1932 tail light(s)

[rabidscott]

So I've tried to do my research, but Google is chock full of cheapo Chinese parts or stuff about later Fords but no answers to my question...

Was the passenger side tail ever original equipment?

Was it a dealer add on?

Was it offered directly by Ford or always an aftermarket thing?

[bluardun]

Good question. But thanks to the reproduction parts we now can utilize a passenger side tail light. Much safer, for those who drive their '32 Fords. Thanks.
Before the reproduction parts became available, the right side tail light stands were extremely rare, and expensive If you could find one, and if the guy that had it would sell or trade it. The Australian cars had the right side tail lights. That was the main source to find one.

[Deuce-Addict]

Originally Posted by bluardun

Good question. But thanks to the reproduction parts we now can utilize a passenger side tail light. Much safer, for those who drive their '32 Fords. Thanks.
Before the reproduction parts became available, the right side tail light stands were extremely rare, and expensive If you could find one, and if the guy that had it would sell or trade it. The Australian cars had the right side tail lights. That was the main source to find one.

...as did the UK

[DavidG]

While not specifically offered as a production option on non-rumble-seat equipped '32 passenger cars, any North American dealer could order the passenger side tail lamp bracket, another tail lamp and the crossover wiring to add the second tail lamp (there was no Ford-released bracket for a second tail lamp on the cabriolet, coupes with rumble seats, and deluxe roadsters due to the presence of the rumble step pad bracket.) The extent to which the opposite bracket was available outside of Canada and the U.S. (where both LHD and RHD vehicles were manufactured) was probably limited.


The was no unique tail lamp housing without an opening for the license plate lens for the '32 model year. Like the creative 'modern' rumble step brackets available to use with a right-side tail lamp, the available 'modern' second tail lamp housings without an opening for the license plate lens are recent creations and not reproductions of original Ford parts.



To complicate things a bit, there was eventually a '32 type 'tea cup' tail lamp housing without an opening for the license plate lens released for production for use on '33 and '34 passenger cars destined to be sold in Denmark, Japan, and Switzerland. The lighting standards of those three countries required separate light bulbs for tail lamp and brake light functions. (All of this information is on file at the Benson Ford Research Center, including the engineering drawings of the parts and their release forms.)


Given the small volumes of Fords sold in those countries with two tail lamps, survivors of those '33-'34 1932-style lamp housings are extremely rare. Unlike the supposed replica being reproduced, they do not have the name DUOLAMP stamped in. They are perfectly plain, but do have the typical two square nuts peened into the back face.

[rabidscott]

That is some great information, thank you!

Sounds as though the right hand bracket was mainly export then, with some dealers adding the second through scrounging the Ford export parts bins?

If I were to do a conversion utilizing original parts both sides would have used the same lighted taillight assembly?

Were all Deluxe roadsters equipped with rumbles?

[DavidG]

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Ford dealers did not then nor do they now have direct access to Ford's parts depots (distribution centers), but they could order the parts if they were stocked by Ford. In the case of the Canadian and U.S. operations, likely the stocking of RHD parts was confined to one or two parts depots with access to ocean shipping, likely one on each coast. We tend to think of RHD vehicles in the context of the United Kingdom, the British Commonwealth countries and Japan, but during the subject period, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Sweden were RHD countries as well.


Yes, both tail lamps would have been the same. While not offered by Ford, a red glass lens for the opening in the tail lamp housing for the license plate light in the second lamp not needing illumination of the license plate was available in the aftermarket. Originals of those red license plate light are somewhat scarce.


And yes, all '32 deluxe roadsters had rumble seats as standard equipment.