VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1929 Phaeton Cowl Lamps / Cowl Band

I'm disassembling my 1929 Phaeton and just removed the cowl lamps and cowl band. I'm a little curious to confirm whether they are original. They sure look to be, but I know for instance that my '30 Phaeton never had a cowl band or cowl lamps. Here is a quick description of what I'm removing:

-- Cowl lamps are mounted on the side of the cowl in a "break" between the cowl bands. There is a square hole about 5/8" across. The cowl lamp arms, which are threaded with a square boss fit into these holes and are secured from the inside with large nuts and washers. The arms have a groove in the underside for the wiring and the cowl lamp buckets are secured to them with three rivets. The buckets are painted black. There is a chrome ring which matches the headlight rings and the lenses have vertical stripse.

-- The cowl band is in three pieces. The center piece covers the top and the sides of the cowl down to the cowl lamps. The side pieces are straight and run from the cowl lamps down to the running board apron. The break in the cowl band for the cowl lamps is covered by a stainless tab which fits over the attaching bolt of the cowl lamps and covers the ends of the cowl band.

-- Headlights are single-bulb reflectors, so the car presumably must have come with cowl lamps since there is no other parking lamp system.

Wish I were better at posting pictures, it would obviously be better. I'll try to post one in the Member's Photos section.

This all looks to have been an original installation. Can somebody confirm that the 1929 Phaetons did in fact come with the cowl lamps and cowl band and that this is the correct one?

Thanks for any help.

All the Best, Chip.

Chip:Your description of the lamps is correct but joining the top and vertical mouldings there is a pot metal insert which fits into the open ends.It has a square hole in it for the square on the park lamp arm.Without it when the cover clip is put in place and the lamp tightened the mouldings will collapse and be dented.I have never found a complete insert,only pieces as they tend to crumble with age,so I have fabricated them from steel.The only models I know of that used cowl lamps were my Cabriolet,the Convertible Landau and the Imperial Sedan but check with J.Y.D. as he has a great deal of knowledge in this area.

Super...thanks very much. Skip/Chipper: Can either of you add anything as to cowl band and cowl lamps on a '29 Phaeton? This definitely looks like a factory installation to me.

All the Best, Chip

According to the literature that I have the USA 1929 phaeton did not have cowl lamps or a cowl band as standard equipment.

Chip:RHD Chevys were made in South Africa,England and the Philippines.There is a British VCCA site that may be able to help but I cant remember what it is.Keep trying--good luck.

I have the 1931 chevrolet specifications from the General Motors Export,General Sales Division, and it states that RHD cars were available at any factory in the US and Canada. I don't think that would be different for any of the previous years because of the larger number of RHD cars that were produced for the 1927 ,28, 29 years.
Australian RHD tourer bodies were built by Holden's and are different to Chips 1929 Phaeton. The rear doors on Chip's Phaeton have angled back tops at the forward upper edge, Holden's rear doors are fairly straight at that point.

Chip's rear tub also has a pressed in moulding around the rear fenders and across the rear of the tub, which wasn't on 1929 Holden body tourers until late 1930,and continued in 1931 and 1932.

If for some reason that you would decide not to reuse the cowl lamps, I desperately need a pair for a 29 Sport Cabriolet.

I have a Parts Price List for the International Series AC-1929. The cowl lamp is for the Cabriolet and Imperial only. All other models had the park lights in the headlight.

Thanks guys! Sounds like I need to keep researching this one. If any of you UK/Aus/Commonwealth guys know anyone with a '29 Phaeton, I'd like to get in touch with them. I know of one in Birmingham, England and have written to him for photos. Surely we'll get to the bottom of this eventually.

For now, I'll hang onto the cowl lamps, but if they aren't needed, I'll be sure to put the word out that they're available. From looking at them, I'm pretty darned convinced that they were a factory install. It's all too clean and uniform to be a dealer installation or a later conversion. Even the wiring was apparently part of the original wiring harness and only two leads go forward to the headlights.

