Thread: So---With Visa card in hand I called Gennie Shifter---

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Does anybody know what the story is in regards to the material these things are made of? I see that people refer to the 28/29 series brackets as being cast, while they are calling the 30/31 series "forged".--And I have seen either 30 or 31 original equipment braces that are made from a pressed steel similar to the aftermarket ones that I am currently using. Its been many, many, years since I had a whole darn bunch of model A Fords during my high school years, and to be honest, the fender support brackets aren't something that you pay that much attention to.---Brian

Okay---I didn't plan on doing this untill mid winter, but my new friend in California who wants my headlight bar wants it NOW!!! (Can't say as I blame him.) I have had a couple of requests to make this into a tech article, so here are the first disassembly shots. There is a bit of a secret disclosed here---When you buy a set of the flexible stainless steel headlight wire covers like I used, they supply you with a nice rubber grommet to put in the side of your grillshell, but nothing to attach it to the hollow threaded bolt that that holds the headlight bucket onto the headlight bar. However there is a ferrule that will slide up over the end of this 1/2" diameter hollow bolt, where it extends down past the nut that holds everything together. Once I had everything wired properly, and tested, I mixed up some really thick 2-part epoxy, coated the outside of the 1/2" bolt (below the nut) with it, slid the ferrule over it, and taped it into place with masking tape for an hour. Once the tape is removed, it makes a really clean installation. This has worked fine for the last 3 years, but has given me reason to learn a whole new set of words while taking things back apart. Actually, it came apart easier than I thought it would, without wrecking anything. I always splice the wires inside the bucket, as you can not get 3 wires with splices down thru that flexible conduit. Also, as you can see, I always solder my wire connections, then sleeve them with shrink wrap, then use some black electrical tape over that (I wear a belt and suspenders too). I have color coded the wires with some red and black magic marker (this doesn't show up real well in the pictures) because I have to "unsolder" the wires to get the headlight buckets off, and when I get the new headlight bar back on, I don't want to play "guess and blow fuses" when I hook the headlights back up again.---And for those of you who were commenting on the pinstriping on my fenders, I put a shot of my dash in there too).----Brian

Okay---Headlights are now dismounted, and I am going to show another great hotrod secret. This is why I was able to undo the headlight bolts without desroying anything, even though they were coated with epoxy to attach the headlight wire covers.----Anti-Seize compound. I swear by this stuff---I use it on virtually everything that bolts together on a hotrod. Because I know (thru bitter experience) that EVERYTHING you assemble on a hotrod is going to have to come apart again sooner or later. And, no, grease just doesn't cut it. In the ancient past I used to use grease on things that I assembled, then 5 years later found I had to use breaker bars, cold chissels, and oxy-acetylene to get the damned things apart. This Anti-seize compound seems to last forever!!!

And here is a picture of the existing fender brace in place---you can see where the inside of my tire has been scrubbing it on real severe "parking lot" turns. For those of you who never really thought about it, the two bolts and nuts that you see in the picture are the same 2 bolts that hold the headlight bar in place. The fender itself is sandwiched in between the headlight bar and the fender support bracket.

So there ya go, my new California friend!!! As soon as the original front fender support brackets that you are sending to me get here, the headlight bar is ready to see that warm California sun!!!

The "winters project" came a long way this morning---and me sicker than a pig with a damn chest cold!!! BUT---I have a question----Is anybody else out there running one of these types of bar from Gennie Shifter??? I have the new bar setting in place, and when setting in the holes that were already drilled, it is setting "dead nuts" level from side to side.---Problem is, it seems that the "cups" that hold the headlights are rotated too far foreward.---yet I have about 1 1/2" clearance between the front grill bar and the inside edge of the new headlight bar, which seems about right. I could probably correct a bit of the "cup rotation" issue by loosening the headlight support bars and swinging them back towards the rear of the car at the top, and drilling new holes in my front fenders---but that creates one Hell of a pile of pain in terms of bodyworking and repainting the front fenders, for the very small ammount of rotation it would buy me. I took one of my Kingbee headlights and set it in place, and with a bit of judicious trimming in the area where the bolt goes thru the round bart on the bottom (see picture), I will be able to rotate the headlight into the correct position without moving the headlight bar at all, or screwing up my painted fendsers.---Just wondering if anybody else has been down this road.---Brian.

