Hi! I want to make my own 1 piece air deflector and was wondering if I need to make the indents. I would think with all the LED and halogen lights that they make they wouldn't be as deep as the old ones. Has anyone come across ones that might work?
Karl

 

I haven't seen anything for 56s that could use the 53-55 air deflectors. I'm following to see how your one piece build goes.

 

Can't answer the "if" part but I can help you with the "when/how" part.
I designed/fabricated the core support for my 56 to accommodate the cross flow radiator I was using. I had the air deflectors fabricated from 14 ga steel, a bit of overkill but they are very stout. I needed clearance for the halogen euro lights I was using so indents were in order. Rather than trying to stamp them into the steel as was done at the factory, I cut a round opening in the deflector and used structural adhesive to bond a stainless steel bowl in place. Perfect indent, no welding, no warpage, no rust, cheap. Here is a pic of a bowl, find one that is the size you need and you are good to go...


Here is a pic of my core support prior to the addition of the indents (needed to get the grille mounted so I could tell where to place them). This is not a "1-piece" support but it does have a single substructure that the radiator and air deflectors mount onto.

 

CharlieLed what is your bumper from? Did you have to modify it?

 

Tri five Chevy truck...here is a chromed one on my buddy's 56. And yes they do need to be massaged

 

Very nice!!

 

Not to hijack the thread, but what brackets did you use for the Tri-5 bumper install? Totally custom or modified stockers?

Also, great idea on using the stainless bowls. Very cool.

 

The Chevy bumper has a bracket that fits the contour of the bumper bar. I welded this bracket to the bumper bar at the proper location to fit the F100 frame and welded an extension piece (3/8ths bar stock as I recall) to the bracket that fit nicely inside the F100 frame. In the time since that photo was taken I welded in SS mounting bolts, smoothed the face of the bumper bar and had it chrome plated.

 

Charlie, I like your idea with the bowls, but I would have thought there were "slimmer" lights out there by now. I will have to ask Google a bit more to find out.

 

The lights go in the pots and they are what require the clearance in the air deflectors.

 

There is an issue with physics...the light source, whether it is incandescent, halogen, LED, etc. must be at a specified distance from the reflector within the headlight assembly. This drives the depth...and as John has said, the buckets remain the same depth without regard for the bulb. However, I have looked at modifying the buckets to fit the wind deflector space without an indent but so far no luck.