reflector is there any one that know it the reflector can be re coated, or some company that does that job thank you Jim Clark
I had mine done by Uvira many years ago and they are still great. See: http://www.ply33.com/Repair/lights
Contact information is available by clicking through on the link in the article.
any plating co should be able to do it , its called resilvering
Quoteany plating co should be able to do it , its called resilvering
I don't think many companies do resilvering. If they do, you'll always have the problem of the silver tarnishing. Ulvira will overcoat the silver with a clear coat so you don't have that problem. It is also a fairly expensive process. Before you sent it to Ulvira, you have to send it to a chrome shop and have it nickle plated.
Has anyone ever had their headlight reflector chromed? I would think that would be cheaper and easier to maintain. I can't imagine you could loose that much light from a chrome plate rather than a silver plate.
Quote from: JimCno on April 04, 2011, 10:33:22 AM...snip...Has anyone ever had their headlight reflector chromed? I would think that would be cheaper and easier to maintain. I can't imagine you could loose that much light from a chrome plate rather than a silver plate.
I've seen cars where the reflectors were chromed rather than silvered. Not a good idea. Chrome actually makes a lousy reflector for optical systems. My 10 second Google search did not come up with what I was hoping for, but basically untarnished silver is the best reflector material you can use for light in the frequency range needed for headlights. Aluminum is not quite as good but it does not tarnish as quickly. They used to use sliver for astronomical research telescopes but many/most/all of them are aluminum nowadays.
By the way, the common sealed beam headlight had a designation of PAR-56. The 56 part was the diameter in 1/8s of an inch while the "PAR" stood for "Parabolic aluminized reflector" so you know what they were using for the reflector on those lamps.
If you flash a layer of glass on the aluminum (what Uvira does) then you have the same type of reflector used on top end headlight assemblies nowadays.
Hello every one I going to go with Uvera it with look like the old sliver coded reflectors but will work like to days sealed beams. I thank every one for there input, but I have a new question what should I do about the head light wire harness? dose any body redo that old type wiring to the old style sockets for head light bubbles, looks like two wire socket, wired too another socket that gos to a hole in the head light bucket, which is a female, the male is on the body of the car original but on our car, it looks like some one wirer directly to the wires on the car with other head lights. Dose any one know if some one does that type of work or sells that wiring harness thank you
I just rewired the stuff inside the buckets myself using, if I recall correctly, 10 gauge wire. The overall harness for the car I replaced with one from Harnesses Unlimited and it is a very nice quality piece of work. I know that YnZ's puts out a good harness too. And I've heard that Rhode Island Wiring has good stuff as well. None of them are cheap but they do look like the original.
I believe that all of them use modern wire that has simply been covered with original looking cloth. I understand that if you want to have some modern stuff like turn signals, etc. they can make up an original looking harness that has the extra wires for you.
I sent out the reflector Uvira, after I got them from back from the plating co., they look great I also order head light bucket harness from Narracansett repo wiring $17.00. I will when they are delivered that all for now thank for the help
I had Uvira do mine for my '38 Chrysler about 8 years ago and they are still perfect. Uvira is extremely nice to deal with as well which is a big plus. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to have reflectors "resilvered". The finished reflectors look like silver but have none of the issues real silver reflectors have.......like tarnishing.
Had my 30U reflectors done a couple years ago by UVIRA and they are great. I made up a demonstation for the Cascade Pacific Club and they coldn't believe the amount of light.
Another thing I did to help with the grounding issue was to solder ground wires to all the light sockets. I then drilled out the headlight mounting bolt so I could run the wire down and through the light bar and into the wire harness. I then routed it out of the wire loom and grounded it directly to the frame under the car. I did a similar grounding on the tail light.
6Volts is just fine, lots of light.
Gary
Got the reflector back the other day looking great. I have to rewire them ,we will see when I get them done that is all for now.