VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION What did you do with your vehicle today? 1938 Chevrolet Accessory License plate

I have had the 1938 Chevy accessory rear license plate holder for some time. I never put it on because I wanted to have some tail light parts painted first. I got an extra driver side tail light stand. I cut off the license plate holder and molded in the hole. I believe the original accessory, your suppose to shave off the top and put a Cap over the top. I didn't have the cap and I liked the smoother look. I used a passenger side tail light bucket so I wouldn't have light shinning up to nothing. I also installed a back up light.. The accessory license plate holder mounts in the original holes where the trunk emblem was. I drilled a new hole for the wire to operate the light. The back up light is mounted to a generic switch I mounted under my dash.

That looks like a very nice car. The lighting arrangement may even be better than original though I question using a manual switch for the backup though there are probably no factory ways of operating it off the shift lever.
Tony

the accessory manual says:

A flash light for the back of your car that illuminates the
driveway or other dark, confined areas, removing the
danger of collision with unseen objects. It is designed to
match and fit at the base of the left-hand tail lamp.
Controlled by an instrument panel switch. Price...$2.50

I don't know what the original switch looks like, so I made my own switch panel. I would much rather have an automatic switch to turn the light on when I put the car in reverse.

You should be able to install a switch that operates off the linkage that is spring loaded. Heavy trucks with manual transmissions use them to control the on-off mode of engine brakes. They operate with a spring loaded lever so by fabricating a mounting bracket it should be possible to have what you desire.