VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 31 cowl lights

I've been told that the open cars wear different cowl lights then the closed cars. Is that true and what are the differences?
thanks in advance.

The cowl lights are the same for both the open cars and the closed cars.

Some Canadian ( sports roadster) and Australian models were fitted with front fender mounted lamps instead of cowl lamps for 1931.

Hey JYD you should know better!

The answer to your question is they are different but the same housings and parts were used. What make’s a 31 or 32 (maybe 33) cowl light different is the base and the beveled washer on the inside of the cowl. The cowls between a Chevrolet body and Fisher body have different angels so if you put a Fisher cowl light on a Chevrolet body the lens will not be perpendicular to the centerline of the car. I know that Kent is working on making the inside washers, don't know about the bases which were once made.

Let me know if you would like more information about the roadster/phaeton cowl lights.

Should this be angles? who would need cowl lights with "angels" fitted to Chevrolets.

OK, Jake is right.

Hey Brucie!

The question was "I've been told that the open cars wear different cowl lights then the closed cars."

The cowl lights themselves are the same for both the open and closed cars. If you will read your parts book you will notice that the cowl lights were sold "less brackets", therefore, the cowl lights used on both the Fisher bodies and the Chevrolet bodies are the same! Yes, the bases (brackets) of the cowl lights are different because of the different angles (not angels....angels have wings) of the closed car cowl vs. the open car cowl, so the bases had to be purchased separately.

You know that I know the difference between the cowl light bases because I am the one that told you about the closed car vs. the open car cowl light bases back when you were just a little dude learning about 1931 and 1932 Chevrolets.

Like I said the same but different.

Now we just need someone to make the bases again. I talked with Kent tonight about doing them.

For us real neophytes (now there's a big word!)can you tell us which models were Fisher bodied and which were Chevrolet bodied? I personally thought all '31 models were bodied by Fisher.

The open body Phaeton, Roadster and Sport Roadster are Chevrolet bodies, other passenger cars are Fisher (closed) bodies including Cabriolet and Landau Phaeton. Sedan Delivery is also a Fisher body.

OK, yeah I do need angels! ( I need the angled bases too)
Anyway, you all did answer my questions. I will need a set of the bases for my roadster. If somebody should make them, please let me know. The whole thing makes sense.

You probably have a better chance of getting two angels (with wings) instead of getting two angled bases (without wings).

Well a few years ago I found a set of 32 roadster/phaeton cowl lights at Hershey and didn't know it until just a couple of months ago.