I have a pair of Appleton lights I’d like to fit to my 46 Chevy Truck. Does anyone know if it’s possible to shorten the arms? Or can I buy a lamp with shorter arms and swap them over like I did with a Unity Lamp. I bought some new brackets on eBay but I’m not 100% sure they are the best ones for a 42-46 Truck. What part number should I be looking for? Is there anyway to identify the shape bracket I need? I think I will also need the tensioner and fixings that are on the insude if the cab - does anyone in here sell the parts I will need? Many thanks in advance Regards Chris
I have swapped the heads of Appleton 112's onto other shafts and it seemed to work fine, if you need shorter shafts, you might just search for some unloved Appleton models with shorter shafts and swap over. I would ***ume S-552's are just as interchangeable. You can always sell extra handles and shafts when you're done to recoup the money. No idea on the brackets though.
Thanks Squablow for confirming the shafts can be changed. Do you know anything about the importance of the tensioner or fitting for the shaft that would be inside the cab? I dont have any parts other than the tensioner in picture one so not really sure whats required to hold the lamp in place.
Other than the outer post bracket, you seem to have all the parts. You can see some ***embled spot lights in my cl***ified ad.
From looking at your picture it looks like Im missing one inner nut for one lamp and a tensioner, threaded collar and nut for my 2nd lamp. (sorry I dont know the correct names for the parts)
So if anyone has anything for sale it looks like Im in the market for: 2 x Shafts (the correct length for 42-46 Chevy Truck) 2 x inner nuts 1 x treaded collar (for inner nut to clamp to) 1x tensioner 2 x mounting brackets (if they are different to the new ones I bought on ebay)
I think if you bought a set of dummy spots some the hardware will work,, like the mounting brackets and nuts I thought I saw it on the HAMB.
yep - I bought some new mounting brackets and they screw up fine. Im just not sure if they are the correct angle for a Chevy Truck. They are certainly a different angle to the working Unity light that I just removed. I think there are 3 different brackets so Im not sure the repro ones are correct for my application.
I'm pretty sure there were more than three different outside brackets made originally. Maybe dozens. I didn't even know that anybody made repro brackets other than the ones sold on those dummy spots. If a guy has a left and right bracket of any angle he should feel lucky. It's not like you can just pick up a phone and order parts for Appletons.
buying new left and right brackets was pretty easy, I found a few places. They are on ebay and for similar money it seems you can buy dummy lights that come with a left and right bracket https://www.vintagepartsclub.com/teardrop-dummy-spot-light-w-chrome-steel-housing-not-functional/ https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/upd-30651/overview/
The thing that makes me think the brackets maybe wrong is they are a different angle to the Unity one that came off (which fits and works perfectly) . Does anyone know if the Appletons and Unitys cut through the A Post at different angles to each other?
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