Modern Rodding Tech

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1. We stopped off at Hot Rods by Dean and enlisted the help of Dean Livermore for the ’37 Ford taillight project on our ’28 Ford pickup. Needed something smoother than a stocker lamp.

1. We stopped off at Hot Rods by Dean and enlisted the help of Dean Livermore for the ’37 Ford taillight project on our ’28 Ford pickup. Needed something smoother than a stocker lamp.

Sometimes it Truly is Better to be Seen

The Venerable ’37 Ford Taillight Finds a Home Bringing up the Rear of a Model A Pickup

By Brian Brennan Photography by The Author

T

here’s an old adage about “being seen and not heard.” Well, that has a significant impact (excuse the pun) when you are driving a hot rod and the subject are your taillights. In this day and age it really doesn’t matter how many taillights your hot rod came with, you should have two and if at all possible the LED style with their incredible brightness is an ideal way to go. When building our ’28 Ford Model A pickup there was little doubt that two taillights would be far better than a single. But we didn’t want to go with a Model A type twice over. What to do? In talking it over with Dean Livermore of Hot Rods by Dean he suggested a pair of ’37 Ford taillights. He has done this exact swap a number of times in the past and it always turns out to be very good looking. So, we did it.

Back in the day a Model A would have had a single taillight from the factory but it was a common practice for Ford to recommend to dealers to install a second taillight on Model As as a way of selling more product and boosting safety. It was also recognizing the fact that several states had already mandated that all new cars sold should have two taillights. The proverbial handwriting was on the wall. It wouldn’t be long before all Detroit-produced iron would have two taillights.

In this story we opted to have Livermore handle the chore of fabricating the necessary mounts to hold a pair of ’37 Ford taillights onto the Model A pickup. The venerable ’37 taillight is no stranger to the hot rod world as it has found its way onto many a build. (One of the many topflight builders who would use the ’37 ’light often was Barry Lobeck. I witnessed many of his builds with this compact and good-looking fixture.) The light is compact and well-shaped, making it a great addition to the tail end of any hot rod. With the advent of the LED taillight, brightness is no longer an issue and they historically last longer than the traditional #1157 dual filament bulb with a lumen ratio of 10 to 1 in favor of the LED.

We visited our Speedway Motors catalog and came away with a pair of ’37 taillights, one for the passenger side that didn’t have the license plate LED bulbs within (PN 911-37091-R and 911-37091-L). These lights are 12V and come with three wires: green for stop/turn, black for taillight, and white for ground. These lights can be ordered separately, but should you need two make sure to get one for use with a license plate should the lighting be needed. They come with 17 super-bright-red LEDs, the one requiring light for a license plate comes with six white bulbs, a polycarbonate lens, and solid-state circuit boards designed for 7.7 to 14.0 V/DC.

Follow along with the photos and you will see how we mounted each taillight and addressed the lighting for the license plate. We think you will agree that this is an excellent solution for any hot rod that doesn’t have fenders but needs to resolve the taillight situation.

’37 Ford taillight from Speedway Motors (PN 911-37091-R or 911-37091-R)
2. There are several options on the ’37 Ford taillight from Speedway Motors (PN 911-37091-R or 911-37091-R). The driver side has white LEDs for use with a license plate while the passenger side is all red.
a license plate holder from Speedway Motors
3. We also rounded up a license plate holder from Speedway Motors.
view of taillight, front down, clipped to the license plate
4. In its prescribed fashion the taillight with its license plate light will need to be spun around 180 degrees as the light and plate are changing perspective to one another from their original use. More on this later.
front view of taillight clipped to the license plate
5. The way the system will work on our Model A is it will have the ’37 taillight above the plate, hence the light must shine out of the bottom of the light when it is installed.
using masking tape the taillight is held in place on the vehicle rear
6. Get out the masking tape and figure out where you want the taillight to ride (position and height) before doing anything else.
mechanic trims down the taillight stand
7. The taillight stand as we obtained it from Speedway Motors needed to be trimmed down in order to give us a snug fit in tight to the body. Over to the band saw with our measurements in hand.
mechanic uses a grinder in hand to clean the rough cut on the taillight stand

8. With grinder in hand we cleaned up the rough cut made to the taillight stand.

view of the taillight stand with the base cut free

9. With the stand base cut free, as it will not be used going forward.

mechanic judges positioning of the taillight on the cars rear
10. Now comes the time to fit the stand to the body and the taillight housing to one another. Here you will be judging positioning.
Dean Livermore of Hot Rods by Dean checks the height and spacing of the taillight housing
11. Here Livermore of Hot Rods by Dean is checking height and spacing of the taillight housing and license plate with respect to its clearance from the bed.
Livermore determines an area of the taillight stand that needs cutting, marking it with a sharpie
12. Livermore has determined in order to get taillight and license plate in the right place the stand will need to be drawn in closer to the body and that will necessitate the stand having a pie piece of metal cut from it.
close view of the pie piece of metal that needs to be cut from the taillight stand
13. Close-up view of the pie-cut piece of metal to be removed.
view of the taillight stand mid-cutting, note the stand base is secured to a piece of wood
14. Note the base is drawn in; welding is the next step.
mechanic welding the taillight stand
15. The stand is welded up and ready to be attached to the body.
the base of the taillight is traced in trace on the car rear
16. The base pattern was transferred to the body and a pilot hole was marked.
using a drill motor the mechanic creates a pilot hole on the car rear
17. Break out the handy-dandy drill motor and begin with a pilot hole followed by a full-diameter hole that will accept the two mounting bolts.
taillight stand is held in place by a clamp in preparation for drilling
18. Drill pilot hole and then the master hole into the location on the rear of the frame.
the taillight housing is test-fitted to the mounting stem
19. Test-fit the taillight housing to the mounting stem. Note the housing in this application is mounted “upside down” so that the lighting hole is facing downward toward the plate. The top hole is the position where the normal mounting arm would have attached.
side/front view of the taillight installed and the license plate below
20. Speedway Motors supplies the red polycarbonate lens, which covers the LED that has red and six white license plate lights. The passenger side has 17 super-bright-red LEDs.
Livermore uses a measuring tape to transfer the driver side measurements to the passenger side
21. Once the driver side, in our case, was positioned Livermore transfers the driver side measurements to the passenger side before attaching the passenger side taillight.
the passenger side taillight stand is installed
22. The passenger side is the same process as driver side with regards to making the taillight stand.
the passenger side taillight housing is test-fitted to the mounting stem
23. Stand and taillight housing are fit for final placement.
view of the passenger side taillight installed and ready for body and paint work
24. Here is the passenger side taillight finished and ready for a little body- and paintwork. Note no consideration for license plate, making this side go much quicker.
full rear view of the '37 Ford with newly installed taillights from Speedway Motors
25. When dealing with a fenderless truck or car of any type taillights can present a problem. The ’37 Ford taillight is the perfect solution and Speedway Motors was the perfect source. (Sneak peek at the rear cycle fenders that were made up while at Hot Rods by Dean. Upcoming story.)
SOURCES
Speedway Motors
(800) 979-0122
speedwaymotors.com
Hot Rods by Dean
(623) 581-1932
hotrodsbydean.com
Modern Rodding
VOLUME 2 • ISSUE 14 • 2021
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