Don,

Bill is correct in that I replaced an ugly, and difficult to see exceptat night,
set of big red plastic bathtub type of taillights with a set of 4"diameter
Signal-Stat lights with polished stainless steel trim rings. Thesenew lights
look much sleeker and someone behind me can now actually see my turnsignals
which is always a good thing.

First the good news, the lights I purchased were from a Specialty TruckChrome
and Electronics Shop on the first OH exit coming from IN into OH onI-70 east
bound. I actually have the business card with telephone number andaddress at
work and can retrieve it tomorrow if anyone is interested. I can notrecall the
exact price but remember thinking that it was rather reasonable ($40is a wild
guess but that could have been for each although I think it was forthe pair).
They also had 5" and 6" versions which were very slick and temptingbut the 4"
looked pretty good and I got scared off of cutting into the coach forthe larger
diameter although in retrospect the 5" would also have looked quitenice.

Now the bad news is that the installation require cutting a four inchhole into
the trailer for each tail light. I do not like cutting into the coachbut
realized that I had to for this. I also "covered up", the four mountingscrew
holes from the plastic bathtubs by placing rivets in the wholes andpolishing
over them.

Overall the job came out looking pretty sharp and I sent Bambi Billscanned
photos of the finished lights. If one did not know better they mightthink that
these lights were original because they certainly go well with thecoach.

I also remade part of my license plate holder out of stainless steel(which I
polished to a mirror) while sending out the pot metal light mountingfixture
section for chrome plating. Both parts mate together well and lookpretty good.
These items were also shown in the scans.

Do any of our subscribers have a means for accepting a scan of 980 kBytes?When
I reduce the size the picture down I lose a lot of the detail (i.e.,it isn't so
shiny!). Any suggestions?

Let me know if there is further interest in getting the telephone numberand shop
name for the lights.

Tom Howarth, #6490
'53 Airstream Flying Cloud
 
 

Bill Scott wrote:

> Hey Don, YeeeeHaw. PMFJIH, but I just had the opportunity to see a51
> Flying cloud with original tail-lights. They were a kinda funky
> squarish/rectangular 4"x 2" lite with a niffty chrome squarish rim.Not
> particularly pretty. Unless you are rabid for exact restoration,my
> recomendation is to go with the New Signal-Stat tail lights with
> stainless or chrome rims. The lights are up to code, very bright,
> available at most truck service centers, and most importantly, theylook
> good!! Tom Howarth just put those type on his Flying Cloud, and dothey
> ever look SHARP, inexpensive also. I'll try to get you the hotlinkfor
> a look-see.