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'57 QUAD HEADLIGHT CONVERSION-REVERSED!

Started by CobraJoe, 2020-06-03 15:16

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CobraJoe

2020-06-03 15:16 Last Edit: 2020-06-06 05:52 by CobraJoe
Rich brought up a good point about this conversion saying that "this should probably go under the build section", so I will do my best to do this in retrospect.

I actually think he wanted me to post it so djfordmanjack could reverse engineer it.   :002:

As many of you know, I purchased my '57 "Kustom" with quad headlights, knowing all the time that I would be trying to return it to it's former glory.
Here is what she looked like at the time of her purchase:



It's not bad, but she looks soooo much wider than a normal '57 as you can see in this picture next to Ecode70D's beautiful business coupe:

Who is who, lol?



When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#1
2020-06-03 15:24 Last Edit: 2022-01-23 17:01 by CobraJoe
Before I even took delivery ( it came from N. Carolina), I started looking for OEM headlight doors.
People told me that they were as rare as Hen's teeth, but JPotter came through with an original set, purchased in 1973, for a reasonable price:







So started my search for everything I needed, as always, members on this board were able to supply everything i needed for a reasonable price, and I can't thank you all enough. Without the valuable connections, information as well as parts and info here, this would never have been possible:



Oh yeah, E-Pay helped too:



When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#2
2020-06-03 16:10
Well, the owner told me that it was a popular conversion back in the day, and that J C Whitney was a major supplier of the conversion, so it shouldn't be a big deal to change it back. Well, as my luck goes, it wasn't a conversion, it was '58 headlights grafted into the '57. I found this out doing exploratory surgery and found a 1958 Ford part number on the headlight bezel:



When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#3
2020-06-03 16:17
I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. Further investigation showed that they were welded in place. They had folded the original fender lip in, (thank God!) and then welded a tab to it to support the new assembly. They then weded everything to the fender, shouldn't be too bad to fix, right?









When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#4
2020-06-03 16:32 Last Edit: 2020-06-03 16:34 by CobraJoe
First a picture of the electrical junction block for future reassembly reference:



And so it began, hours with a cutoff wheel, s-l-o-w-l-y peeling away the layers of the onion to see how it was done while trying to minimize the damage to my original fenders.

After removal of the headlight bucket assembly:



Then the cutting:



....some more cutting:



and some more cutting:



Not much "fancy" steel work here, mostly mud:




When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#5
2020-06-03 16:35 Last Edit: 2022-01-23 17:02 by CobraJoe
The end resulult:





At least the filler panel was still bolted together and in good shape:

When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#6
2020-06-03 16:38 Last Edit: 2020-06-05 17:32 by CobraJoe
I was able to use a set of linesmen pliers to slowly work the folded edge back out to it's original shape. Then i could clamp the bucket in place with vise grips for a rough fit:



The originals fit so much better than the aftermaket stuff:



When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#7
2020-06-03 16:39
Night and day IMO

When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#8
2020-06-03 16:45
More cutting and fitting and removal of the filler panel. I think I like it!   :deadhorse:

When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

RICH MUISE

#9
2020-06-03 19:43 Last Edit: 2020-06-03 19:50 by RICH MUISE
Nicely done Joe............both the posting and the car. You obviously have a gentle touch with a cut off tool. You would have been banging your head against a wall trying to do that with aftermarket panels......glad James was holding them for you all these years, lol.
Also, I guess I missed the fact the ones you removed were oem 58s.....guess that explains all the welding and alterations as opposed to what probably would have been an easier reversal back to singles if it was the J C Whitney conversion kit.
edited.....I do see the buckets.
I can do this, I can do this, I, well, maybe

CobraJoe

#10
2020-06-03 19:58
Thanks Rich, as always, your input and compliments are both welcome and inspiring.

So my buddy who is going to match the paint stopped by to look at it and said it was time to bring it to his shop. He said we could do the final fitting there as it would be easier to align all the panels prior to bonding without moving the car.
After some time trying to align the hood gap, it was clearly that there was an underlying issue. A few measurements later, it became obvious (to him)  that the car must have been hit on the drivers side fender at some point in it's 63 year life.
I always had a tighter gap on the passenger side door/fender than the drivers side, as the pictures show:





It was time to load it on the frame machine and find out for sure....


When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

djfordmanjack

#11
2020-06-04 05:01 Last Edit: 2020-06-04 05:03 by djfordmanjack
Nice progress Joe ! Great to have all of your efforts in a seperate build thread. Much appreciated by me and possibly others later on. Besides that, it is always great to watch such projects grow.
As usual, things have nearly gotten out of hand, with this thought to be 'minor' task.Those NOS headlight bowls worked out great for you, especially since they are RUSTFREE.
I know that you always wanted the original headlights and I am a fan of them too. when other car guys sometimes complain about the 'bug-eyed' look (in their opinion), I even further exeggerated that look on my Country Sedan with using ball shaped translucant Australian truck headlight covers, loving it. But I have to confess, that, while not really attracted by the 58 Fords themselves, I just love quad headlights  in a 57 Ford. I think it is mostly because of the Tiago Custom Ranchero... Yes it makes the car look much wider, a bit more sinister and generally lower. Thanx to your efforts, I might one day be able to build something like that from your parts. I now see why there was nothing to save from the lower headlight/fender parts....hahaha

CobraJoe

#12
2020-06-04 05:13
Thanks DJ, and as promised, those '58 lights are yours, I just need to get them over Jay.
On a serious note, I actually like the look of the Australian covers.

Yeah, the metal work wasn't that "impressive", I'm sure you can do a much better job when the time comes.

In the picture below, you can see the fender/hood alignment is really tight, as well as the gap on the filler panel, which showed us that the nose was pushed over almost a 1/2" towards the drivers side. All the other pins showed the frame was straight except from the radiator support forward.



If you look closely at the picture, you will see the "fabricated" lines under the headlights were less than perfect.
When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

CobraJoe

#13
2020-06-04 05:16
The car on the frame machine after the first pull, notice the measuring pins on the chassis.



Further evidence of a minor collision. Note the wrinkled filler panel on the radiator support:

When I was fourteen years old, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in the last seven years!
'15 F150, '96 Bronco, '39 Ford Coupe, '17 Escape, '57 Fairlane

djfordmanjack

#14
2020-06-04 05:46 Last Edit: 2020-06-04 05:48 by djfordmanjack
Now, while you are at it, it is totally understandable how you want to get things perfectly aligned. Good thing you have access to such a capable collision shop, especially when it's a friends. loving those frame alignment racks. It is interesting how you also mentioned that your header panel was pulled or off somehow. A 57 (body) frontend is not easy to align.

If you wanted such headlight covers I could try find the shop link on ebay. They are used on heavy rigs in Australia, as some kind of bug, stone and wildlife deflectors. I can easily imagine those road trains in Oz, and how they need to keep their headlights protected from stones and birds aso. They are extremely durable quality and simply attach with the headlight rings.  they are also scratch resistant and haven't yellowed or faded in 4 years.

I think I might want to come up with a little tweek concerning that dual headlight assemblies. I think that I will first grind the perimeter of the 58 bezel down as much as can be shaved off while keeping the looks. they need to lose some weight on the lower edge, to better align with the 57 sheetmetal.
Like mentioned before, half fun, half real, I would love to come up with a solution that allows me to both bolt in the 58 and 57 units in my own fenders alternatively.
If I ever get on that project, I will post it here. :002: :003:
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