MTFCA Forum

I'm putting turn signals on my touring and looking for advice on front placement.

Eventually I want to lay my hands on a couple of cowl lamps, but that's not in this year's budget. In the meantime I'm going to make use of these bullet fixtures. I'd like to not drill into the fenders (especially since I already have plans to scrap these fixtures.

Each of my headlight rims has a set screw (which drove me crazy the first time I tried open them!). The picture shows the lights mounted to the rims at the set screws.

Thoughts? Too close to the headlights?

Anybody ever done this?

Eric I have always made a small bracket off the bottom of the headlight mount bolts. Works well.

Henry K. Lee wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:16 pm

Eric I have always made a small bracket off the bottom of the headlight mount bolts. Works well.

That was the other place I was thinking of but I thought they might be too low.

Worked for you though, huh?

Here is how my 1924 looks with the turn signals positioned as Hank says. IMO, they aren't too low.

T's set higher than the modern cars, so wouldn't worry about them being too low. Mark's look just right to me. Mark is that a Cuda under wraps next to the T?

Van

If they’re not where the “modern moron’s” expect them to be they are basically useless. Mine we where Cuda’s we’re and I don’t believe they did any good there. Don’t rely on them as a safety factor because that’s just in your head. They’ll be ignored as if they weren’t there.

While I went with bigger lights front and rear, my fronts were mounted in the same place shown above.

CudaMan wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:38 pm

Here is how my 1924 looks with the turn signals positioned as Hank says. IMO, they aren't too low.

Thats a cleaner than average set up. Look like the bodies are painted black. Nice.

Basically the same place on my ‘27 Roadster. They work well in Los Angeles traffic.

Charlie B in N.J. wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:12 pm

If they’re not where the “modern moron’s” expect them to be they are basically useless. Mine we where Cuda’s we’re and I don’t believe they did any good there. Don’t rely on them as a safety factor because that’s just in your head. They’ll be ignored as if they weren’t there.

In this day and age, turn signals are largely ignored… period. Placement, brightness, and vehicle make no difference to those that are willing to ignore them. But I use turn signals religiously, driving modern cars or vintage, because it makes things better around good drivers and it can’t make things worse than not having them or not using them.

Keep cranking’
Eric

PS. I am amazed at the number of folks that ignore ambulances and fire engines with full lights and siren.

The car next to my T in that picture is the 1971 Plymouth GTX that I used to own. I also used to own a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible that had a 340 six pack, 727 auto, and 3.55 sure-grip swapped in. Now out of the Mopars and have the T and my 1912 Flanders 20 torpedo.

I hate the look of modern lights, why not put them inside Ford kerosene cowl lamps.

For electrified Ts, buying some modern repro headlight reflectors and mounting turn signal lamps inside the headlight might be an option for the front. LED lights also might be adaptable for this. For the rear, I'd go with dual stock type tail lights, or Model A repro tail lights. The headights are large enough to acommodate a turn signal light without interfering with headlight operation. It's possible to use abrasives to bore a hole in a repro headlight lens, which could be used to mount some type of signal light. For cars with bumpers, I'd attach turn signals to the bumpers.

Removed by author

Henry K. Lee wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:16 pm

Eric I have always made a small bracket off the bottom of the headlight mount bolts. Works well.

I believe you're right.

That's much better.

Where ever you put them, they need to be BRIGHT.

I hate modern crap, stuck on old cars. Especially if no effort is made
to hide it. At the very least, blackout paint could be used to conceal
some discreet moderns. Or one can go on ebay and round up some period
fixtures and restore them, Remember that, ... restoring old stuff because
it is cool ?

These new LED diodes can be extemely small and extremely bright. Just
by themselves they can be totally unseen until lit up.

No missing this old girl's indicators, l.e.d's in the cowel lights and flashing bulbs in the " Winka" cable controlled semaphores!

If you might think of a relatively small investment: the vendor of my T installed motor bike signals. No holes to be drilled.

As I do not drive my T at night, the placement of front directional signals would not be important on my T, but if you do drive your T at night I agree with Steve Jelf. If the directionals are close to your headlights, they are useless.

There is a way to mount a stock small u-bolt over the fender irons and draw up the draw bar part, then mount the regular stock bracket that comes with some bee-hives onto the projecting studs and 2nd nut them in place with a little loc-tite.

I did that on my Hack because I wasn't sure where I wanted them...that was maybe 7 years ago...haven't had desire to move them since...lol