Some aspects of building a custom car are almost sacred and automatically become part of the plan, even before a formal plan is hatched. For many of us, frenched taillights are as much a necessity on our rides as, say, shaved door handles. In our minds, part of the fun of building a custom is knowing we'll be frenching the lights, regardless of whether they're original units or something swapped from a different car.
When you stop to think about it, there are probably hundreds of taillight shapes and configurations out there waiting to be adapted to other cars. Picking one out is only half the fun; the other half is installation--cutting, welding, grinding, and putting everything back together to make it look factory. Of course, we can't forget about the style aspect. Whatever taillight we choose should flow with the car so it looks like it grew there. This brings us full circle to considering the original taillights and seeing if they can be modified for a custom fit without a ton of bodywork. This, too, is a creative and rewarding way to achieve a cool custom look.
The project at hand started when Jason Avila of Riverside, California, laid his eyes on one of Jimmy Smith's bitchin' custom rod '49-'50 Ford renderings a few issues back (pictured at the top of this page). Not only did he fall in love with the unconventional-yet-traditional styling, he figured it would be a relatively easy car to build, as he already owned a super straight '51 Ford sedan. Once the original taillights were removed from the body, Jason was happy to learn that the quarter-panels of the '51 were the same as the earlier '49 and '50 bodies. Then he just had to locate a set of '49-'50 taillights and start planning how they would be installed.
After talking with some custom car buddies, Jason learned that Mooneyes offers a frenching kit for '49-'50 Ford taillights, as well as two custom lens options--one with a bullet in the center and the other more similar to an old Cal Custom bubble-style lens. For that matter, he could've used original lenses, but Jason was after a more distinct look. He chose the bubble-style lenses.
The task of lighting the new taillights properly also came to mind. These lights aren't exactly large, so Jason wanted to make sure they were easily seen. One look on the Lambert Enterprises Web site told him all he needed to know about using LEDs instead of the traditional bulbs. Lambert offers these bright little light panels for numerous factory taillight housings, and an almost equal number of custom configurations. LED lights are bright and give off almost no heat. This is nice when you consider that traditional light bulbs can emit enough heat to melt plastic lenses if placed too close. The LEDs can sit almost right up against plastic lenses with no worry of melting.
So to round all this out, we have a set of Mooneyes '49-'50 Ford frenching buckets and bubble-style lenses, and a pair of LED lights from Lambert Enterprises to install. All in all, this job was easily finished in a weekend and required only normal bodyworking tools to accomplish. Keep in mind as you're looking though the photos that these taillights can be installed in any number of ways. Jason modified the frenching buckets and tailored the installation to meet his tastes. You can use these ideas or come up with others that reflect your own personality while also looking stylish on the car. Isn't that what the hobby is all about?
