Spotlight on spotlights

[BobT-47P15]

Cpt Fred said in an earlier post he bought two spotlights and, upon arrival, he found they were different brands and styles.

Spots can be pretty tricky. I don't actually own any real spotlights, just

my pair of dummy teardrops on the car. But I like spots on other cars.

The best known brand is Unity, which is still made today by Unity Mfg

Co There are 5" diameter and 6" diameter and many bracket styles for

door, post or fender mount. You have black handles, tan handles,

round handles from the old days, short shafts and long shafts.

Shorter shaft........

Longer shaft.......

Roof mount style used on trucks (round bracket).....

There are brackets for all makes and models......here's one for a 55 Dodge...

with a buy it now price of $45. At the time of this writing, there were

184 listings for unity spotlight on ebay, many of which would not apply.

A link to Unity Manufacturing Co.....http://www.unityusa.com/

Their prices may be a bit more than buying used stuff, but hopefully

you can get the right stuff.

[Cpt.Fred]

ok, now i found the time to take some pics here.

this is how they came, mirror was destroyed in the mail

(or the seller didn't tell the truth...):

the UNITY one is a "model H" and has a strange bracket

which is clamped on the outer tubing:

this is the one i want to keep, it seems to be for the passenger side:

a matching twin to this one, or a pair of others with the same look would be great!

fred

[BobT-47P15]

They do appear similar in shape and style.

Probably different brackets.

It's hard to know what bracket is right and will give the light the

correct angle when coming thru the windshield post.

I think if I were going to use a pair of spots, I would have to

bite the financial bullet and order new ones with correct

brackets.

I have seen many nice looking (with better chrome) spots at

swap meets and even on ebay. Don't mean to insult your

purchase, but those are kinda rusty.

[Andydodge]

Bob, I'd never heard of the Unity brand till it was mentioned on here, Appleton seems to be the brand that old time customs used, even to the extent that aftermarket brand Cal Custom did dummy spots.....Fred, check out the Night Prowlers website, they used to have a few spots.......andyd

[rustyzman]

The people at Unity are very nice to deal with. I bought a NOS one for my caprice on ebay and had to get the mounting kit direct from Unity. My mounting/drilling pattern was not in the box as I chose the door mount instead of the A pillar, so a quick phone call and they sent it out to me. Nice quality stuff. Most all the spotlights I have encountered in my travels have been Unity. Could just be that they are right here in Chicago. Nice addition to a vehicle. Makes a killer driving light on country roads in the dark of night. You can aim it a bit off the side to catch the glow of the deer's eyes so you can prepare before it jumps in front of you.

[Cpt.Fred]

Don't mean to insult your

purchase, but those are kinda rusty.

true.

they have to fit the car, so good chrome is of no use here...

Fred

[normanpitkin]

I emailed Unity ages ago to see if they still make the mirror that fits onto the back of the spotlight.Turns out there is no demand..except from me of course!I still think lots of people would buy them ,they look good and are useful ,what more could one want?Not only that, there are no additional holes to drill in the bodywork and they are easy to adjust from inside the car ,using the handle.Perhaps if we got togehter with a more substantial order than 2?Plus which they are MUCH cheaper than the crazy prices for the cowl mirrors....

[blucarsdn]

Automotive spot lights are like women.. they come in all shapes and sizes.

As a general rule, DPCD cars of the '30's, early '40's with dealer installed spot lights will have a 5" Appleton. Chrysler usually has a Lorraine which was actually Lorraine/Appleton.

GM dealers seemed to prefer Unity in the '30's-40's. Spot lights with rear view mirrors did not come into general use until the late '40's when the spot light location was moved to the door in lieu of the "A", windshield pillar.

My '39 Plym conv came with 5" Appleton's. They were in bad shape, however, they gave me something to look for and I had the correct mounting plates.

Watching ebay I educated myself about spots and in short order picked up a very nice pair of 5" Appleton's... I mounted the spots on my car and was not thrilled with the look, which was a little late because the paint work on the car was done.

In looking through a Appleton catalog I found that they also made 4" spots. Good old ebay came through with a pair of 451's which look great on the car.

An interesting thing about Appleton's is that they made them in left and right, the left spot has the switch on the inboard, right side of the handle, where-as the right side spot has the switch on the inboard,left side of the handle.

The DPCD cars of the '30's-40's use a 12"-12-1/2" shaft... ask questions before you buy one.

The dealer installed fog lights on DPCD cars are also generally Appleton/Lorraine....Bill

[BobT-47P15]

Ahhhh.....that thought did cross my mind at one point.

true.

they have to fit the car, so good chrome is of no use here...

Fred

[aero3113]

Check this one out

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Small-Spotlight-MIRROR-1930s-1950s-Ford-Chevrolet-/220710133558?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3363595f36

[greg g]

Fred those rusty lamps should clean up a bit and still retain the look that matches your car. On the one you have decided not to use, with some very fine steel wool moistened with laquer thinner (or mineral spirits, [white spirits in Europe]) and lightly scrub the surface. It will remove most of the rust staining, exposing the shiney bits better, but sill leave the character or the old part. Your headlight rims still look very nice and the spot/s should match them with the cleaup.

[BobT-47P15]

That light in the ebay sale posted by Aero is nice looking, but pretty

much useless without the clip to attach it to the door.

You could possibly find another with the clip or make one yourself, but

that's about it.

This is the pic the seller added of light with clamp.....