The driver side headlight on my 1924 Touring is slightly twisted/bent inward toward the radiator and pointing left. I have heard that the way they corrected this "back-in-the-day" was to use a large bender bar and simply bend it back where it should be.
Since I don't have such a bender bar and don't want to gouge the hell out of the paint (I have thought of using a stout pipe wrench), any ideas for me without complete disassembly of the headlight mount? Bend cold or hot?
Mike:
I wish you live closer I have a couple of them. I would use a rag around the bracket so you don't chip the paint and I would bend them cold. I use the bender bars for a lot of things and always do them cold. By the way the bender bars come in different sizes. The KRW comes in a medium size. You can tell the bender bar for headlights because the head is the same angle as your fenders. They have a head on both ends of the bar. Surely someone in your club will have at least one.
A bender bar will correct the up and down focus of the lights. If the light is facing left or right, the stem is twisted or rotated in the fender bracket. A bender bar will not correct twist. To correct twist it may be necessary to heat the stem and grip the headlight bucket to twist it into alignment.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.
Easier for me to use the torch and heat and bend to get the headlamps right. These are drum style lamps for last project. Bent the shape prior to finishing the lamps.