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Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 5:49 pm
by Brad Ripley
Some US 356's were shipped with sealed beam headlights where the Euro parking light bulb hole was blanked out with a sort of plate. Maybe this plate was cardboard or metal. Anybody out there know any more about such a plate and/or have a photo?

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:05 pm
by Gary Carriveau
Brad,
My '64 C Coupe (215XXX) has them on both sealed beam headlight buckets. They look to be metal but I am not certain.
IIRC my previous 64 C Coupe (owned in the 60's) had the same.
I have no means of taking a picture at this time.

Gary

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:46 pm
by Mike Wilson
I've seen both cardboard and metal but I think the cardboard, painted silver, is original.

Mike

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 12:22 am
by Jan Kolm
my '61 parts car had fiberboard blanking plates, covered with a piece of silver-coated, reinforced paper tape that deteriorated over time. These blanking plates were used on U.S. market 356s from 1960 into the 1962 model year.

Safelite uses a silver-coated, reinforced masking tape for windshield replacements that is an exact match for the tape originally used to cover the blanking plates.

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:23 am
by Doug McDonnell
Brad You might want to contact Jim Nelson: See picture in his 60 Cab Project link: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=41099&start=30

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:57 am
by Jan Kolm
Jim's blanking plate, as shown in his restoration thread, is dead-on correct.

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 5:26 pm
by Brad Ripley
Thanks to all for the connection to the Jim Nelson photos. And now ..... How about the question of when was the little parking light eliminated ? or, earliest date code on the back of the light unit? Jan, you're the expert on date code questions!

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 5:55 pm
by Doug McDonnell
I thought the parking light was a European vs USA car thing. But have nothing to back that up.

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:37 pm
by Craig Richter
Brad, is it really worth it to reproduce these little widgets? Jan's description is right on, just thin cardboard and don't last very long. You can cut them out of some thin aluminum in just a few minutes. Drill one hole to attach, finish to suit, outlive any of us.

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:05 pm
by Mike Wilson
Reproduction of parts that look and fit right are always a plus. It would of course boil down to demand and cost.

Mike

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:10 pm
by Roy Smalley
Fiber board not cardboard. Printed silver not painted. I can probably dig one out and send you.

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:30 pm
by Mike Wilson
Awesome! It could then be accurately reproduced.

Mike

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:15 am
by Dave Wildrick
Here are a couple of posts on this subject that I saved from 1999 (guru Brett Johnson) and 2006 (Steve Douglas), respectively.
They may shed additional light (no pun intended) on the issue at hand:

[Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 20:17:10 +0000
From: Brett Johnson <356drb@indy.net>
To: "Janet E. Matthews" <jedin@bright.net>
Cc: 356Talk <356talk@356registry.org>
Subject: Re: Headlights
Message-ID: <375D7A44.215E@indy.net>

For those who think we have been here before, it is no coincidence.

Here's the skinny... U.S. spec. 356A cars with teardrop tail lights have
sealed beam headlight units made by Hella. They have a small running
light bulb fitted in front of the sealed beam bulb.

If you'd like more information about other headlight units on other
models, I can recommend a book that has all kinds of similar things.

Brett Johnson]


[From: Steve Douglas <soquelglen@prodigy.net>
To: Janet and David <jedin@bright.net>, 356Talk@356registry.org
Subject: Re: [356Talk] When did parking lights in headlights move to combine
with turn signals
Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 15:42:17 -0700 (PDT)

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

I guess you are talking the US sealed beam style headlights, not the Euro
type. The parking lights have been in and out of the headlight 3 times.
First of the early cars to have consistant sealed beam lights were about 53,
using VW units with plain glass lenses to meet the US standards. Then in
about mid 54 the lights without the parking lights came into use and lasted
until 56 model. In 56 thru the end of 59 they were in inside the headlight
bucket. Starting in the B the parking lights were part of the turnsignal.
The early B's 1960 had a peice of grey painted cardboard inserted into the
hole where previously had been the parking light. Later B units had a metal
filler plate. The final version was no hint of the hole just a smooth
bottom.]

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:01 pm
by Roy Smalley
Shot of HL assembly and the "plate". Both sides silver. Fiber board. 1 inch square.

Suspect these were also used in VW HL's

Re: Blank out plate for sealed beam headlight

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:24 am
by Brad Ripley
Date code on the back of Roy's light is for 33rd week of 1963.