Another car questions + opinions

[Electronic M]

Atleast as far back as the 30s turn signals were available on some cars as an option, and on any car as aftermarket modifications. I think they remained an option until the early 50s then became mandatory on new cars...IIRC in some places if you own a car that never had factory turn signals you don't have to add them.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Atleast as far back as the 30s turn signals were available on some cars as an option, and on any car as aftermarket modifications. I think they remained an option until the early 50s then became mandatory on new cars...IIRC in some places if you own a car that never had factory turn signals you don't have to add them.

Back when they weren't all that old I had two 1951 cars , a Chevy and a Plymouth . Neither car was built with factory installed turn signals and the Chevy already had the aftermarket retrofit signals installed before I bought it but the Plymouth didn't . I ended up tracking down one of the turn signal kits for the Plymouth , it was a unit that clamped onto the steering column and required rewiring the brake lights into combination brakelight / turnsignals , the kit had new wires that ran to each bulb in the trunk and to the front running lights (which needed their sockets changed from the single to dual filament bulbs for the turn signals) .

Fun fact , both cars were 6 volt electrical systems with tube radios . I of course had the radios working perfectly and had taken an FM converter , used a small 6 V motorcycle battery in series with the car's 6 V to supply the converter with the 12 V it needed , and headbanging metal was happily blasted to the general disgust of most of my fellow commuters

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Back when they weren't all that old I had two 1951 cars , a Chevy and a Plymouth . Neither car was built with factory installed turn signals and the Chevy already had the aftermarket retrofit signals installed before I bought it but the Plymouth didn't . I ended up tracking down one of the turn signal kits for the Plymouth , it was a unit that clamped onto the steering column and required rewiring the brake lights into combination brakelight / turnsignals , the kit had new wires that ran to each bulb in the trunk and to the front running lights (which needed their sockets changed from the single to dual filament bulbs for the turn signals) .

Fun fact , both cars were 6 volt electrical systems with tube radios . I of course had the radios working perfectly and had taken an FM converter , used a small 6 V motorcycle battery in series with the car's 6 V to supply the converter with the 12 V it needed , and headbanging metal was happily blasted to the general disgust of most of my fellow commuters

I've seen a couple cars with those kits.

Lol. Planning to eventually have a 1940's GM (or Nash) fastback in my future about a year ago when a fellow member brought a bunch of converters to a meet I bought 1 each of FM, SW, Police/aviation/fire converters.
Depending on how I feel I may do that and or rewire the original radio...A year or so back I took a late 40's mono Magnavox home console and upgraded it to stereo. The process involved adding sections to the band/function switch of the AM/SW/preamp chassis, reworking the preamp for stereo, adding an FM MPX chassis (to work with the factory FM tuner), swapping the 60's VM someone cobbled in with a Magnavox badged Colarro Conquest, and a installing a second matching PPP 6V6 amp chassis to it (the results were pretty awesome )...Part of me, if I ended up with a messed up enough car radio, would like to do something akin to the what I did to the Magnavox and custom build an AM/FM stereo tube car radio with powerful tube-based amp unit based on a car radio chassis that is beyond hope for resto...I'd also really like to get one of those RCA 45RPM car changers.

[init4fun]

I will be looking forward to your 40s car , I 100% agree that there was an elegance about 40s and 50s cars that has yet to be recaptured .