MTFCA Forum

… or advice to make one. Somewhere in my over half century of fooling with Model Ts, I either read about or heard about there being some kind of era tool to adjust the ‘stature’(?) of a headlight’s direction. See by my photo that my ‘26 roadster’s left headlamp is canted too high.
I’d like to correct this without having to remove it and impact the sheet metal fender. Are there any ideas ?
Borrow a tool ? Thanks in advance…

I've used a pipe wrench, jaw fastened to the stem. That wrench had a slotted opening on the end of the handle, so place a beefy socket extension rod into the wrench handle for more leverage and pulled the lamp down to proper shape with the other.

The tool is shown in this photo, but Ford said to use the tool or a wrench.


This is the Improved Car tool for the headlamp on fender mount, note the length is about 2'

Same here, used a pipe wrench. (A big one)

George, The particular headlights you have will need to be taken off, bent, put back on, repeat, until you get them aimed right.

For those who don’t notice or don’t know; Those are very early ‘26 fender mounted lights. They are not mounted to the iron down by the frame, but to the fender sheet metal skirt and stamped steel “fender iron” up on the skirt of the fender. They are not mounted on a bar as in the rest of ‘26-‘27 production.

An attempt to aim those with a bending iron puts strain on the fender.

Adam wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2025 12:07 pm

George, The particular headlights you have will need to be taken off, bent, put back on, repeat, until you get them aimed right.

For those who don’t notice or don’t know; Those are very early ‘26 fender mounted lights. They are not mounted to the iron down by the frame, but to the fender sheet metal skirt and stamped steel “fender iron” up on the skirt of the fender. They are not mounted on a bar as in the rest of ‘26-‘27 production.

An attempt to aim those with a bending iron puts strain on the fender.

Good points. Maybe there is room for 2 pipe wrenches? One to provide support, and the other work against the first one, rather than work against the fender & fender arm.

Good advice all ! I shall follow it. Thanks especially to Dan Treace for the 1/8” plumb line info when a string is placed at the upper headlight rim and the 1/8” distance that string should be from the lower headlight rim. ..
I did not know that

George House wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2025 2:36 pm

Good advice all ! I shall follow it. Thanks especially to Dan Treace for the 1/8” plumb line info when a string is placed at the upper headlight rim and the 1/8” distance that string should be from the lower headlight rim. ..
I did not know that

Dan has all the best info, and the period documents to back it up!

That is not a 1926 vehicle, but it was much easier with the 1926 head light adjustment procedure.

J1MGOLDEN wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2025 7:42 pm

That is not a 1926 vehicle, but it was much easier with the 1926 head light adjustment procedure.

Pretty certain that it is Jim.

The 1926 (early) headlight stalk is not vertical. It slants in toward the radiator shell. I'd be very cautious about bending the stem with the lights mounted on a car with nice paint on very straight fenders. The lights and fenders on my car are like the ones in the photo George posted. I added a later 1927 headlight bar to my car. It doesn't fit just right, but adding 1/2" spacers under the "foot" on the earlier style headlight stems allows bolting them to the later type brace with longer bolts thru the fender and stamped fender brace. While not an exact fit, it does brace the fenders solidly and it keeps the fenders and lights steadier. The bar I used is the stamped steel type that uses the headlight buckets with a ball and socket type attachment/adjustment. On my installation, the "sockets" are left empty, and adjustments would have to be made by bending the stalks, or it could be done by filing or grinding the spacers I used at a slight angle.

All adjustment specs assume the car is at or close to normal ride height front and rear and standing on a level surface.

Mine on the same side is bent the same way. I rarely drive at night, so will just leave it as is.
Norm

Maybe night hunters bent them that way on purpose.

The "steel stalk" mounted onto softer steel fender and bracket (early 1926 style)? I would not recommend using a single high leverage tool to do an adjustment cold. Way too likely to twist the fender bracket and wind up with a nasty wrinkle in the fender itself.

First, analyze. Where is the stalk, bracket, or bucket not how it should be? Then plan an attack, what to bend, and what way.
I have actually done this by myself on earlier style headlamps, but it should be doable on the 1926 stalk style. Two people working together carefully would make it easier to minimize paint damage. You will "damage" the paint on the post, but if you are careful, and two people working together would help, hopefully the only paint damage will be on the post itself and easily touched up.
Use a medium size acetylene torch tip, on moderately high heat. You need to carefully control the flame to avoid paint, but get about 3/4 inch of steel post not quite red hot. One person heat the post where it needs to be tweaked, the other ready to grab the headlamp and push/pull/twist as needed. Sometimes two or three spots need adjustment, quite often there is one spot that can do the trick.
Steel, in general, and specifically steel rods, as they get heated up approaching a medium red, begin to soften and becomes slightly more pliable as it becomes hotter. It will begin to bend fairly easily before it reaches red. A dull red is the most heat needed for simple adjustments.

As I said, I did this myself on an earlier (1920s) T. I worked from the front and carefully slipped the torch in from under the lens. I aimed the flame up and back between the hood and fender, heated the desired spot, then shut off the torch and set it down quickly before grabbing the headlamp and playing Superman. Then I touched up the paint.

Do remember! Never, not for a fraction of a second, forget! Never forget that an acetylene torch throws very high temperatures straight out about a foot at least beyond the flame you can see. Aim carefully!
And I recommend you unplug the headlamp wire before lighting the torch.

My '26 had same issue but not as severe. I simply made a tapered shim to place between H/L mounting "foot" and fender. It took a lot of experimenting to get the correct taper and direction. For appearance I made a similar "gasket" for the opposite side. Quite pleased with the results. My car has an aftermarket (I believe) tie bar from fender to fender underneath the H/L mounting "feet" but that makes no difference in my opinion.
Peter Haid