Headlight Woes-'37 Terraplane

Hudsonrules

Hi Gang, I am still attempting to remove the headlight lens on my '37 Terraplane. I have done what I have been told. I removed the screw on the bottom of headlight, pressed in and pushed down on the lens. It barely moves, I cannot get anything behind it to work it out. It just does not want to move, and I have really pused on the bottom and down at the same time. Any help or ideas will be appreciated. Thanks, Arnie

Jon B

The only logical reason I can think of, for this problem, is that the back side of the rim has become affixed to the cork gasket that runs around the perimeter of the reflector. Generally, one would push in and down, and the reflector would move to a point -- and then the glass itself would continue to slide downward, past the reflector, enough so that the top edge of the lens would become visible at the top. That's when I usually slide a thin rigid piece of plasic into the opening (between the lens and the chrome trim around the opening in the shell) and then slide it left and right -- kind of the opposite of how you'd use a shoe horn to slide the heel of your foot into a tight shoe.



If the glass has become bonded to the cork gasket, of course, the glass and reflector have in effect become "one". So the glass is only moving as far as the reflector does, which ain't much. If there was some way for you to get one of those thin, stainless steel eraser shields (the kind we used to use when we were erasing typewriter ink) between the lens and the reflector, this might help. But how does one get it into the headlight shell.



(And how, indeed, does one find an eraser shield nowadays? Maybe in the typewriter supplies section of your local F. W. Woolworth's 5 & 10?)



Here's a radical suggestion that may not get you anything:



Gently pry off the thin stainless steel trim that surrounds the opening in the headlight shell. Start at the bottom (where the seam in the trim is) and -- using a screwdriver -- try to ease the trim outward from the metal. It's gripping it. You will still have to push in slightly on the glass to relieve the pressure on the trim. Work your way around the trim until you get back to the bottom, carefully peeling it away from the shell. This will gain you a LITTLE more "play" with the lens, since the opening in the shell is now larger by 1/16" - 1/8" than it was with the trim in place. This MIGHT be just enough so that when you slide the glass down, a wee bit of the top part pops out of the shell. And then you can get that eraser shield or some shim stock in between the lens and the reflector and gradually pry it away from the cork gasket, working your way around the perimeter of the lens.



If there was some way to introduce some water or even WD-40 into the seam between glass and cork, that too might help.



I'm out of ideas. Best of luck!

Hudsonrules

:)Thanks Jon, I will give it a try. I know eventually it will come apart, I just have to be patient.

Geoff

Just remember that section of Murphy's Law that says "If you fiddle with a thing long enough, it will ultimatley break".

[Deleted User]

But Murphy's Law also states-

If it jams - force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.