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I have clear turn signal lens instead of amber on the front end.
Other than maybe a 70 or 71 front grill was replaced is there another reason that is is the wrong lens?
I changed out the clear for the correct amber lens. Thanks to all for your advice and sharing your knowledge to help me out.
Hello,
Welcome!
First post!!
A 72 car would be expected to have had amber lenses when it left St.Louis.
70-71 cars had clear lenses with amber bulbs while 72 cars had the amber lenses with clear bulbs.
Regards.
Hello,
Welcome!
First post!!
A 72 car would be expected to have had amber lenses when it left St.Louis.
70-71 cars had clear lenses with amber bulbs while 72 cars had the amber lenses with clear bulbs.
Regards.
Nice looking car.
How about a few more photos?
That is partially correct as I believe early '71's came with the clear lens and amber bulbs and then changed mid-production year to amber lens and clear bulbs. All '72s have amber lens and clear bulbs.
From: At my Bar drinking and wrenching in Lafayette Colorado
Most GM park light lenses and tail light lenses have the part number along with the notation "GUIDE XX YR" where "XX" is an SAE code and "YR" is the model year for which the lens was designed and approved. If the same exact lens was approved for multiple years, it could have a date code different than the year of the vehicle. For example, a 1972 Chevy passenger car lens I have here is an amber front park lamp/turn signal lens. Molded into it is the following: 5964676 GUIDE 1P 72, which shows that it is a 1972 lens. Your lenses should have a part number, code and date on them. Just check the cast ID in the lens. It would be unlikely that a 1972 lens would be installed in a 1971 vehicle, but it is possible for a 1972 lens to be in a 1973, if the lens design was unchanged. Since GM shifted to amber lenses and clear bulbs in 1972, it would be very unlikely that the assembly line would have installed a prior-year lens and installed "special" light bulbs to accommodate a single car coming down the line with the wrong lenses...
Front end damage to a half-century old vehicle is pretty common. If a body shop had a set of '71 lenses laying around, they would have installed them when repairing the car. Or a previous owner just thinks the clear lenses look cool. Don't over-think this. Somebody just swapped lenses - people swap parts all the time.
Lars
I agree with Lars explanation but I've also seen this can be different as I just changed my 1971 backup lights to brake lights. All the lens I have on my '71 are dated '68. The used '71 lens I bought were also dated '68 but were the '71 design. Back in the day this date code is what you could look at to tell what year the car is but after seeing these discrepancies I'm not so sure now. I know my car has never been hit in the rear end.
I found where I saw that the lens changed in 1971 from clear to amber but again, this is on the internet so take it with a grain of salt.
Above left: New fender eggcrate style grill on 1970 through 1972 Corvettes. Middle and right: Slight wheel flare on front and rear fender was added in 1970 to minimize damage from debris kicked up from the wheels.
Right: Eggcrate front grill was new for 1970 and would continue through 1972. Turn signal was updated to a clear lens backed up by an amber bulb on 1970 Corvettes.Below: 1971 grill; note the three exposed screws, two on the bottom. 1970 grills are lacking the two bottom screws. 1971 Corvettes had a mix of amber turn signal lenses or clear lenses with amber bulbs. All 1972 Corvettes had amber turn signal lenses.
I guess a judging manual may have this information if it's indeed true GM went from clear to amber in the middle of the 1971 model year.
2025 c3 ('68-'73) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Interesting. When I got my old '71 with a May 1971 build date it had amber front turn signal lens. The car was never wrecked or had any front-end damage so that took the repair shop putting in what ever they had available theory. I almost contributed it to someone a long time ago changing them from clear to amber just for looks, why? Don't know. During my restoration I purchased clear lens and amber bulbs to make it more true to a '71.
I just dug out the lens from my "left over" parts box and found this.
While we’re on the subject, my August of 71 built no hit 72 still has the provision for fiber optics in the front turn signals. I’m not sure how long into 72 production that applies to.
While we’re on the subject, my August of 71 built no hit 72 still has the provision for fiber optics in the front turn signals. I’m not sure how long into 72 production that applies to.
My guess is when GM discontinued the FO in 1972 they just used up the '71 housing until gone. Save money. This has turned into an interesting topic to me.
Last edited by theandies; Mar 31, 2026 at 02:56 PM.
Hello,
Yes it's interesting to watch how changes were reflected by parts on hand and parts already in the supply line.
A good example is the demise of the headlamp washers.
This affected the washer pump, the rubber hoses running forward to the headlights, and the nozzles and holes in the headlight bezels.
My mid Jan. 71 had the 5 port pump that the washer system required, the bundle of hoses but cut at each end, and no nozzles.
Regards,
This is how the 2 extra nozzles on the pump were handled.
There is a partial VIN on the original engine block, as well as on the frame, and (often) on the transmission. This contains the year, and unique serial number, but for a 68-75, you must also know if that engine originally came in a coupe or a convertible. And for 72-75, you'll also need to know what engine came in the car. Usually this is easy if you have the engine itself, as the suffix code wlll tell you. So some information is implied, but a complete VIN is not stated. While there is only one car of that year with that serial number, you may not know the full sequence, but rather a set of up to 6 VINs.
Anyway, my greater point is that the OP owns a beautiful C3, and in the 50+ years since it was built, lots could have happened to it, and some of it you might not want to know. Hopefully only the lenses were swapped do to a PO's preference, and the OP can change them back to his preference (and did!).
But going deeper into the weeds may lead to some discoveries that are best left undiscovered. Like the person who bought this alleged 71 LS-6 from Mecum for a hefty price, and couldn't flip it on Bring a Trailer for half that before it was revealed that the car was an "homage" at best, and the auction was withdrawn.
While we’re on the subject, my August of 71 built no hit 72 still has the provision for fiber optics in the front turn signals. I’m not sure how long into 72 production that applies to.
My late-May '72 has the fiber optic fittings in the grilles. I wonder if these were kept so as to be backwards compatible as replacement parts for earlier cars.
Out of curiosity I looked at all my lens on my 1971 and found this:
Clear front turn signals:
Front and rear side marker lights:
Tail lights. I've converted my car to have 4 working break lights so the inside housing and lens were changed over to brake light hardware. I bought the buckets and lens off a forum members which were sold as 1971 lens. These are the date codes on both lens:
VIN Says 1972
Above left: New fender eggcrate style grill on 1970 through 1972 Corvettes. Middle and right: Slight wheel flare on front and rear fender was added in 1970 to minimize damage from debris kicked up from the wheels.
Above left: New fender eggcrate style grill on 1970 through 1972 Corvettes. Middle and right: Slight wheel flare on front and rear fender was added in 1970 to minimize damage from debris kicked up from the wheels.
