Projects Drdave accidentally buys a Model A. Now what?

I want to say 30-1 has the nubs. Look at your existing one?

 

The bar I posted is a MID YEAR 1930 Pressed steel bar, rare, seldom seen.

Bob

 

In addition to adding distance between the flange and the headlight mounting socket, be sure there is enough room between the socket and the (drop) curve for your headlight bucket to fit without interference with the drop.

 

D’oh!! There’s the obvious answer that I obviously missed. Lol. Both bars have nubs.

Well that is super interesting! I’ll have to see if my bar(s) are solid…that could be most helpful especially in the dropped one.

Good point! I’ll be sure to try it in with the headlights on it before I put the torch up. Thanks!

 

Got a little time outside last night and was able to build the jig for sorting the headlight bar out. Cut some uprights from some scrap I had, drilled and bolted them to the stock bar and then welded them to the cross beam. Now I'm ready to bolt one end of the dropped bar in and start to heating and bending. Didn't do that last night as clearly this was not a workbench that was ready to meet an open flame. LOL Spent the rest of the evening cleaning the bench off.

 

Dr. Dave your man for a brace wether for your car or your face!

Need a little drop or a curve? He’s the man with the plan!

 

Lol! Let's reserve judgment until we see if I actually fix the bar or ruin it. Ha!

 

It’s just metal. If it’s not right you already have heat and a hammer, try again I doubt teeth are as forgiving lol

 

Well, it's not been blazing fast (but you should see the progress we are making on the house renovation/addition! LOL), but still been poking away on this thing when I get time. I have messed around and messed around with this dropped headlight bar to get it fitting with minimal success. I've bent and rebent (but I did get it where the lower bolt goes in the hole lol) and even straightened out a bit chunk of the big curve in the middle and still only gotten half way home.







To get that far even, I lost most of the drop. So, I dropped it way down again and was ready to cut it in the middle to lengthen it and got another bar from @BigJoeArt to cut a chunk out of to fill the gap. The more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that this headlight bar might have been shorter than my original one from the very start when whoever dropped it originally way back when. So, before I cut it, I put my original bar back in the jig, clamped some rulers to the jig to mark the headlight cup locations and decided to drop the new bar from Joey. @Pinstriper40 was passing though the area last night on his way to AZ to do a chop class and spent the night at the house. "Let's go outside and work on something" he says, "what you got?" "Wanna drop an A headlight bar?" "Let's do it!" So Joel and I went to it and after one round, nearly on the mark without even trying real hard. Got a little tweaking to do but should have no problem from here.







In between letting things cool, also blasted the new headlights and have them in primer almost ready to paint. Nearly ready to cut the conduit holes in the grille shell, prep and paint it then just gotta finish the 12 volt conversion, slap the 32 bumpers on and we'll be back in bid'ness.

 

You need your own Discover channel show. Congrats on the success , it looks real kool!

 

Haha! I kinda feel like I'm filming all the shows...home renovation, hot rod and kustom builders, and real stories of the dental clinic. If I knew anything about food other than eating it I'd have them all covered. LOL

 

Shit that’s pretty slick!

 

Nice work, looking forward to seeing it back on the road! I do have one question- with all your projects do you ever sleep!

 

Lol! I’d make more progress if I was one of those guys that only needed 4 hours a night. I’ve been trying to do better and be like @Tim…putting in 10 or 15 minutes even if that’s all I have. Even that little bit adds up and keeps moving things forward.

 

@drdave, did you have any trouble using an original Model A headlight bar (dropped though it is) with the 32 shell? My '31 Model A doesn't yet have fenders on it but the 32 shell is there and mounted. I think that it will have to come off when/while I put the fenders on. I've been told that the 32 shell sits further forward than an A shell and the headlight bar must also be bent forward to clear.

What is your experience?

 

@atch he has to bend the center of the headlight bar forward to clear the grill best we can figure. Maybe he’ll document that step on this latest bar for us

 

Hey Mike, yes, I did have to bend the bar forward to clear the 32 shell. Basically, on the bend down, I also pulled it forward maybe 10 or 15 degrees. Then on the bend back up at the headlight mounts, I bent it back the same so it was back parallel. I'm away from the car for the next several days (back to the lake and tearing out the sheetrock from the front room for the new kitchen this weekend. lol). When I get back home I'll take some pics to show it more clearly.

 

Great; thanx.

 

Here ya go @atch. I think you can see here how it's bent forward at the top of the drop and back in at the bottom....of course, before I started, the bar went straight across from the pads. Clears the grill about 1/4 inch at the moment. When I finish my tweaking, I think I'll put a bit more clearance in it.

 

Perfect! Gonna look
Great!

 

Roger Roger; we got clearance Clarence?

Thanx Dave.

How did you put the bend in it? Heat? No heat? Bend around some kind of form? Freehand?

How far off of vertical can/should the centerline of the headlight cups be?

 

Heat and freehand. Heated one bend at a time with a rosebud tip on the torch.I started at the "top," heated that and bent it down kinda what I felt was parallel with the fender (and forward at the same time as I descried above for the grille clearance). Then I heated it a little lower down and pulled it back up just a hair to straighten the little bit of factory curve so that the dropped section was straight. Lastly, I heated it right before the headlight mount and bent it back up (and back towards the grille) so it was all back parallel. Repeat on the other side.

 

@atch I think the cups, Looking at the threw hole, are not vertical. I think they tip forward and are different 28-9 to 30-1

I previously had a 30-1 bar on my 28/9 and it was way off. I turned it around thinking maybe I had it backwards and they hit the ceiling! Lol

I suppose to some extent it depends on what head lights your running as some may have more range in the stud than others?

great question that I don’t see addressed/asked on dropped bar threads typically

 

Dave, did you build a fixture beforehand to ensure it came out perfect?

 

Thanx Tim.

It looks like I'll just have to go by trial and error. I can always remove the '32 grill & shell, mount a Model A headlight bar, measure the stock angle, and go from there.

I have 4 sets of headlights to choose from so I'll just have to pick one and go with it.

 

Sorry, I missed the angle of the cups question on the first pass. LOL I did not introduce any twist to the bar, so yes, they do angle forward (and double checked with original bar to make sure I was still on the money).

Yes, I did build a jig off the original bar and have been doing the heating and bending on that to help keep an eye on where I am and where I need to be for it to fit the car when I'm done. Scroll up to post #515 and the pics and description of it are up there.

 

Thanx Dave. Even though I've been reading this thread since its inception I had forgotten about your jig.

God help me when I lose the remaining portion of my memory.

 

I suppose you could measure the cups relative to the tab that bolts threw the fender? That relationship shouldn’t change?

 

That's pretty much what I have done. All my measuring has been based off the original bar mounted on the jig.

 

I just measured and my (perhaps inaccurate) measurement is that the centerline of the cups on an unadulterated bar is 66* from horizontal OR 24* from vertical.

Maybe not perfect, but if you can get that close the headlight adjustment will make up for any differences.