You either have allot better eyes than me or don't drive at night or both . LOL I am rural and if we are out at night animals are the biggest issue so there's no such thing as too much light and because of the very small signals on my coupe I was always concerned that someone paying attention to the car wouldn't notice I was turning . The DRL'S are just a bonus .

 

I just prefer a dimmer light on that truck. I drive at night along back roads occasionally. In many cases you can see more with it. As I run fog lights visibility is good. I drive real slow as it forces you to really drive carefully. Congested roads I do avoid.

My main issue is backing up I’m going to install period back up lights, and probably a spotlight on the pillar too. If I turn on everything on at once the engine would probably just quit! 😂

 

You mean you are going to drill a hole in that beautiful truck! LOL

What do period correct backup lights look like? On my 55 flatbed I put a 6 volt tractor light under the bed. The wire was already there coming from a switch that was on the dash.

 

FUGLY as can be.

 

Tractor Light sounds about right for that truck I bet that looks good! Show us some pictures of that!

The lights I got from a collector and they're Hall Back up lights from the 40's probably for Cars, that are actually stamped FORD on the back, not that you would see the stamp facing toward the truck, but what the hay. These pictured are the exact same, just no FORD stamp, I bought on eBay just for replacement parts as the ones I have the rings are slightly cracked. But mounting these would involve making up some mounting brackets probably off of the bumper brackets.

Abe-drilling that hole through the pillar for the spotlight is keeping me up at night. But I sure do like the way it looks. Im just not totally convinced yet. But again, I got a throughly original FORD spot light that would be a waste not to have it on there. But the truck has got dual mirrors, dual fog lights, so I have to think this one through.

 

here are the pics of the backup light I put on my 55 F350. The bed rail blocks the light to the left side a bit but I didn't know where else to put it.... so maybe I need one on the right bed rail.




Here is the switch that was on the truck when I bought it. I did not know what it was for so I followed the wire and it went to the rear of the truck. I do not know what the original owners had hooked up to it. They owned an orchard so maybe it was a light to pick fruit at night?



I too have a nice 6 volt spotlight I wanted to put on my 55, but I chickened out. I really don't drive it much at night and wouldn't really use it. So I put stock tow hooks on the front bumper instead.

 

My "interpretation" of "period correct" back-up lights. I ask myself WWOHHD? What Would Old Henry Have Done? Obviously he didn't do back up lights, so I designed something that maybe he might have done. Night picture shows 6v LED on left, regular 6v incandescent on right. I am running 6 volts. I played around with bezel vs no bezel on turn signal/brake light; went with no bezel. Seemed to look more 1949 to me. On the backup light I did not have a choice, so that is with bezel.

 

These are the headlights I'm running on my 53 with no modification. They are far beyond what the stock bulbs and even sealed beam halogen bulbs could ever be. They currently have the legal 55/60W bulbs in them, there are off road bulbs available, but require relays and wiring.
I bought the relay kit, ceramic connectors and 90/130W bulbs, but haven't seen the need to install them.

 

They look very "Period Correct." They fit in there nicely.

Do they come on when you shift into reverse or are they on a switch?

 

Electric, your pic is a very dramatic comparison of halogen vs incandescent bulbs in a 6V system. As mentioned in another post to a different thread, I experienced almost the opposite result with headlights. I had always heard that halogens were so much brighter, but for me they weren't. It must be that my truck's grounds are bad and as a result, my electrical system is not able to provide enough voltage to take proper advantage of halogen bulbs. I'm assuming you still have a generator and your truck was at regular idle when you took the pic. Do you by chance know what your voltage is at your light socket at idle? Thanks for showing your comparison.

Jim

 

Thanks, Abe, for the nice comment. I have a T-5 transmission, which has a back-up switch connection.

You are right about grounds, 52 USCG. I put in Halogen headlights, and it did not seem to make that much difference. My relay is activated by dimmer switch for both Hi and Lo beams. I think I have grounding issues with the headlights. Rear lights in photo have all new wiring and grounds are good. I did up grade to a 6v alternator from Powermaster with more amps than old generator which worked fine but was not good enough as you know to keep battery charged on a rainy night with lights on and wiper going, then add heater fan and your cooked. LOL! The alternator is one that looks like the old generator, since I wanted the under hood to look period too with the old flathead. It is larger in diameter than stock generator, but mostly only guys like ones here would observe difference. Pictures were at idle. Voltage at light socket was OK. Maybe I should check headlight voltage at socket. I did have a thought of wiring dimmer up such that hi and lo could be on together, but then wiring is old (maybe original), can it handle load, need separate relays, is it legal, will lights burn out due to extra heat in sealed beam, etc. Decided to just leave it for now, but will check socket voltage. Thanks for the idea!