| What would be
a custom car without spotlights? They were a popular accessory item on
late 1930's to early 50's cars, but the ones you see on contemporary
custom cars, are usually dummies. During the heyday of real spotlights,
the Appleton series 112, with its classic teardrop shape, was probably
the most coveted of tem all. Even in the dummy spotlight offering, the
Appleton 112 imitations are the most desired and most expensive.
Naturally a dummy spot wouldn't do for me - it's got to be the real
McCoy! If you can find a genuine Appleton 112 in decent
condition, it comes with a hefty price tag. Thanks to eBay, there
are affordable (=bad) cores available. The one you see below is
compiled from two Appleton 112's and one "baby" Appleton. The bucket
seen here, being the better of the two, was full of dents and
scratches, and had to be straightened, polished and re-chromed. A lot
of elbow grease was required, but I'm happy with the result. The other
112 core donated the reflector, lens and bezel, while the baby Appleton
donated the whole shaft and handle parts. Below left: you are wondering if the spotlight clears the opening hood, but fortunately it's not a dummy, and can be turned out of the way. |
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 Above: most spotlight makes, like Unity for instance, came
with a sealed beam lamp. All Appletons came with a separate bulb, lens,
and reflector, and are easy to convert to 12 volts by simply swapping
the bulb. Be careful when buffing the reflector, as it consists of
brass, coated with an extremely thin and soft layer of silver.Left: I painted the handle with white pearl, but forgot to paint the switch cover as well. The spotlight is fully functional, but hardly has any use here in Finland where summer nights are light. It makes for a perfect conversation opener, though! I am looking forward to the September Helsinki Cruising Night, when it will be dark enough to impress (or irritate) people! It might also be used as a working light in dark. |
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| Above left: I
fabricated these brackets out of stainless steel, because I only had
one universal bracket, and it didn't fit my Buick at all. The bracket
clamps around the shaft and screws on the A-pillar or windshield
molding. It has two functions: you adjust the brake effect with the
clamp screw, so the spotlight stays where you turn it, and it also
limits the total travel. Above right: You should have seen me giving instructions to the plating shop: "this text must remain readable, or else". The other 112 core that I got, didn't have any markings on it, although it was otherwise identical to this one. Maybe it was a copy, who knows. These markings could vanish when buffing and re-plating, but the chrome on it was bad, so I doubt it. |
 I realized I never showed you the secrets behind the
speaker grille. Down below, you will find the switches and pressure gauges for the air springs. I made the switch block with a 4-corner system in mind, but so far it's only a front/rear system with four solenoid valves. The front gauge shows around 7 bar while the rear springs operate at a 2 bar pressure. The front suspension travel is very limited, so the pressure must be spot-on. At the rear, I must keep 2 bars to be able to pass over speed bumps without sparks! Then again, I need to go all the way to 4 bars to raise the suspension to be able to remove the wider-than-original radial tires! In general, the ride quality is fairly good, but the air springs put additional demand on the shocks. On top, there's a JVC radio/CD/MP3 player. I am using an electric antenna on the left fender, instead of the old centerpost mounted antenna |