Technical 1932 Ford highboy headlight bar

I bought a headlight bar from so cal few years ago. Unfortunatly, it is a bad fab.
I reached them but no answer. Anyway.

As you can see, the driver side is so bad my headlight angle very much. Passenger is less. Also, they look to the sky. Impossible to set them lower.
Two questions :
- I assume the cups should be flat
- what is the correct angle when you look by side ?
Headlights are original 32 and the glass are in the good place.
Thanks.

 

How do I say this nicely?
Your assumptions are wrong.
Rails on a 32 are sloped at the front and the cups on most bucket headlights are also sloped (slightly).
Went out to the garage and snapped a pic for you.
Hope it helps.

 

I'm fairly certain when properly mounted on the frame the headlight bar will be correct, the frame has a slight curve where the bar mounts, it is not flat. HRP

 

Yes, side to side should be level. If the bar is clamped to a flat surface, I’d think level cups front to back would also be correct. Because when you then bolt it to the curved and raked down front horns, the cups will be slanted down. That would probably give you enough tilt to get proper adjustment with the lights.

Mocking it up on your own chassis is important.

 

I got one as you describe. Called them on it as well. Won’t get into what was said but I reworked it so it would work since the project isn’t what I call 100% accurate to begin with.

 

I can certify the headlights don’t fit well.
I bolted the bar to the frame then put the lights on it. The driver side light is closer the grillshell than the other side. I checked the cups and they don’t have the same height.

 

To add. Just went to the garage and pulled the bar. Not only were the cup’s all over the place, the feet were just a little to proud and hung over the outer edge of the frame rail so I also reworked the ovals to a smaller size. Note, the mod’s I did to the cup’s are fine since I’m using United Pacific head lamps with the base cup’s they supplied but modified as well (last pic).

 

^^^^^ bottom line. Yes your’s isn’t right either.

 

Fitting of the headlight don’t allow to set them lower.

 

Just got one a few days ago from Roadster Supply. I think I better check it?

 

Damn, I must have gotten the only one they ever built right. Lucky me I guess.
Note: depending on where you mount on the rails, you may need to adjust width as 32 rails narrow as they go forward.

 

If I understand you correctly you can elongate the slot with a file to get more adjustment for the headlights.

 

Another approach, rather than elongate the slot, I've removed the four rivets and drilled new holes in the base plate, then reattached the bucket.
The end result was to rotate the headlight bucket forward.

But, you need to message the headlight bar first. Then mount it on the frame. Then, finally, work on the adjustment of the lights.

 

Ok, you fellas got me double/triple thinking on my set up, so went back out into the garage to check my setup again. Dam. There is a tweak required. I haven’t gotten to the stage of aiming the headlights but a closer look at the bar buckets shows the driver side one is gonna require some lovin’. And I thought I was lucky enough to get a good one. Nuts.

 

Perhaps fabricate wedged spacers to go between the legs and frame rails. It might go pretty quickly made out of hard nylon shaped on a belt sander.

 

Made my own from a wrecked bar.

 

Seems a damn shame that you spend $240.00 plus shipping to Belgium that there are so many issues with this bar. The bucket pads should be level side to side. That can't be corrected with wedges. For a company that has been in the hot rod business for so long, they should have some idea of the horn angle on both the model a and the 32. Why would anyone buying this nice stainless piece want to cut and reweld it?
From their ad: NOTE: Bars are fabricated for specific frames- specify width when ordering. Also, because Model A frame horns are narrower than '32s, the mounting flanges of the stands might need a bit of massaging for a nice fit-we'll leave that up to you.
I just installed a homemade bar that I had to reweld the bucket cups, but at least they were level side to side. To the OP, start cutting and rewelding. It's a long way for a return.
Condolences
Warren

 

I bought a stock width for 32 frame.
The question is now heat and bend or cut and weld. Unfortunatly, the shining finish will be burned.
Yes it’s a big shame.
$240 + shipping + import charge ++++.
4 mounths for delivery.
I have a finishless list of parts I bought and have issue with them.
I’m not here to complain, but sometimes I feel discouraged.

 

The stainless welds nicely with tig and polishes up well. Shouldn't strictly be necessary but this stuff isnt generally plug and play either.

Chris

 

Can cast stainless be heated and bent, or is it pretty much like steel that you can’t bend cast?

 

May be a case of improper loading of parts in the weld fixture or "operator error". I have a SoCal bar and found fit and finish to be just fine.

 

I have a So-Cal bar and did have problems getting the light to grille shell spacing even due to variations in the angle of the cups. An annoying thing was the fact that it came with 10 mm METRIC special bolts! Nobody building a hot rod uses metric bolts. I swapped them out for hex head SS ones.

 

I would consider using aluminum under the bases to adjust height and angle. A base made of aluminum can be whatever thickness, and shim angle you need, and wont affect the finish of the bar, or be noticeable to anyone looking at the car.

 

Thanks for all your replies.
Maybe you didn’t notice that the driver side lamp leans also to the right side.

 

I noticed.

 

I am not familiar with this set up, (as I just built my own), but in the past posters with similar problems have simply put them on backwards.
From the photos posted it doesn’t appear to be a great part, but there should be a lot of every way adjustment available with a stock headlight.

this photo, ( below) to me anyway, shows that it wont take a stock headlight.

Is your cup the same ?

 

Yes, I noticed. You may have to adjust the base to cant the headlamp housing to match the other side. Only other option you have is to get a replacement, and hope it's not the same or worse. So up to you how much work you want to put into this.

 

No the cups look like this

 

It will be impossible to have a replacement.
I bought it in augustus 2018 but notice these issue when I wanted to fit the lights few weeks ago. I’ll rework it

 

Here’s why the cup looks like that now. The cup were so badly placed that headlamps would not sit straight vertically when looking at the front of the vehicle. I messaged the edges of the cup’s until level left to right, ovaled the the lower thru hole to be able to epoxied tubes at true vertical into place.