Thread: mjeds - 1939 Tudor.. starting my mods.

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So I posted in my introduction thread about working out the over heat issue. that's done car has been stable @ 190° for the past week, put about 80 miles on the car since and have had it idling in the driveway as well for long periods of time.


yesterday my brakes went wonky, turns out the vacuum canister that was used was plastic and mounted on the frame pretty close to the headers, it got hot, it melted, need I say more?

so I purchased an aluminum Comp Cams from pep boys.. not the greatest looking thing for this car, but it will work until I can find something better. Brakes are behaving now.


so I tackled the headlight issue:

since I purchased the car the headlights haven't worked, the headlight switch was overheating so I swapped that out, still no working headlights.. Checked the buckets and there are bulbs and wiring, but no light..


So I decided since I had to tear it all apart I was going to make some custom lights for the car.

bought new buckets, LED 7" round headlamps, some LED parking/turn lamps and new headlight glass in CLEAR, no diffuser pattern in the glass.

I removed the halogen units from the buckets, put in the LED lamps, pretty much plug and play as they are designed to replace the stock 7" round lamps on 50+ cars.

removed the chrome reflectors from the buckets, no need with directed LED lamps, and I drilled a hole in the bottom and mounted the LED turn signals into the bottom of the lamp.

everything is ready to be installed into the car, as soon as I figure out where the short is for the headlights..


here are some teaser pics.

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yes I know the glass on the LED turn signals is installed upside down.. I noticed that after I took the pictures, it has since been corrected.

Looks good, I seriously didn't know that there was LED headlights available, I thought it was just everything else. If you use all LED turn signals you will need a different flasher unit as the LED doesn't draw enough amps to make the standard flasher work, but I'm guessing you all ready knew that . I hope not all rear LED tail lights are as bright as the ones I was following last night. I was seeing spots after he finally turned.

Nice work on the new head lights.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Looks good, I seriously didn't know that there was LED headlights available, I thought it was just everything else. If you use all LED turn signals you will need a different flasher unit as the LED doesn't draw enough amps to make the standard flasher work, but I'm guessing you all ready knew that . I hope not all rear LED tail lights are as bright as the ones I was following last night. I was seeing spots after he finally turned.

during my testing I had no issue with the common "fast flash" from having LED turn signals. I suspect an LED flasher is already installed as the rear tail/turn are LED.

as for the headlights.. there are a dozen or so companies making 7" sealed beam replacement units for Jeeps and Motorcycles that still use these types of units. I watched a dozen videos on different kinds, and the ones I bought seem to be the best in terms of lumens and brightness and useable focused light. My Lexus has triple LED headlights (3 LED lights on each side) and their output is outstanding, this unit I got for the '39 is the closest I could find to the level of the Lexus.

These use a standard H4 connector so they plug right into the existing bucket harness with no modifications, they use significantly less power than a halogen or HID and they put out more useable light than an Halogen and equal to an HID but won't blind on coming traffic, HIDs are designed to be in a projector, not a reflector housing.

mock up testing on my work bench is very promising, I just need to figure out where the broken connection is on the car that is causing the lights to short.

In my experiences, after market HID's are junk. The ballasts just don't last, or the bulbs crap out, or both. A lot of these new cars with LED head lights are really bright. Especially in the mirrors when you're driving a semi.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

In my experiences, after market HID's are junk. The ballasts just don't last, or the bulbs crap out, or both. A lot of these new cars with LED head lights are really bright. Especially in the mirrors when you're driving a semi.

OEM shouldn't be if they are aimed correctly.. aftermarket HID are junk most people put them in halogen reflector housings and all they do is scatter the light everywhere, they are not "brighter" just flood light everywhere and blind other drivers.. If I could legally shoot out the lights with a pellet gun every time one of these bozos gets behind me I would.

LED lights are more natural lighting and I own 2 vehicles with them as OEM, if they are properly aimed then you shouldn't be seeing glare, there are only a few vehicles that have actual OEM LED lights and they all have self leveling units, only some Lexus, MBZ, BMW, and Audi have them, if you are seeing "bright" or glaring light from a newer car, likely you are seeing HID not LED lamps. If the car has a projector lamp (like most BMWs and MBZ) those are HID not LED, LED does not use a large round projector like this:
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they use multiple mini reflectors, not projectors. like this
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.

my biggest complaint about OEM LED is they are not replaceable, if they go out you are out of pocket $500-$1500 for a whole light fixture if you are out of warranty.

Even new Freightliners have LED head lights now. We have one and they look just like truk-lite brand ones.

"If I could legally shoot out the lights with a pellet gun every time one of these bozos gets behind me I would. "

I hear you there, I just about need sunglasses at night anymore, and I don't even own a pair for the daytime. When I was blinded by that dummy faces LED taillights I thought, I might as well get used to this crap. I had a vehicle with projector headlights, they are a step back in lighting in my opinion. I hated those things.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

"If I could legally shoot out the lights with a pellet gun every time one of these bozos gets behind me I would. "

I hear you there, I just about need sunglasses at night anymore, and I don't even own a pair for the daytime. When I was blinded by that dummy faces LED taillights I thought, I might as well get used to this crap. I had a vehicle with projector headlights, they are a step back in lighting in my opinion. I hated those things.

