Vintage Frankenstein-ed lights, beacons and light bars.

7d9_z28

New Member
Mar 15, 2012
3,048
West Michigan
I think that bar was done by some one on here

Correct, that is DefianceEngineCompany
 
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JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
Frankenbeacon or just plain heresy, you decide on this video I just found.

This was posted here when it was done.  This is actually preferable to putting a modern bar on an older vehicle IMHO.  You retain the guts to the twin, now when the truck is sold you can restore the bar, and the truck retains the period look.  The LEDs are synched, it looks good and is a low amp high output low cost option.   

Compared to adding a modern LED bar.....

Cost=low

Look= Period correct

Output=High

Restore-ability of bar=Intact

Project=Win!
 
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CrownVic97

Member
May 21, 2010
3,350
Hazen, ND
HAHA! Oh, wow. That's sad, really. They didn't even bother to clean the lenses on the Twin for better light output.
 

Crownfire

Member
Jun 23, 2011
531
USA CA
Sireno base and rotator assembly. Not sure how they got the Signal Stat band and Stratolite dome to fit. The Sireno is just a hair larger in diameter and the standard Dietz and Federal domes won't fit.
 

Wolfie

Member
Jul 3, 2016
287
Arrey, NM
So I did a modification. I received this, about a year ago, with about 8" of the wires hanging out the end. The filter was an 1/8" thick, somewhat flexible, strip of amber poly material that was 47" long. It was scuffed really bad. It had two magnets to mount it to a vehicle roof. Based on numbers on the amber filter, I am estimating its age at 30 years. I cut the arrows off the ends of the amber filter. Then I got some acrylic sheets and cut some strips to fit. It's not wired in yet...I'm gutting the interior and gonna run all my wires nice and neat when I put in the new interior. The question is, did I do a neat thing, or am I guilty of making a Frankenstein?
20180127_182618.jpg 20180127_172140.jpg
 

CrownVic97

Member
May 21, 2010
3,350
Hazen, ND
The question is, did I do a neat thing, or am I guilty of making a Frankenstein?

Nope, just a rad modification :D. Frankenstein is mixing parts from something else.
 
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marks

New Member
Oct 28, 2015
9
Stanislaus CA
Not sure if this qualifies. This is a project i have been working on for a while. Federal 184 beacons, grote par 46 20170914_235504.jpg imhousing, mars 888. But i put whelen led par46 and par36 lights into the vintage housing. It seems to be a great way to update old lights. I havent mounted everything into a usable configuration yet. I havent made any modifications to the beacons and everything can easily be converted back to origional sealed beams. Led par36 and 46 sealed beams are an easy way to update vintage sealed beam lightbars and helps with power draw.
 
Not sure if this qualifies...
(Read with Scottish brogue)
Video!!! WE MUST HAVE VIDEO!!! Are ye daft? How are we supposed to appraise your efforts without moving pictures? And why do ye suppose G_d invented Leese Neville alternators? To power all those incandescent amp-eaters!! (/end brogue)

Besides, it looks like a cool setup...:)
 

Skip Goulet

Member
Feb 23, 2011
4,241
Midland, TX
So I did a modification. I received this, about a year ago, with about 8" of the wires hanging out the end. The filter was an 1/8" thick, somewhat flexible, strip of amber poly material that was 47" long. It was scuffed really bad. It had two magnets to mount it to a vehicle roof. Based on numbers on the amber filter, I am estimating its age at 30 years. I cut the arrows off the ends of the amber filter. Then I got some acrylic sheets and cut some strips to fit. It's not wired in yet...I'm gutting the interior and gonna run all my wires nice and neat when I put in the new interior. The question is, did I do a neat thing, or am I guilty of making a Frankenstein?
View attachment 210348 View attachment 210349
Looks like it was done in very good taste and workmanship. A friend of mine years ago who engaged in roadside assistance had bought an old Sears van for that purpose. He came up with a decent TwinSonic that was all amber. He wanted the bar to be red/blue, with blue to the front and red to the rear since he couldn't run red forward here in TX. At my suggestion he bought a pair of red and blue TS domes and took them to a local plastics manufacturer. They were able to cut the red and blue domes in half and then rejoin them with blue on one side and red on the other; and they did an excellent job, which gave my friend a lot of nice compliments.
 
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marks

New Member
Oct 28, 2015
9
Stanislaus CA

I got the video done of my lightbar with led lights. I changed it up. I thought it looked better with just one beacon. I used par36 sealed beam housing and put the whelen sealed beam led's in as intersection lights and a traffic clearing light . When i get all the lights mounted on an actual bar i will put par46 flashing lights behind the red and blue steady burn lights.
 
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Skip Goulet

Member
Feb 23, 2011
4,241
Midland, TX
I had to look twice at this one to see what it is. Appears to be a 184 that has been canabalized and refitted with that custom base. The base reminds me of an ambulance that a friend in Lubbock had back in the '70s. It was a '61 lwb Superior/Pontiac ambulance that he bought from the long-since-gone Gold Star Ambulance in Clovis, NM. The ambulance came with twin Dietz two-lamp beacons mounted on the front corners of the roof. Because of the extremely sloping roof, they were outfitted with special contour bases much like the one seen on the light above. The car also had a clear-domed Dietz "hill light" center-rear and a center-mounted Q up front. Now, to all of this he added: twin blue Dietz lollipops between the Q and front beacons; red and blue FB1 Fireball lights over the rear door; a Federal 77GB "doubletone" siren on the rt. fender, and a Federal Director siren with the speaker on the left fender. Fortunately, the old beast came with twin batteries and a high-output alternator.

This gentleman had been the first black police officer at Texas Tech, and while still working at the Texas Tech P.D. decided to start an ambulance service to cover Lubbock's Eastside, which is predominantly black. At that time I had my standby ambulance service in Lubbock up-and-running, and he would bring the big Pontiac out to the racing events we covered as our back up. We had a '63 Pontiac Consort ambulance at the time. I had the good fortune to drive the big beast on an occasion or two when he would get caught on night time police duty at Tech, and one of my EMTs and I would cover for him at his ambulance service. That big ol' best drove like a dream; and with it all lit up, there was no mistaking it coming up the street. The downside was that he only lasted in business slightly more than a year and ended up selling the big rig out of state. As much as we would've liked to have had it, by the time he sold it, it just needed too much done to it.
 

JennyCop

Member
Jan 19, 2012
2,021
Sunny Arizona
Check this out, a strobe Twinsonic currently on eBay for $500!
 

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Wolfie

Member
Jul 3, 2016
287
Arrey, NM
Naaaah, it looks too professional...
Well when I die, the next guy is gonna be upset that most of the wires are not color coded. ;)

It may not get you points, but I would recommend that you keep a 5# dry powder extinguisher handy at all times! :eek:
Ha actually a silver bullet (type a) full of water, a silver bullet full of foam, and two Dry Chem ABC's. All are full sized. ;)
 

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