| Before I start this article, I want to say a few
things about street rod parts. Most of the time, they
are designed by the manufacturer to be installed in
a specific orientation. Some parts are not. If the
installer wants to mount something in a way not endorsed
by, but also not discouraged by, the manufacturer,
he (generic "human being") should expect
that the part may not work how it was intended to
work. Things may not quite line up, or in this case,
headlights may point heavenward ... Read on... |
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We've liked this headlight/ shock mount combo from
Pete & Jakes for a long time. We didn't think
about installing another bracket, because we like
the curves and gracefulness. A stock '32 headlight
(the big one) has the mounting bolt coming out of
the bottom at an angle of about 30 degrees towards
the back. This means that when the bracket is mounted
to the frame, the headlight mounting cone has to be
tilted forwards at the same angle. Pete & Jakes
designed the bracket to be mounted perpendicular to
the ground at ride height. I held it up there, and
thought I'd like it tilted back a bit, to match the
caster of the axle (about 6 degrees). What I didn't
realize I was doing was bringing the angle of the
cone more towards horizontal, and when the headlights
are mounted, they're more effective as airplane landing
lights. I tried to modify them to work, but came up
with an easier idea. The brackets are also designed
to mount perpendicular off the frame rail. Because
our frame is pinched, and because I'm kind of a sucker
for details, I decided to trim a bit off the back
side of the tube so the bracket mounts parallel to
the axle (perpendicular to the centerline of the frame).
Also, because we have the front c-notched, the bracket
wouldn't go on the back side of the shock because
it was right over the c-notch. All that means is that
the headlights will be an inch or two ahead of where
Pete & Jake meant them to be, which means there
may be some tire interference.
So, all that said, these are still great looking brackets.
I'd use them again. I didn't use them as intended,
so I spent more time making them work. |
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| Instead of grinding, grinding, grinding, I ordered
two new cones from Pete & Jakes and lopped off
the old ones. With the die grinder, I notched the
end to accept the tapered , angled radius of the cone.
I had to keep in mind that the headlight bolt couldn't
interfere with the shock which would be mounted right
behind. |
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| I know it looks screwed up. But I tacked the cone
with it welded to the headlight, so I knew it was
at the right angle. In this picture you can also see
how much the front end needs to come down - the shock
is set at ride height. Since we're using the short
shocks, and the shock mount bracket can't come down
any further on the frame, we're going to have to figure
out some other way of lowering the front end. I guess
we COULD use regular shocks, but the shorties look
so much... shorter. And I've never complained about
having to go lower. |
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| We have these monster 12" long 5/8" bolts
around that I used to set up the other cone to the
same angle as the first one. |
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| While holding the bolt with one hand, and tacking
with the other, I got it close and then tweaked them
to match. You could use a threaded rod for the same
effect. |
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It worked. |
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| They'll look lower when they're off the lift. Before
you finish weld anything, make sure that you can turn
your wheels both ways! |
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