Larry N. Johnson

Jim,

From what I can tell the 6 tail light mod is more a West Coast style trend than East Coast. Does your car have California plates? If that's your car in the image above, I would be hight tempted to leave it alone. Very sharp and "period correct."

We can start a Club: "Mid-Year 6 Tail Lighters".

Fellow 6-Lighter, Larry

1snake

Yup. Ca. car and those are the original plates that were put on it when it was new.

Jim

Kerrmudgeon

I always thought the three light look matched up perfectly with the width of the bumper halves, and should have been sequencial, like t-birds and cougars. Maybe too much bling for the time......heh heh. I had the back-up light in the middle of the two reds for balance.




And you can see from all the original concepts and drawing that 3 a side was designed in from the start. Must have been the bean counters that nixed it. Look at all of them lined up in the Bob Wingate photo.......

Larry N. Johnson

Sweet ride!!!

OC-1

If you don't like 6 tail lights then you have to just hate that 67 back-up light. What's the story on that travesty?

While I like all the 3 to 7s, those back-up lights scream NTSB or whatever federal equivalent existed at that time.

The 6 tail lights look super. As for being too small, I watched a 61 go down the opposite side of the road at about 15 minutes after sunset. Could hardly see those tail-lights at a distance.

That primered coupe with 6 tl posted above looks hot!

1snake

I know what you're saying. I really had to do some soul searching but since the car is soooo original (except the taillights) I decided to return it to the NCRS "as delivered" condition.

Jim

Larry N. Johnson

Jim,
Don't leave our new little 2-car club. When is the body work scheduled? We need to talk, buddy.

Fellow 6-lighter.

1snake

The bodywork is being done when I have time. I do my own work (body & paint). I just spent a lot of hours getting the headlight openings just right. The factory specs. (.060 -.180) is just too sloppy for my taste. Sometimes it is a real pain in the azz being so picky/****.

Jim

Thorson

Sign me up for the club! I like the look enough that changing them back is way down on the things to do list.

Nitrodamus

I agree, it does look good!

The 64 Coupe I bought in 1968 had the six tail lights... it was also from California and I guess was a very popular and easy modification to do at the dealer. I was going to do the 68 Cougar sequential turn signal conversion... but never got around to it before I sold it.

Larry N. Johnson

Thorson,

You are in. What a sharp car!!


So now we are up to three!!!
Fellow 6-Lighter, Larry

PS: I like your plate!!!

Poorhousenext

I've got your busy rear end look....LOL



While you may consider 6 to busy, I consider 4 out of balance.

If you draw a straight line across the rear outside corner where the bumper starts to curve around the quarter panel, measure the distance from that line to outboard edge of first taillight, then measure from the inboard edge of the inner tail light to the inner edge of rear bumper where it turns down, you'll see the out of balance.

If you move the inboard edge of the outboard taillight opening over to where the outboard edge of the inner taillight is and then move the inner tail light the same amount over toward the inner edge where the bumper turns down, they will for all practical purposes be balanced between the line you drew and inner bumper edge.

Where you add a third taillight, because the inner taillight is centered between the two points it balances out the spacing too.

We played with doing it both ways and went for your busy look over what I call the out of balance look.



I look at subject like people that tell me a 66 Big block hood matches the lines of the car more than a 67 Big Block hood....LOL

There's a reason so many people use the 67 Big Block hood over the 66. It follows the line of top of both the front and rear fenders, complementing their looks. It just carries the look of the fender lines over to the hood...

You don't even need to stripe it for it to stand out. It say "Muscle" either way.



Everyone is entitled to their view, this is just mine. Like I heard today while watching speed TV. Well known car builder said. "build car for yourself, not others. If you don't your'll never be happy with it."

Larry N. Johnson

Hello Poorhousenext

Really cool car and great explaination.

You want in our club? Your membership number is 4.

Poorhousenext

I think I'm about number 1,991 on that club list already. There are quiet a few on this board and lot more out there....LOL

If you do a search, you'll find a few threads on subject, with pictures of other members cars.

I'll join, but only if I get to be in charge of all C2 club member's Design and Styling changes.... Believe I'd be number 3 as Jim is wavering on jumping ship.

Since his car came from California, he needs to see if his car was special factory order change, are if they were added at Dealership. The car with white stripes in the picture came shipped from factory like that. It's is documented as such.

Sky65

I like six and it was not just a CA thing. My car was done in the late 60s by the second owner in Michigan. See my avatar.

If you want something different try one on each side. Not my car...not even my pic. Someone else posted it here and I liked it so I copied it. This car is very clean looking.

sub006

Yes.

1snake

I bought my car from the original owner and have every piece of paper ever generated regarding the car including the original order form, invoice and window sticker. The extra lights were added after delivery to the dealership. As far as I know, none ever came from the factory with extra lights.

Jim

vetrod62

No. As stated before it was a styling concept dating back to the 50s.

The rear panels on the 61-62 cars and Sting Rays with two lights were too disproportional to the rear of the car and too narrow for the bumper size. Look at the other cars in that period and later. After all these years, most seem to look at two lights and see it as perfect because they were not there. Now if you want a more perfect proportional light for the rear of the car I would suggest............

I just love to stir it up and have many pictures of 6 tail light cars because they are just plane cool.

Larry N. Johnson

Sky65

You are in Member No. 5


Cool car!!! Welcome to the light side.

Fellow 6-Lighter, Larry

NOM61

If the point of NCRS is to promote restoration back to "as delivered" and 6 tailight cars were delivered to customers by an authorized Chevy dealership, then it seems like NCRS should award full points for 6-tailight cars that were dealer installs.
If it was delivered to the customer at the dealer that way then that should be the restoration standard, right?

DT