Olds Park Lamps for Task Force Trucks

SIGNAL SURPRISE

Sometimes it’s largely the little things that’ll separate a custom creation from a restrained restoration. As we might’ve mentioned last time, our ongoing ’55 Second Series Chevrolet project won’t be heavily customized. There’ll be a few custom touches here andthere,however,whichwe’rehoping might take Task Force authorities by surprise. If we can just trigger some head scratching, we’ll consider that part of our mission accomplished.

NewOlds ParkLamps forEarly TaskForce Trucks

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1. There’s nothing really wrong with the stock bullet-shaped park lamps. We know that Brothers stocks new ones but this time that might be too easy.

2. For now we’ll borrow bits and pieces from our own ’55 Olds. We’re thinking its reverse lamps will flow nicely with the eyebrows of early Task Force fenders.

3. To this point we haven’t shared our plan with the project truck’s owner. Partly for a visual presentation of sorts, we’re rigging a temporary fender fixture.

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To catch us up, we’re still in the bodyworking phases of the build. With the cab in first-round primer we’re focused on a mix of originalequipment and reproduction panels with front fenders receiving attention at this time. While we’re working on fenders anyway, let’s go on and add another little custom touch.

Apart from two tiny glass lenses and their two related gaskets, we’ve already got the makings for smoother-appearing, less-recognizable park lamp assemblies. If you’ve put in your time scrounging through older wrecking yards you might identify these as ’54-55 Oldsmobile. If by chance you know them also as ’58 Chevrolet station wagon or sedan delivery, you’re good.

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4. Here’s the photo we used for the pitch—and it worked! We’ve got the green light, but we’re still lacking lenses to complete our assemblies.

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“Bauman’s to the circuit,

’55 Olds a pair of reverse lamp lenses!” Well, that’s how we used to locate parts, anyway. Today it’s kind of like I’m talking to myself.

6. Of course we’ve known the source for reproduction Olds parts. For two tiny lenses and related gaskets we’ve stepped up, but we’re mostly just glad we could get them.

7. To guide a hole saw with a 1/4-inch pilot bit we’ll be tack-welding something to the backside. First, for the new Brothers fender we’ll remove this bit of EDP coating.

8. A 3-inch Scotch-Brite Roloc disc on a house-brand angle die grinder has stripped this spot in seconds. For the less-accessible area we’re removing the coating in a manual manner.

9. These aren’t fender washers. They’re leftover slugs, perhaps from the last time we used a hole saw. For proper guidance their existing holes are a tight 1/4 inch.

10. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve got them centered, the guide slugs are firmly clamped into position.

11. This is a job for the designated welder, Mrs. Rotten. “Oh

honey, just give me three tack-zaps per hole. ”

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12. At times like these it’s good to have a fairly new, sharp set of house-brand hole saws. For this it looks as though the 2 1/2 incher will be just about right.

13. All chucked-up in a compatible pneumatic drill, the hole saw takes a spin. Since our guide slugs have predrilled 1/4-inch holes, we can’t hardly go wrong here.

14. One more hole to cut. This guide slug has done its job, but it does look as though we’ll have some sharp edges.

15. There’s an actual de-burring tool here, but lately I tend to favor this house-brand file set. With a half-round bastard let’s de-burr (bastardize) our sharp edges.

16. Four more holes to drill. For proper clocking we’ll need to secure our new Olds park lamp buckets in line with our fender fronts’ vertical seams.

17. In this instance, familiar-looking house-brand welding magnets just might do the job on their own.

18. Even so, we’ve gone on to waste some masking tape. With lamp buckets secured, let’s now drill our mounting holes—about 1/8 inch at a time.

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Being about the same outside diameter as the stock-type ’55-57 Chevrolet truck park lamps, our pieced-together Oldsmobile assemblies should swap in fairly easily. Still, this might work best on a mocked-up truck.

Here our project is in pieces. It’s not a good time to bolt the front group back together, but we can fashion a fender fixture for what we’ll need to do. With fenders aligned, at least with one another, this’ll begin as a matter of enlarging two holes.

Not to change it too much, but let’s head this off before we commence with the step-by-step portion of our story: A short while or two back, a reader fired off a newfangled electronic letter. Toward the end of the letter he pointed out that yours truly had “dropped” the name of one particular sponsor three times in one tech story. Now I’m here to testify, that’s not true. It was four times!

Way out here in Northwestern Montana we’re not exactly the first to receive much of anything. So, when Harbor Freight came to nearby Kalispell, it was just what our car crowd was clamoring for. On that note, especially for my newest potential pen pal who’s literally counting on me, I’ll be using Harbor Freight (this shop’s house brand) items darn-near exclusively throughout the following procedure. Our subject truck’s new left fender, however, is from Brothers Trucks. CTP

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19. As we loosely snug our new Olds park/signal lamp assemblies down for a look, we’re pleased. To make these dual-purpose we’ll convert for dualfilament 1157 bulbs.

20. The bulb conversion won’t be so technical, so let’s move toward the point. In the end we believe we’ve gained a smoother visual flow between head lamps and park lamps.

SOURCES

BROTHERS TRUCKS (800) 977-2767

brotherstrucks.com

HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS (800) 423-2567

harborfreight.com