Anyone else have any insights?

All the Best, Chip

In addition to the written word and your own description of two wires to the headlight, one for headlight and one for the park light, don't know what else you need to know?

Actually, for parking lights there are three wires going to the headlight, one wire for the single contact parking light and two wires for the double contact headlight (high and low beam).

If a parking light is not used in the headlight then there would only be two wires, and the reflector would have only one blub socket. If a parking light was used in the headlight then the reflector would have two bulb sockets.

61 vert:sent you a PM regarding cowl lamps.Check your messages.

Chip: Were you able to gather any more information regarding the cowl lights on your 1929 phaeton RHD?

Sorry -- I've been out of town on vacation.

Nothing definitive so far, but I'm pretty well convinced that the car was delivered with the cowl band and cowl lamps. It still had the original single-bulb reflectors, the original headlight wiring was only the low beam - high beam with no parking light, the holes to attach the cowl band and the cowl band itself and its T-bolt fasteners look totally factory, as do the cowl lamps and their attachment.

I believe this car was assembled in Montevideo, Uruguay based on info provided by several fellow Chevy Chatter II guys when I first bought it. Is it possible that some of the export cars assembled overseas received a different treatment than the US cars?

There is another anomaly.....the car has a left-side frame-mounted tail light, despite having a rear-mounted spare and no side mounts. My other '29, a coach, has the center-mounted tail light on a factory bracket in the center of the spare tire holder. The left-side mounted tail light on this car is identical to the one on my '30 phaeton. Very strange. I'd have thought the car should have a center-mounted tail light. Anyone have any thoughts on that?



All the Best, Chip

Is is possible that the '29 was originally delivered with the '29 accessory wire wheels? If that is the case then the spare tire would not have permitted a center mounted light. Only the cars with center mounted rim and tire (no wheel) had the center mounted tail light.

I don't think so, Chipper.....

The car is currently equipped with wood wheels and I can see no indication of a changeover (I believe that the brake drums used with wood wheels won't accept discs or wire wheels?).

The spare tire carrier is identical to the one on my '29 Coach which has standard disc wheeels from new, except that the cross bar to which the taillight mounts is not installed and does not appear to have ever existed on the '29 Phaeton.

I wonder if it has something to do with it being a right-hand drive car? Actually, if anything, I would have expected a tail light mounted on the RIGHT frame rail on this car. It remains a bit of a mystery.

In the end, I will probably get a right-hand bracket and install dual tail lights on this one, because I plan to install turn signals using the original tail lights and the cowl lamps in the interest of safety. This car will be a show car initially, but I eventually intend to tour in it.

Any other thoughts from anyone about the cowl band and cowl lamps? How about some of you Commonwealth guys with the RHD cars?

All the Best, Chip

Chip,
I also would have expected the tail light to be installed on the right side if not the center.

Maybe the Phaeton was considered a Deluxe model south of the border or special ordered as such.

Hi Chip, I know this is an old thread and you may well have solved this by now, but....

If I've got this right, what you call a 1929 Phaeton we (in Australia) would probably call a 'Tourer'. I gather it is a 4 door convertible.

I haven't seen any historical or dealer pictures/adverts of an Australian 1929 Tourer with cowl lights but I've seen an old newspaper advert with them showing on a 1928... odd huh?

I'm not saying that there aren't any Aussie cars with them on, just that I don't know for sure if they were a dealer option.

Here's a pic of a 1929 in outback NT that appears to have the cowl trim but not the lights.

Link to NT Historical site

Hi Andrew ---

Great to hear from down under, especially from a Huey guy. I did finally sort this out, and yes, the car was delivered with a cowl band (3-piece) and cowl lamps. I'm still working on the restoration and will post some photos as it goes along. Thanks for posting the old photo.

All the Best, Chip

PS -- Yes, the car is a tourer, and an RHD one at that. It was assembled in Montevideo, Uruguay.