Night ride

Dean Lemoine

Dean Lemoine

Senior Member
I took my ‘29 Tudor for a drive after dark last night for the (my) first time. I was amazed at all of the other vehicle’s headlight reflections on most of the windows, windshield and inside rear view mirror. I must say, I hadn’t expected that. Does anyone know of a day/night mirror that would look original?
 
Hammer, the drive was really fun when there wasn’t other traffic around. Next time, I’ll pick the back roads, not highways.
 
I find night driving tough also. Very little to do with the rear view mirror, all the vertical glass turns the car into a house of mirrors when brightly illuminated from bright headlights following close. Keep in mind nothing like 12V quartz Halogen existed in 1930. 2nd problem is when you're driving along fine with eyes adjusted to the 6V glow, which is plenty to light up the road if you're alone. Then a modern car comes at you from the other direction with modern headlights (high beams if you're really unlucky) and your vision is ruined for the next 15 seconds or so.

I like the originality, but would not make a regular habit of driving at night in an original car in any kind of populated area.
 
I had the rear window in my CCPU tinted (5%) for that very reason. That helps a whole bunch.

BTW, 5% tint is a really dark tint, only allows 5% of the light to get thru. It's what you see on the rear windows of modern SUV's.
 
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I've gotten used to it, don't give it a second thought, however it was interesting at first. I grew up in an early 70's VW van, same thing there except not the windshield. When you get used to it you don't pay attention to the ghost lights.
 
I need to put a shade in mine. I currently have a piece of cardboard cut to the shape of the rear window and that does a great job for night driving. The reflections are definitely the worst part. With the new properly shaped reflectors I think the lights themselves are more than adequate.
 
It does get a bit better with time, after you get used to it, but can be very distracting at first!
 
The original rear window shade has a material that lets some light through it, but it eliminates the reflection on the windshield that gives the impression of an impending head-on collision.
 
Try one of those shades used to keep the sun off a baby in the back seat as a fix to stop the reflection. As to the original lights, I heard my uncle say about his Model A, that he had to strike a match to see if the headlights were on. He drove his A every day.
 
I had a beveled glass rear view mirror . It made the reflection much worse , changed to the original and it cut down the reflection a lot .
 
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