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Old 12-03-2010, 10:37 PM   #1
dennis33
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Default 33-34 ford pickup

Does anybody know if any body makes a dropped headlight bar for a 33-34 pickup. Any information appreciated. Thanks Dennis
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Old 12-04-2010, 12:07 AM   #2
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

Nobody does. Go to HAMB. Bet that's never been said.
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Old 12-04-2010, 12:45 AM   #3
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

A quick search on Google came up with this thread:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=236860
Drake makes the dropped headlight bar.
http://store.bobdrake.com/19dropheadba4.html
From what it looks like, you need to bend the bar a smidge to get it to clear the grill, but it will work.
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Old 12-04-2010, 01:22 AM   #4
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

What is it with the dropped headlight bar??? A friend bought a 32 and the first thing he had to do was buy a dropped headlight bar. I personally think a full fendered 32 looks at best with the original bar. It looks scrunched and out of proportion with the dropped bar. Is it, I got a dropped headlight bar now I have a hotrod?
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Old 12-04-2010, 08:17 AM   #5
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

It is the butcher mentality! It is very hard to improve on Edsel Ford's genius!
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Old 12-04-2010, 09:19 AM   #6
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

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Chisel,Its to each his own. Be pretty boring if everybodys car looked the same, and im building it for me not somebody else.
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Old 12-04-2010, 09:29 AM   #7
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

I have used the 32 bar on 2 of the customer 33/34 pus I butchered up. Dam hot rodders. Where's my saw? I got another top to cut!!!!!
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Old 12-04-2010, 09:29 AM   #8
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

Phoenixfear, Thanks for the information, appreciate it.
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Old 12-04-2010, 11:07 AM   #9
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chisel View Post
What is it with the dropped headlight bar??? A friend bought a 32 and the first thing he had to do was buy a dropped headlight bar. I personally think a full fendered 32 looks at best with the original bar. It looks scrunched and out of proportion with the dropped bar. Is it, I got a dropped headlight bar now I have a hotrod?

I agree. I like the stock bar better.The dropped bar makes it look like a cookie cutter hot rod. Same with chopping a top...trying to be different years ago but now they all look alike chopped. Newbies think they HAVE to chop a top and drop a headlite bar to be cool but they end up just being conformist to the likes of everyone else.
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Old 12-04-2010, 04:45 PM   #10
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Smile Re: 33-34 ford pickup

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Originally Posted by 34pickup View Post
I agree. I like the stock bar better.The dropped bar makes it look like a cookie cutter hot rod. Same with chopping a top...trying to be different years ago but now they all look alike chopped. Newbies think they HAVE to chop a top and drop a headlite bar to be cool but they end up just being conformist to the likes of everyone else.
I happen to be 65 grew up with rods and and chopped tops and like them. I dont like stock myself but dont feel like it is my place to tell somebody how to build their car ( if they even built it their self) What sets your car apart from everybody elses? RAT RODS arent my thing either but i look at them and there is some real talent put into some of them. Well I think i will get back to work on my CHOPPED pu. Have a nice day
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Old 12-04-2010, 06:24 PM   #11
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

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Originally Posted by dennis33 View Post
I happen to be 65 grew up with rods and and chopped tops and like them. I dont like stock myself but dont feel like it is my place to tell somebody how to build their car ( if they even built it their self) What sets your car apart from everybody elses? RAT RODS arent my thing either but i look at them and there is some real talent put into some of them. Well I think i will get back to work on my CHOPPED pu. Have a nice day
Hit a nerve? I was not directing my comments to you specifically; I did not even notice before that your avatar was a chopped truck. That was merely my opinion.I like them both ways but I see more chopped tops than stock tops lately and was stating my observation.Don't be so defensive,my opinion won't change your world one way or the other.
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Old 12-04-2010, 07:05 PM   #12
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chisel View Post
What is it with the dropped headlight bar??? A friend bought a 32 and the first thing he had to do was buy a dropped headlight bar. I personally think a full fendered 32 looks at best with the original bar. It looks scrunched and out of proportion with the dropped bar. Is it, I got a dropped headlight bar now I have a hotrod?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimTN View Post
It is the butcher mentality! It is very hard to improve on Edsel Ford's genius!
Butcher mentality.

The headlight bar is one of the few things that I think Ford didn't get quite right on the '32. Stock, it makes the headlights sit up too high and look out of proportion like a couple of bug eyes. The dropped bars bring the headlights back down and in-line with the aesthetically pleasing "Rule of 1/3s".

