1930 Headlamp bar... Canadian ?

R

Robert Putnam

Member
I would like to aquire what I think is a Canadian headlamp bar. These had a V-section bar rather than the round bar. Can any one shed light on this particular bar and perhaps point me in the right direction to be able to purchase one ?
 
Are you talking about a pressed steel bar? Welded to the forged ends? Has it's own slots for the license plate? Early 30,I ran into one because the seller said it wasn't Model A.It looked absolutely perfect,when I blasted the old paint off I found four cracks in it.I think they started to crack on the ride down the assembly line. I used it because it is an oddity,and I like oddball things.
 
I have one on my 1930 Town sedan that was made in April,1930. Until I saw the description of it here on the board I thought it was not the correct one for my car. Several model A guys that saw it at cruise ins told me that it was not made by Ford and I had the wrong one. They said Ford only made round ones. The man that I bought the car from owned it for 20 years and had told me that he thought it came on the car and he thought it was original.
 
I've seen them welded up in the past.I remember the old A guys telling me that they were probably Chevy centers with the Ford ends welded on.Now I realize they were just welded up.I actually got wised up to what they were when I was about 14.A local A guy took me with him down to the cape to pick up some parts,the fellow there explained it to me.Also,when I was about 14 I gave away a near perfect set of eyebrow fenders because the A guys showed me that the A didn't have any bead around the front.The old fellow that got them from me felt he might be able to find somebody that could use them on a hot rod or something.20 years later I found out from his boys that he knew exactly what they were,and that he had bragged about how he had swindled me out of them. There were a lot of A guys like that here,I bet there aren't three of them left now.
 
The u headlamp bar is not a Canadian made part; it was used in US & Canadian production. Canadian Model A's were not '100% Canadian made'.
 
I think this is what it looks like.
 

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I have one of these on my 31 S/W (feb 31). I have been thinking about changing it out, because I thought it was not stock. Interesting.
 
My dad's '30 coupe was made in Canada, and he went over to Canada to buy it. It had one of the odd headlight bars on it. When we restored it many years later, it looked like a homemade welded up job so we threw it out and bought a normal one. Just one more dumb thing I've done. It was very handy for mounting the plate.

Here's the best photo I have.
 

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Yes Jim, Robertsons do make Canadian Model A's unique, but Henry Ford wanted to use these screws for his US production too, but Robertson would not negotiate.
Interestingly, the Canadian chassis exported to Australia used slotted screws in the bodywork[sourced in Australia] & some Canadian types [ Cabriolet ] were fitted with US sourced bodies & did not use Robertsons either.
 
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