Why are spotlights installed on customs

What is the reason that spotlights are installed on customs from the late 40s and 50s,I personally think they clutter up the car and only belong on work trucks and poilce cars so does anyone know why they put them on. Jeff

 

Probably started as guys liked to add anything to their cars that were chrome and/or glitzy. Guys would do anything to make their cars stand out from the others. I guess it just became a custom "must do".

 

Years ago guys thought it was cool to have spotlights, we used them to spot deer in hunting season, to check parkers in those back road spots that also was a favorite after rod club meeting go out to find parkers. Spot lights came in handy to light up those beer parties out in the boonies. Eventualy the state of PA. outlawed them and you could only have dummy lights.

 

We put them on so we could play spotlight tag during intermission at the drive in movies before you got your girlfriend in the back seat!!

 

The fake ones give you a place to hide your door popper solenoid

 

I put a spot light on my truck to go to the 50's night at the drive in. Like sayed we play spot light tage on the screen.

 

roundvalley's correct. They were to harass your buddy's at the drive-in, and not to forget to shine on the screen at intermission.

 

Why spotlights? Hmm, this question does not really have an answer other than....why rake a car? why paint metalflake, pearl or whatever? why whitewalls? Why do so many things we do to our cars that really don't do anything from a mechanical point. If someone (you) doesn't like the look of whatever, don't put it on your car. And slamming another guys car for any reason is not, in my opinion, something that is done. That shows immaturity or an over-inflated ego.

 

Might have been some practical reasons for them also. Before streetlights, urban light polution, reflective street and road signs, house numbers on houses not on mail boxes, narrow dark roads with no shoulders, center lines or shoulder lines.

 

On Customs? Not sure..

I think originally they were on the cars because its hard to see a street sign in the dark.

 

for pizza delivery...

 

I guess it was a fad like some today like to put those stick on port holes on the newer cars and everyone I knew who is old enough to remember why they put them on are dead,I just never aquired the taste for them and they do look ok on some cars but I think I would leave them off if I built a 50s custom.

 

Guys like you would keep me on second base. I was running in for home and that fn light would shine in and the fun would be over. Fun times

 

For street racing at night on a back country road...

 

An old Hotrodder once told me that they used to dick around with em at drive ins and chase eachothers light on the big screen haha.

 

my girlfriend of the moment would pretend she needed to go to the restroom and not come back.i would sit there during the entire movie and wait for her to return from who knows where.at the end of the movie i would spotlight into each cars back seat till i found her and get her home safe.

 

Spotlighting deer is still a pretty popular pasttime on my PAcountry road,but they use hand held lights. Idiots.

My dad's Olds 88 had a driver's side spotlight-came that way from the dealer.

Floyd Clymer,of the car book fame, invented a through the windshield spotlight in the early years of the 20th century-you needed a special drill to mount it.

 

My grandmothers 1950 Hudson Hornet had a mirror mounted on the back of the spotlight. Thought it was cool to be able to adjust it with the spotlight.

 

All the above!!! plus customs at shows got extra points from that stuipd point sheet that NHRA started useing in the 60's,I use to get top custom[it was clean and smooth],no extra scoops,spotlights .mirrors and extra radio antenas and all the junk that the show car rule sheets counted as good.

 

for beer blasts, country parties, blinding your buddies, looking at stuff in the dark...

 

Just cause

Mike

wwCustomikes.com

 

actually, this thread is pretty educational.

 

Dunno, but my Jet came with Appletons as standard equipment in 1953.

 

I bet this is the primary reason, just to see where you were going - far better than the OEM lights of the day - so you could avoid the ditches or bad spots in the road and to keep from getting lost. But I suppose it didn't take long (about a minute) for folks with them to start having fun being obnoxious with them after dark. Twice the fun with dual spots. Gary

 

I think two spotlights are cool. And what better reason is that?

 

Because you could. And they were fun and they were cool and they were useful and you could annoy people with them. (See also: "Why did people put loud/different horns on their cars.")

 

The street lights back in the day were not much if any at all.Lowlidx50

 

This is what I was always told. It probably came down to someone seeing some and thinking they were cool and would set their kemp apart from the others. I personally always loved them.

 

I remember real port holes and I'm not dead,

yet.

 

Ya, if you have a super low custom your headlights don't do much good. So, spot lights act as "high Beams". Ha!! Another shot of Jim Beam needed.