Denny--I'm gettin old, and kinda stoopid---but---It seems to me that somewhere in the last year, I seen a thread either here or else over on the HAMB where somebody was complaining about exactly the same thing---the cups on an aftermarket headlight bar being rotated incorrectly. It could be that all the bars Gennie Shifter makes are "out" by a few degrees, but one thing for Damn sure---theyr'e never going to admit it. They even put a disclaimer in the instructions which basically says---if our headlight bar doesn't fit your car, it could be caused by distortion from boxing your frame, fender support brackets installed incorrectly, manufacturing tolerances, Blah, Blah, Blah----our bar is made to original Ford specs in the mounting flange area--Don't come whining to us!!! Still---the bar is a beautifull peice of work, and its not so far out that its a disaster. If I can bring this off without having to repaint my front fenders, I'm going to be happier than a pig in mud!!! I don't mind having to do a little creative trimming on the headlight pots, Hell, I don't even mind if I've got to whittle out a couple of tapered shims from stainless to get a perfect fit bertween the flange on the bar and my fenders. Its going to look beautifull, and as someone else on the board said (I think it was Don shillady)---There really isn't any such thing as a "bolt on and walk away" aftermarket hotrod part.---Right!!!

Denny---I used 15 dollars worth of oxy-acetylene on that old bar and made it fit my car before I started filling pits and painting on it. I paid $25 for that old bar at the Barrie fleamarket. I'd be pretty scared to do the same thing to something I just paid $300 for---

Gennie Shifter headlight bar with the light cups tipped forward just like yours , with Lokar conduits for my '31 Brookville. Sorry about the quality of one of them but...

There is an aluminum fitting for the grille shell instead of the stinkin' lousy rubber grommet that slid down the conduit on an earlier car.

The '30 - '31 cars all had stamped steel fender braces, the '28 and some '29s had forged braces.

DaveW---thank you for the confirming photograph---at least now I know its not something I've done wrong. Can you tip your headlights back far enough to shine in the direction they are supposed to? If I don't modify my Kingbees, they are only going to be good for close up examination of roadkill. Denny---quit laughing---
I just went out to the garage and checked with a machinists protractor---those damn cups are setting 22 degrees off horizontal----that has to be a flaw in the design of the headlight bar.

Hi Brian, As usual your tutorials are very informative but both IC2 and I have commented about the added thickness of the 'glass fenders. I was not sure whether you have 'glass front fenders but I thought so from memories of your earlier pictures from three years ago. What this means is that even with the gennie braces there will be a problem in that the eyelet at the end of the brace will not line up and probably will need to be cut off or spliced as you did with your bumper braces. I seem to recall there were both forged AND cast steel versions of the braces and the forged may weld better than the cast, but either will probably need to be shortened. However they should solve your tire problem.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I guess I'll find out as I go along, Don. That seems to sum up everything I've done with hotrods over the last 40 years---"find out as I go along". I just love doing these "tutorials" as you call them. I hope everybody gets something from them. The roadster pickup has performed so incredibly well over the last 3 years that I have very little to actually post about now, unless I'm doing a modification like this.---Brian

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

DaveW---thank you for the confirming photograph---at least now I know its not something I've done wrong. Can you tip your headlights back far enough to shine in the direction they are supposed to? If I don't modify my Kingbees, they are only going to be good for close up examination of roadkill. Denny---quit laughing---
I just went out to the garage and checked with a machinists protractor---those damn cups are setting 22 degrees off horizontal----that has to be a flaw in the design of the headlight bar.

Though I've not put power to my lights yet, they will tip back a fair amount - and my lights too are supposed to be Kingbees - at least that's what I ordered and paid for. Time will tell.

Regardless, I think the Lokar conduit might allow them to tip back more then the original bolt/cup/big chrome washer set up. I'll try to wade thru my basement room of freshly painted car parts today and drag out the bar and a light and take some more more pictures and post - probably this afternoon.

Hey - this is part of hot rodding - take either a donor part or a "Universal Part" and make it work ( I always love the paragraph on the instruction sheet 'The **** widget might require some minor machining/fitting/modification for use in your application')

This picture shows a KingBee installed on my new bar and tipped back as far as it can be tipped, without me doing a bit of "relieving" in the area around the spherical bottom of the headlight cup, to let it tilt more. Actually. this sin't as bad as I thought yesterday---I just checked with the machinists protractor, and the face of the headlight cup is only 5 degrees off vertical. some minor trimming of the area I showed in one of my earlier posts on this thread should let the light swing into the true vertical, which will be close to where it should be.---Brian

Brian, perhaps a batch of the bars was welded up correctly but the bend in the bar put in the wrong way. At the risk of a fatigue crack is there any possibility of bending the bar back the other way? If so that would tip the cups "UP". Another possibility is to try to get Brookville to exchange the bar for another with thecups tilted "UP". Perhaps they are stuck with a bunch that have been ben the wrong way but maybe you can get your money back and get the other type of dropped bar with the swan-neck bend?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder