i am thinking about frenching the headlights on my 38 plymouth as i am switching to 12 volts and have to replace the bulbs anyways. i know you can buy these kits, but, would love to do my own. any thoughts? what about the chrome rings? how about the new modern bulbs with newer plastic mirrored bulb holder/reflectors out of a wrecking yard?any help would be appreciated.

I made my own for my 51 merc. Cut out some 18 gauge steel about 2 inchs wide and however long to fit around your headlights. welded it and ground it down. I also welded a piece of 1/4 inch cold roll ( round steel) to the outside edge of the 2 inch wide piece I cut. This gives it a nice round edge. I then cut a piece of stainless steel just short of 2 inchs wide and the same lenght of the piece of steel I cut to fit around the headlights. The stainless fits on the inside around the headlights to give it a finished look. If you polish it , it looks like chorme and hold its shine. You use the org trim ring to hold the headlight in place.
I have the clear headlights installed .

Got any pics you could post up? Sounds like an interesting way to do it.

I am considering converting to frenched headlights on my '39 Olds. Do the kits retrofit into the old headlight buckets without any fabrication required?

I have already converted to 12 volt and used a kit to replace the original 6 volt bulb sockets with halogen sockets. But the light beam is very diffused probably because the halogen bulb placement is not centered correctly for the original reflectors that are still in place.

So, thought a complete conversion kit would give me good beams.

Check with HAGEN rods or hagen street rods. They have some frenching kits, I don't recall if they need any fab skills or not