VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions 1938 Chevy coupe taillights

Greetings from a very soggy New Zealand. Ive owned a Canadian built 1938 Chevy Businmans coupe for 50 years & being right hand drive it has the original rear right taillight. My enquiry is; did Canadian built chevs have an optional left rear taillight (without the number plate mount)? or should I find an American one, remove it's number plate mount & wield up the hole? I've waisted $s buying an American left side replica & they are simply rubbish, being badly made and not fit for polishing due to pick marks. Any ideas please

Sadly a lot of reproduction parts are poorly made. I know nothing about your question. Someone should be along soon who can help you out.

Only RHD cars had the license mount on the right side taillight bracket and a plain bracket on the left.

Many RHD cars for export from North America to British Commonwealth countries were built in Canada (complete cars or kits for assembly in another country).

Cars sold in USA and Canada were LHD and they all had the license mount in the left taillight bracket. The right side taillight brackets were plain without the license bracket.

The 1937-38 brackets were castings made of a pot metal and cannot easily be welded. Your idea to remove the license mount from a US left hand coupe bracket would probably work best by filling the hole with liquid metal as it would still be strong enough and the patch is just for appearance.

Alternately, you might want to leave the left license mount in place and use it for a personalized plate (or maybe a VCCA emblem?)

I have a right side assembly if you want to give the conversion a try. I believe there are a couple of lengths to fit different body styles. I do not know if mine fits a coupe.

Mike

Malmac

I have a 1937-38 coupe left side with a broken license plate mount and a clean cut through part of the lower body. Could be suitable for your conversion.

Please send me a Private Message if interested.

Tom

When I Right side, in my previous post, I meant Left side.

Mike

Hi Tom, sorry for the slow reply, I'm unsure how to proceed with a private message but yes, I can make use of that taillight stem as is.Hope it's still available.malmac

Click on Mike's user name then click on Private Message.

Thanks for the info, without written instructions of any kind I'm blindly pushing buttons to see what happens...but as we've owned this coupe for 51 years I'm not in any rush....just ticking off the last 5 or 6 wee jobs to finally make her legal!!