Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

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Headlights - Lemons to Lemonade
I mentioned in another thread that I had managed to break one of my AutoLoc SnakeEye headlights. Recall I was looking for a lamp assembly that would give me H4 headlights, parking lamp and turn signal functions, and that Vintiques does have a set of inserts that provide that by putting a 3157 bulb into the main headlight bucket. (Thanks John Palmer for that lead!!) They are still a flat lens lamp rather than the OEM domed sealed beam. Here's what I ended up with instead.
(Note: I don't find a feature to place attachments inline, one by one, so they are lumped at the bottom. Also, due to the five file limit this message will be split into two parts.)
To start, this is the SnakeEye lamp, which had a crystal clear lens that shows the reflector and domed "snake eye" in the center. I was never overjoyed with the "modern look" of these, but I loved the idea of integrated turn signals and not having to add more junk to the front of the '33.
After looking at the lamp I went hunting for another socket for a 194A bulb, but was not having any luck finding anything but the OEM insert and twist type sockets, or a socket that could be glued in place leaving no access for future bulb changes. Since the light was trash at this point, my approach was to perhaps cut out the turn signal port and graft in a second tube, but I could not find that type of rubber socket anywhere. Speedway offers a neat little LED unit that can be added to an H4 headlight to provide a turn signal indicator, but their listing stated specifically that it would not work with their SnakeEye headlights.

I decided to sacrifice an old 201 sealed beam that I had pulled from my Jeep a few years back, to see if I could indeed remove the lens and possibly graft it onto the Snake Eye light, as described in the June 2010 Rod & Custom for a quad headlight installation. Using a new metal cutoff wheel in the angle grinder, safety glasses, gloves and dust mask I started a careful grind, moving around the lamp at the joint line. As stated in the article, after only about two or three minutes and 1/16" of grinding I was holding a sealed beam lens in hand!!

I sanded the mating edge smooth, put a slight chamfer on the plastic rim of the Snake Eye, and I now had a H4 light with turn signal section at the bottom, hidden behind a standard sealed beam! Looking at the SnakeEye without the lens I suddenly realized that the reason the Mr Roadster LED insert would not work with this light is simply due to the fact that the "snake eye" dome legs occupy the space required by the LED mounting ring so I ordered a set and had them in hand the next day (great Speedway delivery service!!).

(Continued....)