Hello everyone. I am a vintage car buff like everyone else here. unfortunatly I do not have a T as of yet (have a 58 caddy 51 nash 59 nash met 64 ford f-100) so I love vintage cars as you can tell. My question to you T Experts is this. I recently came across a Clymer Winshield Spotlight (pistol Grip) and I have not been able to find much info on it. I know it came off of a Model T. It seems to me this might be a hard to find part. All mounting hardware is there and it is in nice shape overall (nice lens) Can anyone tell me if this is worth something. It seems to me this must be a very early spotlight.

I've seen them on ebay once in a while. Don't really remember what they went for.

Kyle,
They go through the windshield & were quite popular, the one's for Packard, matched the headlight rim design. Floyd Clymer is somewhat of a legend in the antique car society, at 14 he was the youngest car salesman, even recieved a letter from Teddy Roosevelt regarding that fact, selling Cadillacs & Fords. Devloped the Thru the Windshield spotlights, was an Indian Cycle dealer & probably the most prolific publisher of auto related books, He's been gone for several years but a lot of his books, especially regarding Model T's are still available.

As far as worth wouldn't have a clue, I've seen them from 35 to 150 dollars.

Alex

I think Alex is "spot on" with his price quote.

Last time I saw a nice Clymer, thru the windshild pistol, grip spotlight on ebay, it went for $56.00, which is probably about right. It all depends on who and how many happens to be in the market for one at the time you decide to list it. Before ebay, when the only place you could find them was occassionally at a swap meet, flea market, or antique car show, they went for alot more, but since ebay came along and provided everyone with an easy to use worldwide marketplace for people to list their, once, hard to find, collectible items, prices have gone down drastically. That is true of just about everything. While it is good for the new collector, it is bad for those of us that have been collecting for a long time and have watched the value of our collections steadily depreciate instead of appreciating, as we thought they would. I have collected antique Edison phonographs, cylinder records Victor phonographs and Regina and Polyphon disc music boxes since 1980 and prices used to be much higher until so many flooded the market due to ebay. For example, before ebay, a once, rare and hard to find Edison Home suitcase style cylinder phonograph could fetch as much as $1,000.00. Now you'd be lucky to get $600.00. Law of supply and demand. When supply is low and demand is high, prices rise. When supply is high and demand is low, prices go down. Ebay and other online buying sites has caused the latter to occur. Jim Patrick

I agree with Jim. I too have some vintage phonographs, primarily Edison (Gems (red & black), Fireside, Home, etc.) a coin operated Regina, battery operated radios, etc. I have always collected things because I enjoyed them and not for the $$ value. As it often turns out, things one likes are often somewhat rare or desirable and have a $$ value. My Moto Meter collection and screw on hub caps are worth less now because of e bay, but the plus side is now one has a world wide market and it has become easier to find the right buyer. Some things change and some things stay the same. I have an Acme brand through the windshield spot light. I have several letters from Clymer. I wrote him as a young boy. He was from Longmont, CO and I spent sometime in the summer of 1948 at Greeley, CO not far from his home town. He had moved to the Los Angelas area.

I have the Climer thru-the -windshield cutter tool for installing them. I plan on donating it to the MTFCA museum.

That's true Darel. Things that were scarce and rare before ebay, now come on the market on a weekly basis. This does drop the price but allows collectors to find and own things they would have never dreamed of owning ten years ago. For instance, I first saw a Model T engine belly pan support in the Clymer Accessory book in 1970 and thought then, that it was a great idea to prevent failure of the pan support ears, but never dreamed I would see, much less own one, but thanks to ebay, I now own two. One for each of my Model T's. Jim Patrick

Jack,
That has to be rare, in one his "ScrapBooks" he has an old ad with photos showing how the installation was done.

Alex

A friend found it at Chicasha a few years back and bought it. I got it from him recently. To bad I don't have instructions.

A friend found it at Chickasha a few years back and bought it. I got it from him recently. To bad I don't have instructions.

Here yu go Uncle Jack....

info from one of Clymer's books in the 50's.

I have one made by Fyrac that is almost identical to the Clymer. I have not installed it yet but I intend to. How does one cut a hole for this without the Clymer circular glass cutting accessory? Jim Patrick

One method of "drilling" a hole in glass that I have heard of (I have not done it yet) is to make two templates of the hole and clamp the windshield between them. Then put the glass in a bead blast cabinet and "wear" a hole through the glass. They say it works well. I would suggest trying it on a test piece first.

