Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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I really didn't feel like getting knee deep in any serious work on the T today, I just wanted this weekend to chill out a little. I did want to do something, so I decided to finish off the headlight bar and get it mounted to the frame.

As I mentioned earlier, I like to use early Ford headlight bars and modify them to hold the headlights, rather than buy some of the accessory aluminum ones most people use. There are two reasons for me liking them. 1) They look old timey, and 2) The headlights don't shake going down the road like on some of the aluminum brackets. MY buddy had a T bucket with the aluminum mounts, and when he would follow me when we were out cruising his headlights were constantly shaking when he hit a bump. Not all of them do this, but enough that I don't like them.

As for the old timey aspect, back in the early '50's hot rodding was sort of in it's infancy, and there weren't many places to buy hot rod parts, so we made most of the stuff we used. I'm not sure who the first guy was to use a stock Ford headlight bar on a fenderless roadster, but it was a pretty smart idea.

Here is a picture of a stock model A headlight bar, uncut. The reason I like to use the '32 bar is that the shape is rounded on top, rather than straight across like the model A. Visually, the straight bar seems to sag when you look at it, whereas the '32, with it's rounded top, seems to flow better with the lines of the car. By the time I took this picture I had already cut up the '32 bar, so I am only posting this Model A bar for reference.