Center headlight bracket style

[Bob Gaines]

Great illustration of parts JD. Because this early headlight arrangement wasn't supported well the headlight beam had a tendency to shake or vibrate driving down the road or hitting a good bump. Some worse then others.

[BGlover67]

#23 - 2 holes.

The early cars with the band/clamp style method of holding the headlight buckets does not use these plates being discussed (see replies #10 and #12 on the first page).

I would think that #23 would not have the plates for holding any of the four headlight buckets.  Perhaps they were changed out at some point in it's history.

Not to go too far off-track but the plates being discussed were the second method of attaching the smaller diameter (1960 Galaxie) head light buckets to the '67 Shelby's.  This was a much simpler, faster and easier way to accomplish this addition/change. As to when this change of method occurred not sure but I do know that car #112 (completed at Shelby American Dec 5th, 1966) has the plates (one hole in each plate) for the inboards and the band/clamps for the fender lights - so some of both at that point in time.

Here are a couple of photos to help illustrate what was initially done.  Note this was a very Mickey Mouse/Rube Goldberg way of doing something and a real PITA !  The plates method for both the fender lights and both versions of the grille mounted high-beams (not driving lights) inboard or outboard was a step forward in getting the lights on the cars.

I have some pics of no 23, and in image no 50, I don't see a plate.  I believe it still has it's original bracket and bands. 

https://www.imageshack.us/a/vx0o/1

[JD]

I have some pics of no 23, and in image no 50, I don't see a plate.  I believe it still has it's original bracket and bands. 

Brian, I'm inclined to agree with you, I looked at my photos of when we first saw #23 and don't see that I took any photos of that area  - which means it was as it should have been.

Great illustration of parts JD. Because this early headlight arrangement wasn't supported well the headlight beam had a tendency to shake or vibrate driving down the road or hitting a good bump. Some worse then others.

A previous owner of Car #26 did fabricate some additional braces to steady the lights.

Maybe these additional images can help to show the differences of the two styles of mounting the buckets and the fact that with either the enlarged hole in the back of the bucket is still visible.

Note the two images at the top are of a car in the 40's VIN range, the two in the middle are of car #26 (same as at the top but without the grille) and bottom two are of car#112.

[Richstang]

Yes, those are very helpful photos to show the parts, JD. Thanks

Photos of #00023 and #00050 show the band/clamps in the grille lights.
(JD shared a photo with me from Tom Cotters gathering in 2017 and we can see there are no plates on #00023)
(The Sports Car Graphic magazine had pictures of #00050 with no plates)

It looks like the transition to plates occurred sometime in the first two weeks of Dec 1966.

I'm continuing to update the SAAC forum thread on that topic as new cars are found.
The list notes each car, what version, and SAI completion dates.
#00112 is the only car anyone (JD) has ever noted having both style mounts.
(I'd love to see photos of #00130 as the only car noted to have a 1 pc grille and plates. Not sure how many holes are in the plates.)
http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=1020.msg51110#msg51110