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I have a early build 71 car dec of 70. it has some tail lamps with guide 69 an some with guide 70. they must have been changed at some time in the cars past. are would they still have used a 69 part that late?
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Re: 71
Lyndon -
The year date molded into the lenses doesn't necessarily indicate model year usage - it's the year the lens design was released and tooled; when a taillamp lens was carried over from one year to the next, the year date molded on the lens didn't change. I'm not familiar with the details of early C3 taillamp lenses - maybe someone who is will respond to the specifics you noted. -
Re: 71
According to the NCRS TIM & JG for 1970-1972 "In 1970 through early 1971 (about s/n 8000) a conical-shaped lens is used with concentric grooves on the inside of the back-up lens. The glue attaching the clear plastic center is often carelessly applied. Later 1971s and all 1972 tail lamps have a rounded lens (GUIDE 19 SAE ST171) with a checkerboard pattern for the back-up lens and GUIDE SAE AR 71"
You should purchase this manual thru the NCRS online store. It has illustrations showing these lens.Dick WhittingtonComment
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Re: 71
Lyndon,
My 71 Top Flight (Dec 14 build) has the dates of : Guide 19 SAE RA 70 for the back ups, and Guide 19 STI 70 for the tail light.
ChasmanComment
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Re: 71
I have the judging manual, the car has never been hit an I have had it since 1982, it just has some 69 an 70 tail lamps. I would have thought they would have all had 70 in them. I was thinking that maybe of the strike in 70Comment
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Re: 71tail lamps
As John has posted previously, the date refers to the first year of production, not the year the lens was manufactured. If there is no change, a new lens is not made for the next year. I think outer lenses are the same from 1968 through part of 1971. My l972 has 1971 on all four tail lamps as the style changed in late 1971 production. My side marker lenses have 1970 because that was the first use of them.Comment
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Re: 71
lyndon----
There's an old-time "old wives tale" that used to say you could tell the year-model of a car by looking at the tail lamp lenses. In the old days, tail lamps were a "styling cue" than manufacturers used to change nearly very year. So, this old "axiom" used to work. Those were in the days, of course, when each nameplate only had a few models and something needed to be done each year to "differentiate" the new model from the "old" model. Tail lamp lenses were an easy and relatively cheap way to "freshen" the cars.
Even in the "old days", though, if tail lamp lenses were used unchanged from year-to-year, then the "system" used to ascertain the year model of the car by reference to said-lenses did not work.
For Corvettes, this was especially true since the same lenses were often used for successive model years.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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