33-34 ford pickup
- Thread starter dennis33
- Start date
PhoenixFear
Senior Member
A quick search on Google came up with this thread:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236860
Drake makes the dropped headlight bar.
http://store.bobdrake.com/19dropheadba4.html
From what it looks like, you need to bend the bar a smidge to get it to clear the grill, but it will work.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236860
Drake makes the dropped headlight bar.
http://store.bobdrake.com/19dropheadba4.html
From what it looks like, you need to bend the bar a smidge to get it to clear the grill, but it will work.
What is it with the dropped headlight bar??? A friend bought a 32 and the first thing he had to do was buy a dropped headlight bar. I personally think a full fendered 32 looks at best with the original bar. It looks scrunched and out of proportion with the dropped bar. Is it, I got a dropped headlight bar now I have a hotrod?
34pickup
Well-known member
I agree. I like the stock bar better.The dropped bar makes it look like a cookie cutter hot rod. Same with chopping a top...trying to be different years ago but now they all look alike chopped. Newbies think they HAVE to chop a top and drop a headlite bar to be cool but they end up just being conformist to the likes of everyone else.
dennis33
Member
I happen to be 65 grew up with rods and and chopped tops and like them. I dont like stock myself but dont feel like it is my place to tell somebody how to build their car ( if they even built it their self) What sets your car apart from everybody elses? RAT RODS arent my thing either but i look at them and there is some real talent put into some of them. Well I think i will get back to work on my CHOPPED pu. Have a nice day
34pickup
Well-known member
Hit a nerve? I was not directing my comments to you specifically; I did not even notice before that your avatar was a chopped truck. That was merely my opinion.I like them both ways but I see more chopped tops than stock tops lately and was stating my observation.Don't be so defensive,my opinion won't change your world one way or the other.
itslow
Well-known member
Butcher mentality.
The headlight bar is one of the few things that I think Ford didn't get quite right on the '32. Stock, it makes the headlights sit up too high and look out of proportion like a couple of bug eyes. The dropped bars bring the headlights back down and in-line with the aesthetically pleasing "Rule of 1/3s".
Example with stock bar:
Example with dropped bar:
(and with guidelines drawn):
Flathead Fever
Well-known member
I’m taking the politicians approach to the headlight bar debate.
This is Roy Desbrow's '32 pickup which was built at Mitchell's Muffler shop in Pasadena. It was featured in Hot Rod Magazine in January 1952 and is probably responsible for more '32-'34 pickups being butchered than any other hot rod pickup in history. Roy’s pickup was voted one of the top 50 all-time ‘32 Ford hot rods. I just don't think this pickup would look right without a dropped headlight bar.
The other photo of an original '34 pickup displays about as nice of a pickup that has ever been designed. I think a person would be insane to butcher one of these works of art, I couldn’t do it. I like the original headlight bar, it looks just fine on the stock pickup.
I agree with both sides of the dropped headlight bar issue, that is why if I had the money and the room I would buy a stock '34 pickup and restore it and an already chopped ’34 pickup and build a fifties era hot rod. I love them both ways.
This is Roy Desbrow's '32 pickup which was built at Mitchell's Muffler shop in Pasadena. It was featured in Hot Rod Magazine in January 1952 and is probably responsible for more '32-'34 pickups being butchered than any other hot rod pickup in history. Roy’s pickup was voted one of the top 50 all-time ‘32 Ford hot rods. I just don't think this pickup would look right without a dropped headlight bar.
The other photo of an original '34 pickup displays about as nice of a pickup that has ever been designed. I think a person would be insane to butcher one of these works of art, I couldn’t do it. I like the original headlight bar, it looks just fine on the stock pickup.
I agree with both sides of the dropped headlight bar issue, that is why if I had the money and the room I would buy a stock '34 pickup and restore it and an already chopped ’34 pickup and build a fifties era hot rod. I love them both ways.
Attachments
Butcher mentality.
The headlight bar is one of the few things that I think Ford didn't get quite right on the '32. Stock, it makes the headlights sit up too high and look out of proportion like a couple of bug eyes. The dropped bars bring the headlights back down and in-line with the aesthetically pleasing "Rule of 1/3s".
/QUOTE]
Thankyou for the rational response.
I wonder if even the Ford stylists had second thoughts about the height of the headlamps. By 1933 the bar was revised and the lamps mount lower on the '33-'34 trucks. On a Deuce the lamp is higher than the beltline, while the later trucks have the lamp lower. Same body, but a different look.
Byron Warwick
Senior Member
I wonder if it didn't have anything to do with Ford's stylists, but was dictated by the DOT to position the headlights lower, Byron.
Richard (EV8G)
Senior Member
First check the name on the registration. If it matches yours, you can do whatever you want. My son has an original dropped bar (Peter Eastwood) on his 32 Pickup and I have one on my 34 pickup and will have one on my 33 Panel. I feel that it looks better on these particular trucks, and they are ours.
The question was "where to get one". I do not like the aftermarket dropped
bars that are probably made in China? I like real stuff that has been reworked
but not necessarily "butchered"... It is as they say a "matter of personal taste."
Eastwood might still be doing them, but only does them in batches. I will not
post his contact info, but anyone should be able to find a way to contact him.
The question was "where to get one". I do not like the aftermarket dropped
bars that are probably made in China? I like real stuff that has been reworked
but not necessarily "butchered"... It is as they say a "matter of personal taste."
Eastwood might still be doing them, but only does them in batches. I will not
post his contact info, but anyone should be able to find a way to contact him.
Flathead Fever
Well-known member
I looked in a '37 and a '39 California vehicle code book and they do not list a headlight height requirement. Other states could have had height requirements?
What's neat about these Vehicle code books is they are only an 1/8 inch thick and only 2 1/2 pages of them are about vehicle equipment requirements. You could do anything you wanted to your car as long as it had brakes that could stop at 40 mph in 148 feet, a horn, a windshield and a rearview mirror.
In the late 40s or early 50s California was giving hot rodders tickets for headlights being too low. One old-timer told me he borrowed a friends 700/16 rear tires and bolted them on the front of his '32 highboy roadster so it would raise the headlights enough to get the ticket signed off.
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Flathead Fever
Well-known member
I would prefer to drop an original headlight barb rather than buy a repro also.
There have been a few articles written on how to drop a headlight bar.
Street Rodder, November 1978, pg.26. Two page article showing Pete Eastwood dropping a ‘32 headlight bar using a porta power hydraulic jack and a heavy duty jig. Real nice photos of the jig he built. If you did not want to tackle the job yourself I would give Pete a call, as far as I know he is still working on hot rods. Sorry, I don’t have his phone number.
Street Rodder, May 1992, pg. 176. Street Rodder ran the same 1978 Pete Eastwood headlight bar dropping article.
American Rodder August 1996, pg. 44. Vern Tardel dropping a ‘32 headlight bar using a torch, a piece of angle iron and a vice.
There have been a few articles written on how to drop a headlight bar.
Street Rodder, November 1978, pg.26. Two page article showing Pete Eastwood dropping a ‘32 headlight bar using a porta power hydraulic jack and a heavy duty jig. Real nice photos of the jig he built. If you did not want to tackle the job yourself I would give Pete a call, as far as I know he is still working on hot rods. Sorry, I don’t have his phone number.
Street Rodder, May 1992, pg. 176. Street Rodder ran the same 1978 Pete Eastwood headlight bar dropping article.
American Rodder August 1996, pg. 44. Vern Tardel dropping a ‘32 headlight bar using a torch, a piece of angle iron and a vice.