Late 20's spotlights

[Lahti35]

So if I was driving around in '29 with a Chevy sedan and needed a spotlight for extra night time light or busting up some teenage reefer madness at the local "parking" spot what would have been available at the time? Did Chevy have an accessory spotlight and/or what aftermarket manufactures would have been making something at that time?

[lump]

There were LOTS of aftermarket spotlights available back then. Seemingly every hardware store sold them, in lots of different brands and configurations. 

[lump]

Here is a scan of a 1926 dated wholesale hardware supply catalog, showing several models by two different manufacturers. 

[Rusty_OToole]

Street lighting was poor or non existent back then. If you did much night driving a spotlight was handy for finding road signs, street numbers, etc.

 

In the teens and twenties you could buy a guide book with directions from one town to the next, they painted bands of different colors at the top of telephone poles at intersections, you found your route by the colored bands. You needed a spotlight to see them at night.

[lump]

I just realized that I had one of those "Little Gem" style spot lights on my little "race car" which my Dad made for me in 1956, and which I drove in my first antique car parade in March of 1957. However, my spotlight was used to look like a scaled-down headlight, on my scaled down car. LOL

[Spinneyhill]

Oh boy, weren't you a lucky lad! That sort of stuff was only in my dreams.

[lump]

LOL. Yes I was, more than I knew at the time. Dad had no money, but he was an apprentice sheet metal worker. He made the rocket ship and the hood of the car for me. Some dear family friends owned a shop which repaired mowers and go-karts, etc, and they got together with Dad and used lawn mower parts to make the chassis and drive train. I always get a chuckle when I see the old brake system in photos... Left-handed lever for one-wheel brake. No foot pedal for brakes. LOL.