Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

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Jan Kolm
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#16 Post by Jan Kolm »

For Hella, U=1959; for Bosch, U=1963. What I cannot tell from Roy's photo is whether the bucket is painted silver or matte gray.

I have a bucket dated 5th week of 1960 (5V) that's painted gray.
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Brad Ripley
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#17 Post by Brad Ripley »

Jan, Thanks, I looked at the Bosch rather than the Hella list.

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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#18 Post by Brad Ripley »

now, how abut the further question .......... How about the question: When was the little parking light eliminated ? Or, earliest date code on the back of such light unit? Just for USA bound cars? or ROW cars got the one with the parking light?

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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#19 Post by Brad Ripley »

Thanks to Roy Smalley of Eurowerks out in Texas for sending me an original sample of the now-famous parking light blankout plate -- see photos below. It's phenolic 25,00 x 25,00 x 1,75 silver paint about color of wiper arms.
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Martin Benade
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#20 Post by Martin Benade »

Is it really phenolic, or something that absorbs water, like a high grade cardboard? That sample appears swelled up a bit, like old cardboard that almost stayed dry.
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#21 Post by Brad Ripley »

For sure, the piece I have here is phenolic and the paint is flacking off -- and the paint was applied after it was put in place. But I'd to see more of these because I remember some being of metal of some sort.

Anybody else see these in old headlights laying around?

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Jim Breazeale
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#22 Post by Jim Breazeale »

Brad Ripley wrote:now, how abut the further question .......... How about the question: When was the little parking light eliminated ? Or, earliest date code on the back of such light unit? Just for USA bound cars? or ROW cars got the one with the parking light?
Brad

I can't add much to this discussion that hasn't already been said. I do believe that the little light was eliminated late in the 63 356B production.
The adjustment screws were at 5 and 7 and changed to 2 and 7 for the 65 year model cars,. That may not have occurred until after production of 65 year model cars started, though. My "findings" are purely from personal observation. I'm pretty sure that no replacement headlights were sold from Porsche that didn't contain the "little light". In other words, when you damaged an original "no little light" headlight assy, it was replaced with one from VW.

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Jim
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#23 Post by Jim Breazeale »

Brad Ripley wrote:For sure, the piece I have here is phenolic and the paint is flacking off -- and the paint was applied after it was put in place. But I'd to see more of these because I remember some being of metal of some sort.

Anybody else see these in old headlights laying around?
Brad

I have the same piece that I just took out of a Hella headlight assy with a date stamp of W3 (3rd week of 1961) the piece is deteriorated like the one from Roy. My guess is that they were painted silver before installation and it is some kind of treated paper or cardboard. The silver paint is on both sides, too. The only metal blank outs that I have seen came from Repro headlights.
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Edwin Ek
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#24 Post by Edwin Ek »

In the late summer of 1964, my dad picked up a C coupe at the factory. It had the parking light bulbs installed in the headlights, not the blankout plates.
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Martin Benade
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#25 Post by Martin Benade »

I see the phenolic electrical insulator fared much better over the years than the blankout plate, showing that the blankout is something much less durable.
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#26 Post by Brad Ripley »

Before, I said "for sure" -- I was wrong; the piece is actually some sort of cardboard as Martin suggested above. Jack Staggs called me and said inside door panels/cards seems to be the same stuff; at least he cuts the little pieces out for the headlights because about the same thickness and silver color. Anybody confirm or have a better idea?

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Jim Nelson
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Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

#27 Post by Jim Nelson »

We took a look at quite a number of them before we tried to duplicate the little bit, and ended up with a fiberboard bit that we ..ah... imposed some texture on with some properly sized knurled tools. All of the other real ones that we looked at had that feature, so we thought it was duplicating the original faithfully.
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