Blue dots

[porsche1914]

Has anyone ever installed blue dots in a '51 Henry ?

[HJ-ETEX]

Not that I have seen. I have a LOW opinion of Blue Dot tail lights. In fact in certain parts of Texas they were illegal due to the opinion of regional Texas Department of Safety commanders so you would get a ticket for illegal equipment in those areas. Well, 51-E52 HJ tail light lens are glass so you would have to drill a hole in the glass. BUT the bulb is almost against the the glass lens. So I don't think it is going to work.

[Fid]

I have to agree. Not only is what HJ says true, it is also true that '51 and early '52 HJ tail lights are inherently dim anyway due to the small size (Going to 12V doesn't help them much) so you'd really be diminishing your tail light visibility. 

[porsche1914]

Thanks for the responce, I am aware of the drawbacks, I bought my first J in 1953, got my second one from my Dad in 1974. and bought my third back in October. We are just starting to restore it. I was just curious about the blue dots, I can't find anyone in this part of Indiana to drill the glass lens anyway. And isn't it interesting that those tail lights didn't seem to be that dim in 1953.
Thanks again.
Don

[Fid]

Mike Hazel, who runs the www.henryjcars.com website had some plastic lenses made for the '51 J. I don't know if he still has any, or if they were made out of a plastic that will not easily melt but it might be worth asking him. Plastic would make it much easier.
His e-mail is mike@henryjcars.com

[HJ-ETEX]

On my HJ, I used a common Peterson Plastic lens that I glued over the the existing housing. This lens is curved and gave enough clearance so I could grind out the back of the HJ tail light housing and use a press in light socket along with a soldered on ground lead. I think it really works well (especially the added ground). 

[HJ-ETEX]

Concerning tail lights, in the early 50's the styling trend was to make the tail lights as small as possible (not necessarily practical). Look at production cars and custom cars of that era. I think that was rather dumb.

[Gordie]

Blue dots were made for many makes and years of cars in the 1950's and they are still made today for some custom cars.  I never saw any made for Kaiser's of Frazer's.  They are illegal to use in CA as the police motorcycles use blue tail lights for identification and you will get a ticket in a hurry for using them here.