Example with stock bar:


Example with dropped bar:


(and with guidelines drawn):
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Old 12-04-2010, 09:34 PM   #13
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

I’m taking the politicians approach to the headlight bar debate.

This is Roy Desbrow's '32 pickup which was built at Mitchell's Muffler shop in Pasadena. It was featured in Hot Rod Magazine in January 1952 and is probably responsible for more '32-'34 pickups being butchered than any other hot rod pickup in history. Roy’s pickup was voted one of the top 50 all-time ‘32 Ford hot rods. I just don't think this pickup would look right without a dropped headlight bar.

The other photo of an original '34 pickup displays about as nice of a pickup that has ever been designed. I think a person would be insane to butcher one of these works of art, I couldn’t do it. I like the original headlight bar, it looks just fine on the stock pickup.

I agree with both sides of the dropped headlight bar issue, that is why if I had the money and the room I would buy a stock '34 pickup and restore it and an already chopped ’34 pickup and build a fifties era hot rod. I love them both ways.
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File Type: jpg '34 pickup.jpg (94.1 KB, 46 views)
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Old 12-04-2010, 10:11 PM   #14
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

[QUOTE=itslow;121770]Butcher mentality.

The headlight bar is one of the few things that I think Ford didn't get quite right on the '32. Stock, it makes the headlights sit up too high and look out of proportion like a couple of bug eyes. The dropped bars bring the headlights back down and in-line with the aesthetically pleasing "Rule of 1/3s".


/QUOTE]

Thankyou for the rational response.
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Old 12-04-2010, 10:40 PM   #15
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

I wonder if even the Ford stylists had second thoughts about the height of the headlamps. By 1933 the bar was revised and the lamps mount lower on the '33-'34 trucks. On a Deuce the lamp is higher than the beltline, while the later trucks have the lamp lower. Same body, but a different look.
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Old 12-05-2010, 05:00 PM   #16
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

I wonder if it didn't have anything to do with Ford's stylists, but was dictated by the DOT to position the headlights lower, Byron.
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Old 12-05-2010, 05:55 PM   #17
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

First check the name on the registration. If it matches yours, you can do whatever you want. My son has an original dropped bar (Peter Eastwood) on his 32 Pickup and I have one on my 34 pickup and will have one on my 33 Panel. I feel that it looks better on these particular trucks, and they are ours.
The question was "where to get one". I do not like the aftermarket dropped
bars that are probably made in China? I like real stuff that has been reworked
but not necessarily "butchered"... It is as they say a "matter of personal taste."

Eastwood might still be doing them, but only does them in batches. I will not
post his contact info, but anyone should be able to find a way to contact him.
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Old 12-05-2010, 06:04 PM   #18
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

Quote:
Originally Posted by Byron Warwick View Post
I wonder if it didn't have anything to do with Ford's stylists, but was dictated by the DOT to position the headlights lower, Byron.



I looked in a '37 and a '39 California vehicle code book and they do not list a headlight height requirement. Other states could have had height requirements?

What's neat about these Vehicle code books is they are only an 1/8 inch thick and only 2 1/2 pages of them are about vehicle equipment requirements. You could do anything you wanted to your car as long as it had brakes that could stop at 40 mph in 148 feet, a horn, a windshield and a rearview mirror.


In the late 40s or early 50s California was giving hot rodders tickets for headlights being too low. One old-timer told me he borrowed a friends 700/16 rear tires and bolted them on the front of his '32 highboy roadster so it would raise the headlights enough to get the ticket signed off.

Last edited by Flathead Fever; 12-05-2010 at 06:17 PM.
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Old 12-05-2010, 06:49 PM   #19
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

I would prefer to drop an original headlight barb rather than buy a repro also.

There have been a few articles written on how to drop a headlight bar.

Street Rodder, November 1978, pg.26. Two page article showing Pete Eastwood dropping a ‘32 headlight bar using a porta power hydraulic jack and a heavy duty jig. Real nice photos of the jig he built. If you did not want to tackle the job yourself I would give Pete a call, as far as I know he is still working on hot rods. Sorry, I don’t have his phone number.

Street Rodder, May 1992, pg. 176. Street Rodder ran the same 1978 Pete Eastwood headlight bar dropping article.

American Rodder August 1996, pg. 44. Vern Tardel dropping a ‘32 headlight bar using a torch, a piece of angle iron and a vice.
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Old 12-05-2010, 09:24 PM   #20
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Default Re: 33-34 ford pickup

Thanks to everybody for the information!! Dennis33
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