Despite the fact that the front end was addressed first, the rear was by
far in more direneed of attention. Along with a shoddy-looking bumper, there
were a couple "technical"issues to tend to. |
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Technically speaking, the single taillight's "On/Off" switch was beyond,
uh, impractical?Two spade connectors linking the single '47 Chevy sedan
delivery light (which replacedthe dilapidated '54 unit previously mounted)
would never pass a safety pointinspection-at least not an official one. |
The righting of wrong started with the acquisition of a set of '47-53 taillights/bracketsfrom
Brothers. Plated and powdercoated to show finishes, the parts will easily
make theremainder of the rear end pale in comparison. |
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Adding the second (right-side) taillight posed no problem, as the
correct-era bed alreadyhad mounting holes for the impending bracket. From
the factory, having a "pair" oftaillights was an option; in today's world,
it's a must, especially when dealing withyounger officers of the law. |
When first contemplating how to address the mismatched situation,
the left-side bracketwas simply going to be relieved of the license plate
mount. The need for a location tomount a cast-aluminum club plaque dictated
otherwise.
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Having a newer Tahoe, not to mention a stash of old Volkswagen tools, came
in handy when installing the taillights-the fasteners required a 10mm wrench. |
While at a recent swap meet, I snagged a few lengths of stainless flex sheathing
that wasused to shroud the external taillight wiring. |
Unlike an OE application, though, the sheathing was run through the rear
stake pocket onthe bed, which required drilling a hole. |
Rubber grommets were used to secure the sheathing in place, as well as make
the routinglook decent. |
Due to the previous owner's non-standard wiring techniques, the loom from
the ignitionand brake light switch had to be redone to power up the taillights
"properly," not tomention give the truck actual "stop"lights! |
The '53 will eventually be completely rewired with a kit from American AutoWire;
in themeantime, scratch wiring will suffice. I also like to use non-insulated
connectors withheat shrink when possible, but the old-school method works
for now. |
Now you can see how the extra license plate mount is utilized. Worked perfectly,
as theback window didn't need to be cluttered up. |
Probably a poorly chromed repop, the truck's rear bumper was in sad shape.
Thanks toBrothers show-chrome offerings, that was soon to be a past issue. |
As mentioned, this is by no means a "restoration" project, hence the
reuse of a '54bumper. Without exaggeration, the new bumper is flawless-no
orange peel, foggychrome, or wavy metal; just a solid bumper that shines
like a mirror.
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With the bumper mounted, all that remained was to install the new '54-1st
Series '55license bracket. Previously, the license plate was mounted with
sheetmetal screws...no light, either. |
Much better-and more policeman friendly! Having been cited for insufficiently
litlicense plates and insufficient taillights (one) in the past was a heavy
factor in this portionof the project. (Yes, I do realize the plate is incorrect
for the year of the truck...let's just call it a prop!) |
To give the running light some juice, I simply jumped a wire off the taillight
lead. Thefuture harness will have its own lead; for the time being, this
will work just fine. |
In a day's time, which included running over to Brothers to pick the parts
up, the back ofthe truck was breathing new life. As you can see by the rest
of the bed, there's still a longways to go, but for the time and effort
spent, you can't beat the improvement. Thanks Brothers...we'll be seeing
you again soon! |
