VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 Rear Brake light

I need help, I am going to put rear turn signals on my 27 Chevy Touring Car. I was just given the greatest looking system by a friend and I can remove my stock brake light and replace it with this CapGo one piece system. On the top are left and right flasher they are separated by rectangular boxes cover made of nickel. The lenses are red stained glass with large black arrows, one for left and one for right. Just below these arrows is another section in red stained glass (real glass by the way)this is the stop light and it has STOP spelled in black. I was able to Google it and found it in a 1922 car electrical catalog. The bulbs look perfect, they are hand blown round bulbs and has a tiny twist at the top. What I am trying to do is find out what car had this system, also the wiring graft. Any help of info would be great.

Hi
I did find out about this brake/turn light system, it was an after market item sold from a catalog in 1922 for drivers that wanted turn signal lights in the rear of the car.

Yes, it sounds like vintage after market. There were many, many suppliers of early stop light and turn signal systems. Some of the turn signal systems particularly are very interesting and unique - a miniature arm that turns to point the driver's intention, etc. The stop light systems are even earlier, since many cheap cars (like Chevrolets) prior to 1926 or so did not have a brake light. Sometimes the word "Stop" lights up in various colors - yellow, or even blue. The conventions for standard light colors was still far in the future.

Sounds like a neat set of stop lights/signals, but a bit of a chore to install. When I wanted to put stop light/turn signals on my 28 National I got a cheap plastic stop light and wired it in so it shows up much brighter than the standard Chevy light so guys behind me can see my intention to stop. Worked great until I found out the original stop light switch lever was activated by the brake rod, and hit the frame mount, so my brakes were always 'soft' since I had the car. I took the original brake rod actuator off, modified the light switch lever, installed a spring so the rod can still move when the lever hits the switch frame mount. Now I have brakes and brake lights so I'm glad I decided to add the extra light and find out why I had soft brakes.

For turn signals I wanted something quick to install, easy to remove, no drain on the electrical system and inexpensive. I found a set of wireless LED turn signals made for bike riders. Cost $40, runs on AAA batteries, no permanent wiring, can be taken off in under 5 minutes and really works well. Mounted them in the rear window and they are really visible. Have left, right and emergency flashers. If you have a tendency to laugh about it DON'T, because they really work great. Just another solution to brake and turn signal safety issues.

Hope yours work out well. They sound fantastic and should look good.