1941 Ford Tail Lights

mercman from oz

mercman from oz

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I have a Question for 1941 Ford Experts. Are these Tail Lights able to be fitted to the wrong side? For instance, if you took the Right Tail Light Mount, turned it upside down and fitted it to the Left rear Fender, would it look correct? In the three photos above, are all Tail Lights fitted correctly? Alternatively, there may be only a single unit that can be used on both side. Would love to know the correct answer. Regards Mercman <><
 
Not an expert on 41 tailamps by any standards but the parts book shows a Rh number and a LH number. 11A-13404-B RH and 11A-13405-B LH
 
To answer your question, there are left and right tail lights. In your pictures the tail light with the blue dot lens is mounted on the wrong side. It should be on the opposite fender. If you remove the lens and look inside the light socket is not centered, it should be mounted to the bottom side of the housing.




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On mine, the bezel appears to be symmetrical, but the bucket itself is offset. The globe is not centered. It makes more sense to me if the globe is offset towards to bottom.

Makes me wonder if my buckets are upside down 'older restoration'.
 
While we are on the subject of 1941 tail lights - If you are 12 volts, the LED replacements look original and are much brighter, - which is kind of a big deal when you are in amongst modern traffic with ten times the lens area.
 
I had noticed the lamp not on the center of the lens and wondered about moving it up to the center to get the Blue Dot lens to function correctly as I have found that the Blue Dots look best when the bulb is centered on the dot? Interested in peoples comments as I haven't fitted my NOS BD lenses yet. :)
 
meric42 said:
I had noticed the lamp not on the center of the lens and wondered about moving it up to the center to get the Blue Dot lens to function correctly as I have found that the Blue Dots look best when the bulb is centered on the dot? Interested in peoples comments as I haven't fitted my NOS BD lenses yet. :)
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You can always get lenses with the blue dots in the correct place. I ran these for many years until I switched to LED tail lights.

https://bobdrake.com/products/41-ca...-lens-w-blue-dot?_pos=10&_sid=ab57621ae&_ss=r




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mercman from oz said:
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Another 1941 Ford Tail Light with Blue Dots. Are these mounted correctly?
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It looks like it is, however these tail lights were also used on 1948 through 1956 Ford Panel Trucks, so they might have been produced by more than one manufacturer with a slightly different mold pattern.




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Don't know about the 40s, but today there is a govt. photometric requirement as far as candella & light dispersement. Definetly a difference between right & left, top & bottom.
 
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