History Cars with Lighted Hood Ornaments

Not a light up hood ornament...but pretty cool anyway.
A local guy has a '34 5 window with a greyhound hood ornament. Somehow, he drilled out the base of the ornament, hooked up a tube to a windshield washer system to it and the dog will shoot 10 foot stream of piss/water. He hits a ****on on the dash and nails people at car shows. He tells them that the "dog only piss's on people he doesn't like". I've been "hit" several times.

 

I know you asked for other than Pontiac but I thought I would post a picture of my 53 Pontiac hood light anyways. The bump might get some responses about other cars. The plastic on mine is a little cracked but holding together. I was going to buy a replacement Indian Head but my wife likes it as is.

 

Wolseley

Sent from my SM-G930F using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

My grand mother's 48 ford had a naked lady hood ornament.....all smooth with wings, no real details other than ****s clearly defined.....We(all my cousins and I), being quite young, of course had an interest in such things and stood around alot looking at this ornament. There was a fair amount of discussion concerning it's attributes, I do not think the issue of illumination ever came up.

 

The one on my J doesn't light up. I've had lots of people ask if it did.

Jim

 

1949 Chevrolets had a deluxe hood ornament that should have lit up but they did not do it.

 

I'd had the idea before to mount a small LED fog or spotlight inside a Deuce shell, so that the light shines through a clear lens in place of the Ford badge, a bit like the Wolseley badge @Kume mentions above, but functional. There are really tiny units available these days, including projector units which replace H4 etc. bulbs.

It's not like I don't have an extremely long list of higher priorities, though ...

 

Gotta picture?

 

...red light on the front of the car could get you pulled over in the 49 Chevy one above.

 

It was a trademark feature beginning in the 1930s I think.

 

Very cool.

 

1947 Indian Chief. These motorcycles were rolling art.

 

My '50 is the deluxe version and yet it came [to me] with a chrome hood ornament. I simply must have the illuminated version for my car

 

Every time I see one of these "Cracked Ice" plastic ornaments, I think about trying my hand at refurbishing and improving the condition. I'm not sure but I think it's been done before so I'm not claiming any credit for the technique. Basically, you simply put the plastic casting in a vacuum chamber in some of the liquid resin that's used for windshield crack repair. When you pull the vacuum ( negative pressure) all the air molecules are drawn out and the liquid resin is drawn in, actually pushed in when the chamber is returned to atmospheric. Then just wipe the casting down, keeping a 'wet look', and set it in UV light (sunlight ) to harden.
I've never had a victim to try this on but I have used the liquid resin on a lot of little projects, plus I have an inexpensive pressure cooker to act as a chamber. (I just need to put a fitting in it.) Mostly what I've done so far is use the liquid to refurbish old, plastic taillight lenses that are showing their age.

 

If you cover a crazed plastic horn ****on with vaseline and let is set for about a month all the crazing will be gone. I imagine the vaseline is wicked into the cracks making them invisible. Don't know how long it lasts, but I have one on the shelf I did 2 years ago and it's still fine. May not last long on a hood ornament that gets washed and sits in the sun, just don't know.

 

My '46 DeSoto has a non lite up flying lady ('42 style) ornament on it now, but it originally came with a light up. The bulb and wiring is still hanging under the hood. I'll put the light up back on when I build the car.

 

Now I gotta figure out how to get the hood ornament on my '39 Chevy to light up!

 

I found this interesting site which covers a lot of hood ornaments in a compact format. You can scroll through many in a short time, alphabetically by manufacturer, and note all those that have the translucent plastic castings that probably were illuminated. There are some surprises and way more than I thought.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/hood-ornament-identifiaction-guide.html

 

Do you have any pictures of it lit up?

 

The "illuminated jester" thumbing his nose at the world. available for many years from J C Whitney

 

If memory serves me correctly one of our PHD chemists at the lab discovered he could heal cracks in plastic by suspending the item in a beaker of a solvent with a lid on it and the beaker was on a hot plate. Warm enough to liberate fumes to surround the suspended item. He tried pulling the item and hang it when it cleared up or believe he plunged the item in water to seal the item. Will have to jog my memory on this process.

 

It was Methlene Chloride that they used.

 

This is funny, I just installed a light on my 48 pontiac hood ornament this afternoon. I love the look of the cracked plastic.

 

We had some wild PHD's back then. On our top floor called the monitor where scientific labware was stored we had a PHD that was getting shipments of fresh Cow patties delivered to his lab up there. He was working on converting the patties into a bio fuel for automobiles back then. As soon as you got off the freight elevator you could smell the **** in that corner of the floor. Never heard what became of his work. Possibly a bust.