1940 Ford Deluxe Tail Lights

[mercman from oz]

Take a look at the above picture, and see if you can see something odd on this restored 1940 Ford Deluxe Fordor Sedan?
Give in?
If you look closely, you will see that the Right tail Light is mounted higher than the one on the left?
Some years ago, a friend from down south in Victoria told me that the Tail Lights on his 1940 Ford Deluxe Sloper were not positioned at the same height.
As 1940 Fords are thin in the ground in Australia, I was unable to confirm his findings, however, the owner of this lovely Fordor Sedan recently joined our local Early Ford V8 Club. I asked him to measure the position of the Tail Lights on his car. This was his reply:- I have measured the distance from the centre of the bottom tail light screw to the trailing edge of the mudguard in each case.
The left is 29cm and the right is 32cm! In Imperial language, that equated to just over one Inch. Is this anomaly unique to Australian assembled 1940 Ford Deluxe vehicles, or does it extend to USA models also?

[51 MERC-CT]

At least now, for those who have seen this, we will probably be inspecting all '40 Fords that we see.
Without knowing the full history of this vehicle it's hard to attribute this anomaly to the factory. But if others are found, it would be interesting to know why.

[mercman from oz]

How about this 1940 Ford deluxe Sloper? I don't have a better shot of this car, but if you look, the right hand Tail light appears to be positioned higher than the left hand Tail light? This feature is not just a "one off".

[51 MERC-CT]

It may appear that way but I would not give much weight to a picture that can exhibit distortion.
For example-----

[34PKUP]

Originally Posted by mercman from oz

This feature is not just a "one off".

Maybe yes, maybe no, but I would not come to that conclusion based on a distorted picture.

[19Fordy]

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Like 51Merc suggested, I ran for my tape measure. I bet a cloth tape
would be more accurate.
On my early production 40 coupe both are the same.
12 1/4 in. from center of screw to lower edge of fender.
Right rear fender came out of a junk yard after an accident in the 60's..

[alanwoodieman]

look under left side fender and see if someone modified a 39 fender for the chevron taillight. 39 lights are lower, aren't they?

[Kube]

My guess is the right lamp was added "later in life". Even factory "seconds" as some call them, would not have had that anomaly.

I'd like to see a photograph from beneath each fender, depicting the bucket area.

[51 MERC-CT]

Originally Posted by 19Fordy

Like 51Merc suggested, I ran for my tape measure. I bet a cloth tape
would be more accurate.
On my early production 40 coupe both are the same.
12 1/4 in. from center of screw to lower edge of fender.
Right rear fender came out of a junk yard after an accident in the 60's..

Very interesting.
Based on the dim's given for the subject lights, it appears that the left light is too low.

[deuce_roadster]

Like Kube, I suspect someone added a tail light bucket to a V8 ("std") fender and just didn't do a great job. I just measured a NOS pair and they were identical. Down Under maybe the same guy did the work!

[alanwoodieman]

take a picture of underside/taillight area for us experts

[Kube]

Having spent many years as a tool maker, I can assure you that although parts can be produced poorly at times from otherwise great dies the improper location of that tail lamp hole would NOT happen within a die. It couldn't. Um, not without one HUGE crash. And if that happened, there would be no more fenders from that die.

[40 Deluxe]

Just went out and measured my '40 Deluxe 2 door. It's also 12 1/4" from lower lip to bottom screw, both sides.

[mercman from oz]

Above is another picture of the rear of this Australian 1940 Ford Deluxe Sloper. You can see from this angle that the right Tail Light is mounted higher than the left one?
It seems that this anomaly is unique to Australian assembled 1940 ford Deluxe Sedans and Slopers.

[mercman from oz]

Another anomaly with Australian 1940 Ford Deluxe Sedans and Slopers is that the early production models came from the Factory fitted with 1939 Ford Teardrop tail Lights, as per this example. Everything else is correct for 1940 except for the Tail Lights.

[mercman from oz]

You asked for it. The above pictures show these Tail Lights from the underside. Top picture is the one on the left, the bottom picture shows the one on the right. Does this help?

[DavidG]

Mike,


But, if the dies for the right and left hand fenders were different to start with there would be no crash and no wrecked dies.


The various states of Australia had some pretty unique rear lighting requirements as there evidently was no national standard (at that time). An Australian or Canadian export chassis parts catalogue of the period makes for interesting and enlightening reading in that regard. It may just be that one of the states had different lamp height requirements, side to side, but only someone with a 1940 model version of that catalogue could confirm that.

[Kube]

Originally Posted by DavidG

Mike,


But, if the dies for the right and left hand fenders were different to start with there would be no crash and no wrecked dies.


The various states of Australia had some pretty unique rear lighting requirements as there evidently was no national standard (at that time). An Australian or Canadian export chassis parts catalogue of the period makes for interesting and enlightening reading in that regard. It may just be that one of the states had different lamp height requirements, side to side, but only someone with a 1940 model version of that catalogue could confirm that.

This is true. And, I had not considered that possibility.

[Karl Wescott]

Another possibility, is that for some reason Dearborn supplied "standard" RH rear fenders and Australia had to "field install", then simply set up the fixtures with a different height from the LH. This would account for the consistent height and mismatch.


Never attribute to conspiracy or malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity --- Hanlon's razor.

[mercman from oz]

The above photo shows a pair of 1940 Ford deluxe Fenders for sale in Australia. You can see that the opening for the Tail Lights are different heights? This anomaly is not just an isolated case.