I agree about projectors with inadequate bulbs.. with proper HID bulbs, they do very well at focusing the light, my wife's 2007 Camry had projectors with halogen bulbs and they were useless IMO, the light output was horrible. Reminded me of my 1978 Trans Am with rectangular sealed beams. I took them apart and replaced the halogen projectors with proper HID projectors from a Lexus, and installed Lexus OEM HID ballasts and bulbs in them, properly focused and built to SAE/DOT standards, not aftermarket $25 ebay cr@p that blinds everyone. The light output was very good and properly focused, I did a ton of testing to be sure she wasn't blinding oncoming traffic or people she was behind..

Her new 2017 Camry has LED lamps in a reflective housing with a "bubble" front that looks like a projector, but it is nothing more than a glass shield (actually probably polycarbonate plastic) to spread the LED light 120° as the LEDs only direct light forward without the scatter shield, when I removed the "bulb" as it were, it is a single fairly large LED mounted on a plate and aimed forward, no side lighting at all, so the "bubble" provides the left to right spread.

My Lexus RCF has Triple LEDs, that is 3 small lights, one aimed 60° off center to the left, one aimed 60° off center to the right and one directed forward.. accomplishes the same light spread as my wife's car with 3 small LEDs instead of one big LED. My lights = $1200 to replace (per side), my wife's $400 per side, I guess 3 times the bulbs 3 times the cost.

[QUOTE=53 Chevy5;568955]"If I could legally shoot out the lights with a pellet gun every time one of these bozos gets behind me I would. "QUOTE]

I'm with you! I've even thought of somehow creating a lazer that would take out a headlight on an oncoming car that's blinding me. A friend wants to tell me how they are so much safer because of all the light. I laugh and ask how safe can it be when the cars coming at you have drivers with their eyes closed? I've resorted to placing my left hand in a position that blocks the oncoming car but I can see my side of the road without getting my retinas burnt through.

Sorry to have disappeared for a bit, working on the car and had a major deadline at work that had to be met, 12-14 hour days for 4 weeks tends to burn you out.

so over the past few weeks the '39 has had a few issues raise their ugly head.

Alternator caught fire, that was fun.. I was still having an issue after I fixed the fan issue and a couple other wiring problems, so I took it in to my buddies shop for a load test on the alternator, and during the test the alternator started to smoke and then burn.. so $400 later I have a new alternator (and had the old one rebuilt as a spare). the interior of the alternator was very rusted which is probably what lead to the failure.. It appeared to me as if water had made its what into the unit, like someone hosed off the motor, I can't see how it could be that rusty from just sitting, it really looked like it had sat in water.

Then last weekend I lost the brakes, AC, and the transmission would not shift, happened after I hit a large bump on the highway. I could hear a sucking sound and figured that either I tore a vacuum line or the brake booster failed, since it is under the car it could have been smacked by something.

got under the car and discovered the previous owner had run the vacuum line for the booster and the transmission through the frame and had it looped up and over the drive shaft at the rear of the transmission, he had a stubby little 3" long hose on the transmission vacuum modulator, with a "T" off to the brake booster, but nothing securing the line and no hose clamps holding anything together, apparently the bump caused the line to bounce enough that the driveshaft grabbed it and tore it out.

I removed all the crap, shaped a hard line from the manifold and ran it down the back of the motor and over the top of the transmission, and secured it to the transmission properly, and ran a new line for the brake booster.


while I was under there I noticed something else. The brackets that the previous owner welded on for the front torsion bars were cracked at the welds, and tearing the frame apart:

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So I had to take it to back to my buddies shop and put it on a rack, cut everything out, reinforce and re-weld it all.

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more images since I can only do 5 per post:

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needless to say I am starting to get annoyed with the repairs.

the car was supposed to be 75%-80% complete, my budget was set aside to finish it, specifically the interior and wiring..

so far I have chewed away about 25% of my budget on stupid repairs that shouldn't need to be done..


so instead of taking 5-6 months to complete, it will take me at least another year, as I have to replace the money spent on these repairs before I can move forward with upgrades..

Sorry to hear of all your troubles, seems like when it rains it pours. What kind of alt do you have that it cost $400?

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Sorry to hear of all your troubles, seems like when it rains it pours. What kind of alt do you have that it cost $400?

the cost was for the new alternator and the rebuild of the old one, as well as polishing the unit..

the whole engine bay is polished (not chrome) so I wanted it all to match.. I got a PowerMaster 150 amp from Summit, I think it was like $170 and $150 to have the casing polished by a local shop. The rebuild of the old one was $75, while I could have just rebuilt that one and not had to pay for a new one or the polishing, it took 2 weeks to get it back and I didn't want my car sitting at the shop for 2 weeks.