I want to put a real pair of spotlights on the 41. I know Hotrods Of Norco used to carry them but they don't now. Anyone knows a good/best place to get some thanks
We just bought our original Appletons from a guy up here in Washington. I think he sells all sorts of them. Let me know if you want his number and I wll dig out his card...
Unity is still making them.Contact a big truck parts place and they can thm for you on the cheap. I put them on my '51 ford and they came with a pattern to lay out the holes.
Sure you can buy new Unity's, but they are standard car/police car spotlights. The one you would want for a period correct custom would be either appleton 112's or 552's. Currently, they seem to be going for around $180-300 for a 112 on ebay, depending on condition. While there were some very early customs that had one or two "flat style" unity spots (a few Valley customs come to mind), by the early 50's the appleton 552 was the one to have. The 112 was actually a pre-war model, in the early 50's, the 552 model was they appletone "teardrop" style sold at the time, yet today, they are less desirable, almost forgotten. They go for a bit less than 112's. The Hirohata, Moonglow, Ogden buick, Ernst chevy, etc all had 552's. The matranga Merc, Lopez 41 had 112's, which were at the end of their sales era at the time those cars were built. I have covered my research on historical use of appletons in several posts on the HAMB, do a search under my name, but these two come to mind: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143294 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135921&highlight=appleton
Might want to check if it's legal to have them operational. Iowa lets you mount them but they can't work. Only allowed on emergency vehicles.
appletons are 3 times the money and for what? I found a pair of nice bakelite handle unitys for my 49 sedan BOMB at a swap meet and got the correct mounting brackets BRAND STINKING NEW from unity via chev's of the 40's. I have heard that unity brackets are not compatible with appleton (??) and I know of no source for appleton brackets. the mounting bracket is the main difference from car to car... that and the length of the shaft, but from what I've seen they only make 2 lengths..
Hmmm...let me try this again. Night Prowlers has them. Id post a link but apparantly my last one went to a **** site? Damn, I should have clicked it!
Night Prowler's are not real spots, they are dummy's. Why spend more for appletons? well, Unity's look NOTHING like appleton 112's or 552's. Just look at any early custom car. It will have appleton deep bucket "teardrop" spotlights. They were the stylish spotlights used on luxury cars in the 1940's when the style was first developing. Early customs were built to resemble higher end luxury cars. Unity brackets are not compatible with appletons. The appletons screw on to the spotlight post (see above picture I posted, one has the bracket unscrewed), and Unity's ise a screw tightened clamp. There were specific numbers (3 digits, on the inside of the bracket) for different cars for appleton brackets. There were diff numbers for right and left side. Appleton also made 3 different types of universal brackets. These were made from a softer metal, that was easily filed to match a windshield post. half of the appletons I find have the universal post (its one part number that always shipped standard), and they are easy to find, and modify to fit any car. But there are a few guys who have small inventories of specific brackets. You can put anything you want on your car, but it doesnt mean its period correct for a traditional custom. A unity spotlight was the type sold as an original factory accessory with a ford or chevy, etc, and installed on cop cars. No custom builder wanted those spots. The appleton 112/552 was ***y and cl***y looking, and thats why NEARLY EVERY early custom ran them. Either Appleton 112/552 spots, or none at all (except for a very few early exceptions). None of the Unity's had the deep bucket teardrop shape. This is all asuming you want a real traditional early 50's custom, and want to use the spotlight that was used in the early-mif 50's, before dummy spots. If you dont care for traditionaly correct, you could use a pair of Unity's. Here is a pic of an Appleton Series 550 in the center, which is equivalent in shape, and useage/purpose to a standard Unity spotlight. Its between both versions of the Appleton 112, blunt (same shape as an Appleton 552) and pointed buckets. Sorry 49ratfink, but the difference is hard to miss.
Many early customs that had real appletons just had the wire wrapped up around the handle, and never actualy connected to power. It was for the look mainly, and not function.
I just thought that was a joke... funny thanks for all the help guys looks like I will be watching egay
J.C. Whitney used to be a Unity dealer, You could order 'em with your make's logo on the clamshell on the top of the spotlight. I think you can still get them from Kanter Auto Products, though: http://www.kanter.com/p67-lts.html ~Jason
Oops, my bad. I knew they had dummys but thought they had real ones as well. Pay no attention to that man (me) behind the curtain.
Ok, so it turns out the guy that we got our Appletons from dos not actually sell them, he just sold us a pair as a favor. However, Chev's of the 40's does sell original spotlights.
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