The "eyebrow" of which you speak is part of the grille and not part of the headlight door. The headlight door on the 56 is stainless steel and is symetrical all the way around the edge.

 

The headlight bucket of the 53 grill is attached to the outer edge by 4 screws as seen in the picture. There is a ring tab that is secured with rivets to the outer edge of the grill. The headlight door ring is attached to the outer edge of the grille with a single screw to the ring tab. I believe the 56 grille has an outer lip of steel that surrounds the portion of the grille where the bucket, identical to the 53, is attached with four screws similarly. The 56 has two grille clips which are secured with rivets. These clips serve the same function as the ring tab in the 53 to support the headlight retainer, an inner ring in the case of the 56. Call me crazy but I don't see how recessing the existing bucket will accomplish the effect seen in the artist's rendering. I'm thinking something along the lines mentioned by merc546 is what we're seeing rendered here. In this case it looks like they weld in a new bucket and use different headlamps as well rather that the stock bucket and headlamps of the 53-56. Additionally it looks pretty pricey $300+ Hagan Street Rods

 

Like the looks of this mod and stainless bowls for headlight recess some of you guys astound me with your creative artwork.

 

I was indeed talking about the grill shell not the headlamp ring when I said it had a small eyebrow. Next time I hope to make myself clearer.

Thanks, Chuck

 

or, you take the buckets off a 56 grill and transplant them to the earlier model
(by buckets I mean everything where the light is positioned..) these are just spot welded on to the grill crossbars.

the actual light recepticle for the 56 is a tiny bit smaller on the outside edge than the 55.. ( as I had to grind this down for my 55 light sockets to fit in my 56 grill)..

Sam

 

I guess that I just missed the relevance of your comment since this discussion is about headlight doors.

Sam, you have it right. Take the 56 bucket, ring, lamp, and door and move it to the 53 grille. If there is metal in the way, remove it. If metal needs to be added, add it.
Hagan makes a number of add on "enhancements" for various vehicles...for my money I would rather use a Ford OEM part that I can buy from any number of sources (wrecking yard, CL, ebay, etc) at a fraction of the cost of a repop and then have the satisfaction of making it work for my truck. If anyone thinks that they can buy a Hagan recessed headlight kit for a 53 grille and not have to modify the metal around the headlight opening then they are mistaken.
This mod is fairly common and has been done on a number of trucks that have appeared in many magazines and websites. There have been other discussions on this forum about this mod as well. My point in posting this XMAS card photo was not to ask whether it could be done or how it could be done but to show one example of a truck after it had been done...a photo that wasn't included in previous discussions on this forum so this was an effort on my part to finally put a face to the discussion.
When I get around to this part of my build I will submit a tech post on how it is done for those who are interested.

 

My Name is Dave by the way. Since I'm new to this site I've not seen any discussions about this mod and my ability to use the search effectively is not quite good enough to find them apparently. I am genuinely interested in how this modification can be accomplished. If you have any sources please share them. It sounds like there are others that would benefit from a tech post of your modification. I myself would really appreciate one thanks.

 

also, your search is hampered by FTE's self protection against bots auto searching.. you have to have 25 posts before things become available to you.

Sam

 

definately a worth while mod to do, its on my long list of things to do!

 

Thanks Sam. Great I was clueless on that one...I guess I should just go around saying inane things and bumping threads until I reach that threshold and can actually use it.
. Only 5 more insightful comments to make....

 

I did not intend to spend time on this part of my truck build today but in light of the ongoing discussion I thought that I would go ahead and start the mod. Here is what the 56 headlight looks like in a 56 grille...

 

Here is the stock 53 headlight bucket in a 53 grille...

 

Here is the 53 grille with the headlight bucket removed...

 

The inner edge of the headlight opening in the 53 grille is too small for the 56 headlight door to fit into so it must be trimmed...

 

I did a rough trim on the headlight opening just to show how it is done, further trimming is necessary to get a good flush fit once the 56 headlight door is set in place. Here is a pic of the 56 door in the 53 grille, fit is close but not finished...picture for demonstration purposes only...