VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1931-1932 cowl light inside body washer

I was cruising ebay usa and spotted the following item for sale under 1932 chevrolet by seller AMMUSCLE item #290829286710 .

The washer they have listed at $5.99 each are specified as being for 1931-1932 chevrolet to be used INSIDE THE BODY and too attach to the cowl lights.

The washer appears to have a 3/8 hole in the middle and the center of the washer is crowned , i guess in order to apply even pressure to the body panel under the cowl light without warping it ?

ANYBODY.........ever see these in use or heard of them before ?????

mike

Hey Mike they look very simmilar to what I have they are bent (tapered) to fit the inside of the cowl. I think mine are 7/16 fine thread.

Look like good reproductions to me. Many have been tossed or lost over the years.

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Jack, so you found these installed in your car originally...for your cowl lights.

interesting , another one of those items for your car you never ever thought about, existed.

mike

Mike...these roadster only and Kent is now making them. A few years ago I found a set of roadster cowl lights at Hershey and found out that Ralph had a die for making them. Close cars do not use them.

As far as I know then are only 31 and 32, but I have not looked them up in the parts book. They are as close as your going to get them. Now all you need are the correct roadster cowl light bases.

Not sure of the reason why there not on the all cars.learn somethin new every day.

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BRUCE.....who is KENT ??????? that you speak of .

I take the Ralph referred too is RALPH McEOWN of Ohio and i purchased a few roadster goodies from him .

I bought a set of cowl 1932 lights from a member on here ( peter) that he had on ebay that were a replated I&I repo set. i also purchased earlier today a pair of cowl light pads.

BRUCE Okay ya got me , whats the difference between closed car bases and open car bases. Must have pictures posted to this thread , because i am not going to be the only one reading this that will be interested.!!!!

I & I REPO only shows the CLOSED CAR cowl lites and bases in their catalogue.

mike lynch

Mike,
I think he means Kent Rehmert. He is Ralph McEowen's friend and neighbor. Kent has taken over making the parts that Ralph used to make. He trades under the name Rehmert Fabrications. His number is 937-547-1672

Kent is the guy down the road that Ralph sold the fabrication business. Trying to make a living making parts. With Ralph's help is making several new parts. Several at my request.

The Roadster, Phaeton bases have a different angle than the closed car bases. It puts the cowl lights 90 deg. to length of the car.

So they face sideways into the bushes??

Now I'm really confused... this thread needs pictures!

There are two types of cowl light bases....those for the closed car models and those for the open car models. Since the curvature of the open car cowl (open cars were made by Chevrolet, not Fisher Body) was different than the cowl of the closed cars two different types of cowl light bases were required. If the closed car cowl light bases are installed on an open car cowl the cowl lights will point in a slightly different direction than they should.

Thanks Old Mate!

I sort of guessed that was the case based on the previous posts, but I could hardly let Chip's comment that "It puts the cowl lights 90 deg. to length of the car." pass without poking him with a stick

90 deg to the length of the car,
so that is right angles to the length of the car,
so that is pointing directly to the side,
so they are good for possum hunting, yeah?

LOL. Just funnin' with y'all!

But having had my fun, I'd still like to see some pictures!

Where is that "This thread is useless without pictures" smiley?

The light mount is 90 deg. to the center line of the chassis as is the flat part of the lens. That puts the light pointing directly forward. If the closed car base is used then the light does not point forward.

Also if the special inside cowl light washer is not used then the nut and split lock washer that secures the cowl light will not make 100% contact.

Having spent some time installing my cowl lights on my '31 Coach, getting the lens vertical and 90 degrees to the body (i.e. pointing straight ahead), was a bit of effort. So I knew were Chipper was headed, but if he had said that, I would not have enjoyed the Aussie humour(note the extra u). Us Canadians are too darn polite to tease a foreigner, but we enjoy informative banter like this. Otherwise would never have known there were different bases. And I think the correct spelling is Opossum!

Well this is intriging. Seeing as how I own a 35 fisher bodied standard series coupe and a 1935 chevrolet body works built roadster I am interested to see what the difference in the cowl area is.???

Seeing as how the hood top fits the same on both toooooo the cowl top, this is going to require some serious measuring.

Of coarse the other question is........if the car did not originally have factory cowl lights, where is the EXACT spot the hole is to be drilled.?????

I now call upon those experts to say & post here , exactly where to drill.....no metric measurements please.

mike lynch

Mike, so why are you going to put cowl lights on your car anyway? I have never seen any on a 34 and 35's didn't have them at all. Very few 33's even had them.

