Placement of the Delta silverray light on a prewar Schwinn motorbike front fender-first time drill!

[mr.cycleplane]

this tutorial is for the prewar schwinn motorbike person drilling a hole in the front fender for the delta silverray light. this session is only for the wide fender basic version ba107(etc)-not the narrow fendered b107 and will cover 1935-1939 models. would also apply to the 1938 cantilever motorbike version with delta silverray light. please study the pictures below. in general the position of the light moved forward almost yearly. this was to better throw the beam of light onto the road(as weak as it was). the 'final' position forward almost has a 'too far forward look' to it but this is to accommodate/compensate for the movement of the light beam on the springer fork models. i have a yardstick in the pictures for reference to show that there are multiple positions. the measurements are from the truss rod arms to the rear tip of the light base. the next measurement is from the forward edge of the 1/2" hole for the light to the front edge of the fender. i would imagine a 1/16" margin of error should be enough. this is to cover how the fender was cut or if there is slight damage to the leading edge. of course the light is centered top center-edge to edge. these measurements and the positioning of the light is approximate and the margin of 1/16"-1/8" error could apply. drilling a hole in the fender will require at least some restoration skills. this tutorial is just to put you in the ballpark and not go off wildly and drill a hole without a basic knowledge of where to drill! see my truss to base tip measurement photo.

Approx year..................................truss to light base..............................hole to fender tip

1935 (brown)................................1 1/2"......................................................8 7/8"

1937 (red)........................................1 7/8".....................................................8 7/8"

1938 (black).....................................2 3/4".....................................................8 1/2"

1939 (green)....................................3 1/4"......................................................7 1/4"

 

[Freqman1]

Good info. With that we can start looking at both restored and, ahem, ‘original’ paint bikes to see if they are correct or not! V/r Shawn

 

[mr.cycleplane]

So true Shawn! I think I have seen several motorbikes that sadly had multiple holes in the fenders-one had three holes hidden under the base(if you don't succeed at first drill-drill-drill again!). On others the lights aimed up in the sky-horrible. Another would have been great for checking for nails in the tire at night! What a mess. I know I have done my share of.......let's just say-taking a plain bike to the next level!

 

[SJ_BIKER]

Haha now this is rock and roll information!! Much needed..thanks for posting!!