Cord lights on

ACD Forum: Cord Headlamps

I have seen photos of Cords with their lights on in several publications.

One such Cord was Josh Malks', the Sedan, finished in Cadet Gray Metallic. There isn't much to see with the headlamps on in daylight.
If you have a 1937 Cord with the late 35 amp, 2 brush generator and you have excellent silvered reflectors and 50 candle power bulbs, the lights are fairly good. You could perhaps run over the beams at 70mph.

I recall a Cord Westchester we restored 30 odd yrs ago. It belonged to a doctor from Iowa and he wanted me to deliver it half way and then he would drive it the rest of the way home. He wanted to meet in a rural area he designated somewhere north of Emporia, Kansas at 8 am.

This was about 150 miles from our shop. So we got up and drove the Cord to the area he picked at 5 am As I recall it was in the fall and not only dark but rather cool. This was an early 1936 Cord and had the Auburn style heater. I still remember the glow of those headlamps and it was rather boring driving along with literaly no traffic. So, I turned the radio on. Of course, this was a.m. radio and at that time of day, mostly farm reports were all that was on the air waves. Since it was fairly cool, I also turned the heater fan switch on and the glow from that switch know was a nice complement to the beautiful light from the instruments. I had driven this way for about one hour and was somewhere north of Newton, Ks not quite half way yet. I took notice of the readings on all the gauges and the tach held between 1850 and 2000 rpm with the speedometer indicating in the 60-65 mph range. The tempature held around 180 degrees and the oil pressure stayed near the 40 mark. The fuel gauge needle was dropping slightly and the head lights were getting dimmer as the amp meter was showing a minus of 3-5 amps. Well, you had to have lights so, the radio and heater both were turned off thus moving the ampmeter needle to the positive side slightly. The old girl had to start right up when it was turned over to her owner, so I had to practice my whistling and hope that convection would keep me warm from the firewall and heater both.

We arrived at the previously agreed location with a little time to spare. I remember that I took a chamious and wiped the dew off so it would look nice. Since this was a rural setting, along came a farmer in his old truck on the way to feed cattle. I'll never forget his comment as he stopped to observe this beautiful Dark Blue Cord. "Gosh", wait untill I tell Mable the wife, I always wanted to see a Royal Royce and now here's one right on our road, Hot Damn"! Of course, the usual question of where did you get those cars and what's it worth??

The Doctor showed up a few minutes late as the sun was starting to shine on the Cord and he culd see it for a couple of miles down the road. He looked it over, we shook hands and bade farewell, with an uneventful trip back to Iowa for him. The back up vehicle was warm and a nice breakfast in Emporia started the rest of an unusually ordinary day. Some where I have a photo George Waken's yellow convertible going down the road in freezing rain with verticle icicles and frozen stars on the hub caps.

Stan

ACD cars are rare around here. I am trying to divulge the cars and their history, and I had no pictures of the Cord "Lights on". Now I do,Thanks to all of you.

Look at my avatar on the left.

The Cord headlamps aren?t lit in this picture but they are in the raised position in this photo, the factory recommended to lower them in daylight for efficiency, streamlining ---- are they sealed beams or bulb? Only the owner knows for sure.

They glow in the most friendly way with a 6 volt system, they will light your way and not blind oncoming traffic like the blue halogen welding lamps they use today. Plus with a good set of fogs, well, just delightful driving, if the battery is charging properly.

Now for a picture of a Cord in the freezing rain with the heater blowing, the radio on, and the headlamps up and on at night. Dreadful thought for the generator, and the operator.

Does anyone have pictures of a 810/812 Cord with its lights on?