Be_Zero_Be

Jack Daron. Would you be so kind as to post a picture of your Clymer thru the windshield hole cutter? Jim Patrick

Hey everyone thank you for the excellent dialog posted here from my original post. I learned alot. As I said I dont own a T (yet anyway) but I do own a number of restored vintage autos. I Also do sell parts and collectables on ebay but I dont know if I will sell this. I think it is a neat old piece that would look cool even just sitting on my shelf with some of my other vintage automotive collectables. I would consider selling it (or even better trading for other vintage auto related something) to someone who would use it on their vehicle rather then to someone who would want to resell it. I can email anyone pics (tried to post them here but I'm not smart enough) if you can use it and have a cool trade. Thanks all. Kyle Z

Here are three pictures of the cutter. I don't think it is all there,but not sure.

Messed up one.

Jack,

That's probably the cutter itself, the photo's from the old ad shows someone using a long rod off what looks like electric power drill. Being plate glass it probably had to clamped pretty tight.

Alex

If you have used safety glass' in the windscreen to replace old plat glass (as you should!) then cutting can be a bit trickier, Best talk to a glass installer.
Results and technique may vary according to the type of 'safety glass' used.
Cheers
Adrian

Adrian,

I agree, with plate glass it's a simple cut, with safety glass, you could spider the whole windshield if you don't know what your doing.

Alex

Sorry for the longish post and number of links, but wanted to
cover all of the “Windshield Spotlight” patents plus a couple of
other style mounts and the hole cutter.
All involve one of the same inventors and or assignee, and other
than the cutter, are listed in the order of their application dates.

Patent # 1501704 – Inventor – Oliver H. Clarke
Assignee - The Clymer Manufacturing Company
Applied for March 17 1920 – Issued July 15 1924
Mounts through a hole in the windshield.
http://tinyurl.com/mhuejr

Patent # 1571709 – Inventor – H Clarke
Assignee - The Clymer Manufacturing Company
Applied for Mar 17 1920 – Issued February 2 1926
Mounts through a hole in the windshield.
http://tinyurl.com/l8k79w

Patent # 1560458 – Inventor – Karl M. Wise
Assignee - The Clymer Manufacturing Company
Applied for April 7 1921 – Issued November 3 1925
Mounts through a hole in the windshield.
http://tinyurl.com/ksdc9f

Patent # 1605439 – Inventor – Erbert Johnson
Assignee - The Clymer Manufacturing Company
Applied for July 5 1921 – Issued November 2 1926
This patent covers the windshield mount only, (but shows a spotlight).
http://tinyurl.com/l83qmh

Patent # 1547977 - Inventor - H.E. Vanderveer
Applied for October 26 1921 – Issued July 28 1925
This version appears to be mounted through the vehicle roof.
http://tinyurl.com/ndyemo

Patent # 1496689 - Inventor - H.E. Vanderveer
Applied for November 10 1921 – Issued June 3 !924
This version appears to be mounted through the vehicle roof.
http://tinyurl.com/mmb3fo

Patent # 1656457 - Inventor H.E. Vanderveer
Assignee - The Clymer Manufacturing Company
Applied for August 8 1924 – Issued January 17 1928
This one appears to go through the space between the upper and lower windshield glass.
http://tinyurl.com/m89tp4

Patent # 1651353 – Inventor Gedor W. Aldeen
Assignee – Fyrac Manufacturing
Applied for February 15 1924 – Issued December 6 1927
Portable windshield cutter.
http://tinyurl.com/l5jg6u

Using the theory that one might as well be hung for
a sheep as a lamb, here is a list of the Fyrac patents.

http://tinyurl.com/l37fmd

http://tinyurl.com/m8ktp9

http://tinyurl.com/n4y894

http://tinyurl.com/lpafkm

http://tinyurl.com/l4cadl

Hi Jack. Thank you for posting some pictures of your cutter. You said it was a "Clymer" hole cutter, but I noticed the word "Fyrac" on the round flat cutting portion, which is the brand name of the spotlight I posted photos of. Is "Fyrac" another name for, or a subsidiary of "Clymer"? Thanks again. Jim Patrick

Jim,
Fyrac may have made them under license from Clymer which was quite common at the time. Figure Packard owned the patent for the steering wheel & later the H patern for gear changing.

Alex

Gedor Alden applied for a patent for a “Portable Windshield Cutter”
on Feb 15, 1924 and received it on Dec 6, 1927.
He applied for another patent for a “Glass Cutter” on Sept 3, 1925
and received it Sept 26, 1933.
He applied for a patent for a “Holder for Glass Cutter Cartridges”
on Mar 5, 1928 and received it on Feb 23, 1932.
All of his patents were assigned to Fyrac Manufacturing.

It’s hard to say who infringed on who, but I did not find a patent
for a cutter assigned to Clymer.

Clymer sold the “Through-The-Windshield-Spotlight” to some
Denver oilmen for $50000.00, just before a patent fight erupted.

A paragraph or two of where he spent that money and how he became
a publisher can be read here...
http://tinyurl.com/kqfluy

It also has Climer on it. The glare hid it. The tool is numbered 5577 and it clearly states it is not for sale,but leased and remains the property of Fyrac-Climer.