11-05-2020, 06:59 AM | #1 |
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Night ride
I took my ‘29 Tudor for a drive after dark last night for the (my) first time. I was amazed at all of the other vehicle’s headlight reflections on most of the windows, windshield and inside rear view mirror. I must say, I hadn’t expected that. Does anyone know of a day/night mirror that would look original?
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11-05-2020, 07:01 AM | #2 |
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Re: Night ride
Do you have a shade in the back window? That’s what I use it does help some.
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11-05-2020, 07:19 AM | #3 |
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Re: Night ride
Opening the windshield helps some, other than that, how was your drive?
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11-05-2020, 07:20 AM | #4 |
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Re: Night ride
No shade, good idea. Thanks
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11-05-2020, 07:23 AM | #5 |
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Re: Night ride
Hammer, the drive was really fun when there wasn’t other traffic around. Next time, I’ll pick the back roads, not highways.
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11-05-2020, 07:43 AM | #6 |
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Re: Night ride
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11-05-2020, 11:26 AM | #7 |
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Re: Night ride
I find night driving tough also. Very little to do with the rear view mirror, all the vertical glass turns the car into a house of mirrors when brightly illuminated from bright headlights following close. Keep in mind nothing like 12V quartz Halogen existed in 1930. 2nd problem is when you're driving along fine with eyes adjusted to the 6V glow, which is plenty to light up the road if you're alone. Then a modern car comes at you from the other direction with modern headlights (high beams if you're really unlucky) and your vision is ruined for the next 15 seconds or so.
I like the originality, but would not make a regular habit of driving at night in an original car in any kind of populated area. |
11-05-2020, 12:42 PM | #8 |
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Re: Night ride
I had the rear window in my CCPU tinted (5%) for that very reason. That helps a whole bunch.
BTW, 5% tint is a really dark tint, only allows 5% of the light to get thru. It's what you see on the rear windows of modern SUV's.
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11-05-2020, 02:05 PM | #9 |
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Re: Night ride
Carl, that is a good idea-thanks.
Mike
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11-05-2020, 03:20 PM | #10 |
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Re: Night ride
I've gotten used to it, don't give it a second thought, however it was interesting at first. I grew up in an early 70's VW van, same thing there except not the windshield. When you get used to it you don't pay attention to the ghost lights.
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11-05-2020, 04:08 PM | #11 |
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Re: Night ride
Tinting the rear window, that’s a really good idea.
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11-05-2020, 04:18 PM | #12 |
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Re: Night ride
My understanding is that rear shade was installed to help reduce reflection back in the day.
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11-05-2020, 04:48 PM | #13 |
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Re: Night ride
Or was it for privacy while a guy and his girl were in the back seat???
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11-05-2020, 08:28 PM | #14 |
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Re: Night ride
Hey, Now the Tudor does have a pretty nice back seat.
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11-05-2020, 08:44 PM | #15 |
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Re: Night ride
I need to put a shade in mine. I currently have a piece of cardboard cut to the shape of the rear window and that does a great job for night driving. The reflections are definitely the worst part. With the new properly shaped reflectors I think the lights themselves are more than adequate.
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11-05-2020, 10:31 PM | #16 |
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Re: Night ride
It does get a bit better with time, after you get used to it, but can be very distracting at first!
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11-06-2020, 06:52 AM | #17 |
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Re: Night ride
The original rear window shade has a material that lets some light through it, but it eliminates the reflection on the windshield that gives the impression of an impending head-on collision.
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11-06-2020, 07:59 AM | #18 |
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Re: Night ride
Try one of those shades used to keep the sun off a baby in the back seat as a fix to stop the reflection. As to the original lights, I heard my uncle say about his Model A, that he had to strike a match to see if the headlights were on. He drove his A every day.
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11-06-2020, 08:16 AM | #19 |
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Re: Night ride
I had a beveled glass rear view mirror . It made the reflection much worse , changed to the original and it cut down the reflection a lot .
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11-06-2020, 09:02 AM | #20 |
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Re: Night ride
Cool moist night air,they run great..hop it up some,I don't get tailgated for long
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11-06-2020, 12:11 PM | #21 |
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Re: Night ride
I have a '30 Coupe. As my father likes to say, "all the windows are plumb." So yes, you get that 'hall of mirrors' effect. Just opening the front glass a little bit solves 90% of the problem. I also have a rear window shade which helps a lot. I do have add-on side mirrors, but the right side one is convex, so it is not so blinding.
I switched to Bratton's headlight reflectors which are excellent! However, I am still amazed that when I am driving down the road and a car with modern HID or LED headlights comes up behind me I can see the shadow of my own car in their headlight in front of me. Ken
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11-06-2020, 05:29 PM | #22 |
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Re: Night ride
In my experience with this, it's not just the headlights of cars behind me reflecting in the windscreen so they look like they are coming at you from the front, I see the tail lights of the cars in front in the rear vision mirror after they reflect off the back window and the headlights of oncoming cars there too. It all gets very confusing but you do get used to it (sort of)
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11-06-2020, 06:36 PM | #23 |
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Re: Night ride
For all of us with a pick up and no rear shade, I can feel your pain. "A house of mirrors" for sure. A long time ago I had a spray can of green auto window tint. Unless you remove the glass, it may be a runny mess as I recall, I used it on a '39 Plymouth with windows in the car. If time allows, I'll deal with all those screws and nuts, cut all my weather sealant to remove glass and lay it flat if they still sell the spray tint. (not green!)
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11-07-2020, 12:53 AM | #24 |
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Re: Night ride
Mine was tinted with a plastic film, the kind the professionals use on modern cars. Look up "window tinting" in your local area.
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11-07-2020, 01:06 AM | #25 |
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Re: Night ride
The shop that tinted mine wrote this on Facebook. along with the pictures. You can see the reflection of a semi that was parked behind it in the first picture.
We only tinted the back glass of this one. The object here was actually to reduce the glare coming in from the back window and reflected onto the windshield. Just a single application made a world of difference!
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11-07-2020, 06:12 PM | #26 |
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Re: Night ride
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11-08-2020, 12:09 AM | #27 |
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Re: Night ride
Wow, that does make a big difference Carl. Thanks for the idea.
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