Hella headlights Pre A October 1954

[Aurelio Faccilongo]

Ciao to all ! I would like your opinion about this Hella headlights. they are mounted on my Pre A cab Imported to USA from Mr Hoffman in October 1954. Do you think are the right ones?
Thanks a lot
Aurelio

[James Davies]

Ciao Aurelio,

The glass in your headlights is not original. The early glass is very simple - small Hella logo at the bottom with a vestigal oval in the center of the glass.

The chrome trim looks like 1954. The 1954 assemblies had 2 rivets.

The assemblies themselves look like the 1955 and later type. The transition to this type occured sometime between 1954 and 1955. Perhaps these are correct for your car!

You can remove the headlights and look at the back side. There will be a Hella part number such as 180 E 25-4-SB. And then there will be a date code, WWY, where WW=week number, and Y=year. So 05N = 5th week of 1955. M=1954. L=1953.

Photos below of 1953 and 1955 models. Notice the difference in how the springs work. I think the change was sometime in 1954 or early 1955. Perhaps your headlights can provide a clue. =)

[Aurelio Faccilongo]

Thanks James,by chance have you some photos to show me ? So it woul be easier for me to find the right ones

[Jan Kolm]

The driver's side bucket is correct for 1954; the passenger side is the 1955-63 design.

[James Davies]

Good eye Jan. I was thrown off by the extra 2 holes punched in the '54 bucket behind the drain hole. It should not have these two holes. These holes were for the spring arrangement on the 1955+ buckets.

Aurelio, pull off both your headlights and have a look on the back. Snap some photos and share. Your driver side headlight should look like my '53 one. The other one will look like the '55 one in my photos above.

The 1954 Porsche sealed beam Hella headlights (all USA models):
- adjusters at 4 and 9 o'clock, with coil springs around long adjusting screws (like in the photo of the 1953 ones above)
- bucket is black on backside, silver elsewhere. Date code of 01M to 52M.
- chrome ring has two rivets holding the tab on the bottom. Inner edge rolled like the '53 and earlier single-rivet ones?
- lens has "Hella" logo very small at the bottom and a ~7cm oval in the center. Rainer Cooney has reproduced these lenses.

Image below of this same lens on an early '56 coupe.

[Donald Zingg]

James,

Adjuster screws on the rim at 4 and 8 o'clock - - -

[James Davies]

James,

Adjuster screws on the rim at 4 and 8 o'clock - - -

Correct, the screw is at 4 and 8 like all the 1950s Hella headlights, but the connection of the '53 and earlier adjustment to the actual ring that holds the bulb itself is at 4 and 9. You can see it clearly in Aurelio's photo of the driver-side headlight, in where the tab attaches to the ring that holds the sealed beam. This is unique to the '54 and earlier Hella headlights. I should have been clearer what I meant.

See photo below showing these adjusters.

Not sure exactly when these changed. Sometime in '54? Don, do you know if any of the first Speedsters had headlights like this?

[Jan Kolm]

James,

Adjuster screws on the rim at 4 and 8 o'clock - - -

Correct, the screw is at 4 and 8 like all the 1950s Hella headlights, but the connection of the '53 and earlier adjustment to the actual ring that holds the bulb itself is at 4 and 9. You can see it clearly in Aurelio's photo of the driver-side headlight, in where the tab attaches to the ring that holds the sealed beam. This is unique to the '54 and earlier Hella headlights. I should have been clearer what I meant.

See photo below showing these adjusters.

Not sure exactly when these changed. Sometime in '54? Don, do you know if any of the first Speedsters had headlights like this?

From what I've seen on VW assemblies, Hella changed over to the new design around February or March 1955...

[Donald Zingg]

Here are a couple period photos showing the Hella headlight design on 2 different Speedsters produced in December 1954. Both headlights shown are the earlier version James described.

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[James Davies]

Thanks Jan & Don! Looks like early '55 is consistent with the VW and Porsche data. Thanks!

One last question, was the chrome trim ring on the '54 headlights the same as the 55 ones? For the '53 and earlier ones, in addition to having a single rivet securing the tab and an engraved Hella logo, they also have rolled edges on the inner and outer part of the ring. The later '55 ones have only the outer part rolled. Are the '54 chrome rings rolled on both edges, or just the outer edge like the '55 and later ones?

[Jan Kolm]

Thanks Jan & Don! Looks like early '55 is consistent with the VW and Porsche data. Thanks!

One last question, was the chrome trim ring on the '54 headlights the same as the 55 ones? For the '53 and earlier ones, in addition to having a single rivet securing the tab and an engraved Hella logo, they also have rolled edges on the inner and outer part of the ring. The later '55 ones have only the outer part rolled. Are the '54 chrome rings rolled on both edges, or just the outer edge like the '55 and later ones?

The later, double-rivet '54 rings have inner rolled edges, but no Hella logo. However, they have an engraved arrow that lines up with the index mark at the bottom of the lens. These rings may have been superseded by those with the non-rolled edge (and without the arrow) by the end of 1954.

[James Davies]

Thanks Jan! That helps.

[Aurelio Faccilongo]

Hello , I finally managed to photograph the headlights of my car. As you can see from the photos below they are different.
In the right one I can not decipher the year well. What do you think about?
Ciao
Aurelio

[Aurelio Faccilongo]

I try to put more photos...

[Jan Kolm]

For those wondering, the passenger-side bucket was manufactured 37th week of 1962. This is a good data point, as the blanking plate for the 356A/VW parking light hole is gone by this time.

The second digit for the driver's side date code is unreadable. However, the year (3rd character) appears to be a very faint "L" (1953). This bucket originally came with the single-rivet chrome rim w/ the Hella logo. This headlight may or may not be original to an Oct 1954 build. There can be a variation of several months between the build dates on the headlights and car.