Hey I have been stealing stuff from this board for a few years and it is time that I gave back in my own small way. I bought this old resto '54 Ford Customline a couple of weeks back and I plan on keeping the mods very mild. For the taillights I thought about '56 Olds because they are a virtual 'bolt in'. But then I started looking around and seeing that 50% of the 52-54s had the 56 Olds taillights in them. So I looked at another option. 54 Olds was the way I chose to go. First off here is what we started with... and what we ended up with... Start by cleaning up the lens... (I am single so I can do it in the kitchen sink) IN order for the Olds lens to mate up with the Ford lens you will need to slightly bevel the edges of the Olds lens. You will then need to cut the center out of the Ford lens to let the light through. I call this the 'don't be a pansy' stage of the modification. If it doesn't work, you can always get those '56 lenses and do it that way. Next you need to find an adhesive that will work. I had lots of great suggestions from here on the HAMB, but I ended up using what I had on hand. Goop Marine Adhesive. This way when it doesn't work, I will only have myself to blame. I tested this on an old broken turn signal housing I had laying around. After 10 minutes I couldn't break it apart. (the actual curing time for this product is 24 hours) Then you need to hold them together for extended periods of time. I again used what I had. A couple of C clamps and some old license plates. What a difference that makes! Hopefully you found this useful and if not I hope you can at least marvel at how messy my shop is Mike
Hey Thanks. That just gave me an idea for a way to do the lens I want to french into the back of the Dodge. Gumpa
Cool Idea.Here's some cool looking tailights for a '54 Ford. It's a little of topic, but I had to share.
Yeah those are cool, but my plan is that everything that I do to this car will be 100% reversable. So, no metal work for me. MILD MILD MILD is the key. I even plan on buying a new hood and decklid to nose, louver and deck and hanging the stock ones on the wall. Jim~ Thanks man! Gumpa~ Lets hear that idea... inquiring minds want to know! Mike
I ran that same taillight set up on my 53 for about 25 years but I was afraid to try glue and I used 2 screws through existing holes. They look great but I was never real happy with mine because they were old and worn looking.
What are the odds? I was at Symco yesterday and I was talking to Skoh73 about this very thread. Crazy. Just a note after 4 years. I didn't mention that I actually hogged out the centers. After re-reading this article, it looks like I just cut off the centers with the hacksaw. This wasn't bright enough, so I went back and took out the rest of the center. Now I have the car set up on 12V so they are plenty bright. Mike
That Ford is a real cherry, TDC. Did it ever receive that louvered hood? And are you taking the same (mild custom) approach with the car in your Avatar?
No louvered hood. It got a white interior redo (except the headliner). There is a thread here somewhere. 12 V conversion. 4 inch drop all the way around, dual exhaust, 4 barrel carb, bumper guards were removed, and a bunch of other little stuff. It now needs the transmission and rear-end rebuilt (both are leaking BAD and howling). Plus the Overdrive needs to get working. So it looks like mechanicals will be the next on the list...
sweet tip (no pun in ten did)! your plan of keeping a set of stock parts is like mine; i have a duplicate of each part i plan on modifying on my '62 Falcon, so, if i change my mind later on, it can go back, somewhat.... somewhat, because after i radius the rear wheel wells and move the filler to the upper left rear quarter, all bets are off.
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