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if you are still looking for door handles try Dan Sommers. He was reproducing them

I belive you are thinking of Don Sommer, and sadly he's gone to the great garage in the sky.

Question in regards to the headlight switch wiring as the factory wiring diagram is a bit small and hard to follow.

Here I have redrawn it (crudely) and added some notes as far as where I think things go.

I'm confused by what the difference is between #15, #16 and #17. They all appear to have to do with headlights. Yet #5 is the feed to the dimmer switch.

Perhaps the pre-war terminology is confusing me or I just don't understand how the headlights work in different ways depending on City/Passing/Driving compared to a post-war car with just Hi/Low.

Also, I don't see on the diagram where #12 attaches to. Cigar lighter?

Since I am using a "modern" harness, I'm looking to wire the switch in a post-war config (Hi/Low) only.


Thanks for any help.

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Prewar switch combos are confusing. Here is a switch wire layout from the 37-8 SM. It craps out when expanded too much but might be clearer than what you have/ Also a bit from another manual detailing positions. Another post from an older thread regarding a 38 explains the filament combo in country which I believe is the same as 37. Believe city driving is the only position which utilizes the dimmer sw and only on one bulb. The AEA wiring diagram available at the PAC website might be better as far as showing wire runs and hookups than the factory drawing.

If your car has the sealed beam conversion I believe they paralleled city and country terminals at the headlight switch to enable power to the dimmer switch in both 3rd and 4th position and disconnected the wire which only went to the one right side filament in country. Dimmer switch alone was then used to control the paralleled sealed beam hi-lo filaments just as in cars after sealed beams were introduced in 1939 or 40. There is also a bit in a 36 service letter on how to change wiring to headlights if customers wanted the dimmer switch to operate both filaments.

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Yes but his son Dan has continued with some reproductions. He had parts for my Rollson which has 37 handles.

That's super helpful Howard. I'm always amazed at how you can cross-reference all that information!

So based on the info, I suppose I am hearing that I can leave the terminals where wires #14 and #16 are disconnected from anything, and just the #5 wire to the dimmer should be sufficient for my Hi-Low operation. But, the switch has four positions. Off, (1) Parking/Tail Lights, (2) #15-B active (#5 not), and (3) #5 active (#15-B not).

To make it work like a later switch, if I bridge terminals #15 and #5 together with a pigtail, then I'll have a dimmer feed in either position (3) or (4). Otherwise, if I accidentally put it in position (3), I'd have no headlights as the #5 dimmer feed is dead.

From the dimmer, I'll have the standard two feeds for the Hi & Low filaments and then another feed from the HI position back to the Hi Beam indicator on the dashboard.

I corrected my drawing based on the clearer AEA diagram.

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Got all thr major sub-groups of wire harness pulled through into the engine and under the car via the original routing in the kick panel area.

It was much easier to loom everything as specific sub-harness (lights, engine, tail section, etc) and then sleeve those in loom and pull them through vs. having one massive harness that is pulled and then having to branch everything off.

I still need to finish pulling the tail section wiring all the way to the back. Currently it's pulled through and sitting under the car. All the engine bay wiring is in a flexible mesh type woven loom, but the tail section is in asphalt impregnated loom to protect it. It was a pain to pull all that wiring through it.

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I was talking to Dan Summer today. He can make straight handles for your 1937 with locks on both sides.

Good to know! Do you know what he charges for his handles?

Dropped the ignition switch, glove box lock, and door handle off at a local old-school locksmith to have some keys made.

The ignition is the most important as I need it to finish the wiring.

I have no idea if all the other locks on that car are mismatched or not. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Just to try, I checked all the locks with my original '54 keys to see if, by some miracle, one would match, but sadly no-go. But it did show me the lock cylinder on the door handle is trashed, as I couldn't even get the key to go in. I think someone went at it with a screwdriver.

I called four different locksmiths, but all went to voicemail, and no one called me back. I guessed when I led with, "I need keys made for a '37 Packard", that was enough to scare them off.

Finally got one that picked up the phone, and they referred me to this one in a local downtown area that looks like it's been there for 50 years.

He was more than willing to figure it out and get keys made for them.

So I hopefully should have those back in the next day or so.

We are bracing for "blizzard-like" conditions over Thursday and Friday. So that guarantees a white Christmas in the Chicagoland area.