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I bought some from I & I many years ago and eventually drilled the 2 holes and mounted them on my 35 standard coupe. I always saw all the 33-34 fords with them amd liked what i was looking at. I figured they are listed in my master parts price list for 1934's , so they would also be applicable for my 35 std coupe or roadster.

Just because we have not seen any originals mounted doesn't mean that they were not ordered and installed in the shop.

I use them as directional and also parking lights and in the daytime as daytime running accessory lights to make my black car more visable as a saftey feature.

As far as the location of the cowl lights, i just placed masking tape on the area, had the wife move them around the small area and then i marked the spot that i thought best suited the car cowl visually.

mike

Ahhh now that makes sense! Thanks mate.

OK, I'll go back to my corner now!

Yep, I'm certainly a fan of the banter and it's great that most of the folks on here take it in good spirit.

On a serious side, I will certainly cause me to look closely at the examples of the cowl lights I have to ensure they are the correct body style. One of the great things about this forum, something to learn every day.

Because the cowl of the chevrolet body built roadster and the fisher body built closed cars is supposedly different and the open car mounting bracket is different than the closed car, i will have to wait until my cowl lights arrive from calif, drill the hole in a position that i deem perfect to MY EYE and then judge whether the cowl lights point inward and not straight ahead.

Rather than spending whats left of a a life time trying to acquire a pair of open car cowl light mounting brackets, i will simply make aluminum shims under the stock bracket until they are right. Polish them with my buffer to match and unless somebody is inspecting them, who will know.

Anybody have a pair of open car cowl light bases to advise me of the various measurements to determine whats right.

mike

Mike I picked up a set of cowl lights at Flint.I needed to change the base on the light to the ones I had replated.The cowl light looked to be from I@I.I might have a set of unplated bases but the only problem is they have been over tightened and are cracked. Would need to be repaired before being plated. There is a noticable difference on a 32 on the way the light sits. I think the base is lower to the cowl as well. I needed to machine the hold down nut so that it wouldnt hit the cowl. The receptical (where the wire goes through)was also smaller size 3/8 inch in stead of 7/16 on the original. Il send you a pm with some pictures.

Well i received my cowl lights from california seller this morning and found some reasons why they will not fit on a fisher body without pointing inwards towards the body. Nor will they fit on a 34-35 chevrolet body works roadster body without an alteration to the base with an angled shim.

Way back when in the 70s ??? i bought a pair of I&I reproduction cowl lights for my 35 standard FISHER BODIED COUPE. They have the little V on the lens bezel and fit 90 degrees angle of the lens too the body, making them point dead ahead. Believe that V marks them as 33--35

This morning i got a pair of 1932 chevrolet I&I reproduction cowl lights, thats what the seller says they are and they look like it.

After some careful tape measuring i find there are some differences between the 32 and the 33---35 ones.

1-- Length of the cowl light, 33-35 is 1/4" longer than 32

2-- Length of the cowl light **bezel** on the 32 is 3/8 inch

3-- Length of the cowl light **bezel* on the 33-35 is 5/8 inch

4-- cowl light body 1932 mounting has a bump out area that is 1/16 toooo 1/4-5/16 at the end higher .... this alters the way the cowl light points, inward in this case picture would explain it

5-- cowl light body 1933--1935 the bump out area is almost non existant allowing the cowl light to sit properly pointing perfectly forward 90 degrees to the fisher body

I have digital pictures of these two cowl lamps and the mounting area and the base plates.....IF someone wants to post these 2 pictures too this thread, email me and i will happily send them too you.

mike lynch
mike350@rogers.com

The light are all the same Mike, there is only one difference and that is the tit! which makes them 33 or 32.

Jack, what do you mean there is a different size then normal?

OK....34 Parts book shows!

Part number 363772 Cowl lamp less bracket (also know as base) is 1932-34 except CA, CC, O, DA, P.

Part number 364364 Cowl lamp less bracket (also know as base) is 1933 CA only.

The only difference between the two lamps is the rim that is used on the 33, which has a tit on it to match the head lights.

Buckets are the same 32 to 34, there is no difference. Also you can not compare something made by I&I to an original or to another I&I part...everything I&I makes is crap! They don't know what quality control is at all. Just ask anyone that has a tail lamp made by them for a 31/32.

If you want I'll go measure every one of my 32 cowl lamps and show you that they are almost the same. But remember, Chevrolet also had different suppliers making same parts and more then one mold doing the same thing. There is a tolerance factor.

I'll stand by the fact that all cowl light bodies 32 to 34 are the same. Chip and Skip will say the same thing.

Bruce

The V Rim is only 33! Part number 915269.