Hey guys..I searched through previous posts but didn't find much. There's plenty of posts on the legality of them and how to install them but I didn't find much on the history of them? Anyone have any idea when and where it all started? They seem to be as traditional as chopped tops and lake pipes...there's gotta be a story behind them...... -Rich
If I'm not mistakin, early (30s?) Cads or Lincolns had stock bluedots. Think the early rodders thought they were cool. Seems my dad told me that story............OLDBEET
My take on the history: They were a minor and never very popular fad, always uncommon and ferociously persecuted as an easily spotted equipment violation when they did appear. Resurrected as an official mandatory nostalgia item in the 1980's, now used in conjunction with fake drive-in tray and fuzzy dice on all streetrods. An authentic 1980's nostalgia statement. Also a bad idea--most rods have tailights and brakelights that are already too dim--add bluedots and no one is ever going to notice your signaling efforts. Bang.
I'm told that years ago, only official vehicles (police cars, ambulances, etc.) had them so they could be ID'd from behind at night. Some creative hot rodder/customizer thought they'd look cool on his car... and the rest is history*. *as recounted by my elderly neighbor who was there "in the day", but now has Parkinson's disease and doesn't get out much anymore.
I dunno. If you have the good ones, they can actually make the lights seem brighter. My dad had the good ones on his 46 Fleetline. and if I followed him at night, it was like I was looking straight into a pair of purple lasers... and he just had regular 12V bulbs. But, yeah, they do seem to have fallen into that same aspect of "nostalgia" that also contains fuzzy dice.
As told to me by my hot rodder grandpa a while back"in the early 40' only cop cars and ambulances had the blue dot taillights, that way you could see them at night on the highways and if they looked like they where speedin', well then the cop behind 'em would just assume they had a reason to...but that was back when there where hardly any street lights and the highways where pretty dark, so the only way you could tell who was infront of you was by their taillights. Well guys thought that if they ran the blue dots, they could get away with speeding at night too and some did..for a little while at least. But i died out pretty quick as soon as the cops got wise, then it just became another invite to be pulled over". As told by "Gramps"
First ones I saw in SoCal was in 1947-48. They were on a 38 or so Ford coupe that cut in front of dad's 42 Ford sedan out on the Avenue in Ventura, California about dusk. The guy - drunk or stupid or both - lost it and rolled the car right into a gas station. Even though gas stations back in the day were small, he ended up away from the pumps so all that happened was that the coupe got banged up and the guy taken away by the Gendarmes. Police motorcycles at the time had a single red taillight on the rear fender and a couple of small clearance light sized blue lights on either side of the red taillight. Usually on a bracket to space em out from the fender a bit and other times they were part of the rear saddlebag set-up that may have been steel on some bikes. A black steel, almost an ammo box on top of the fender for the tube two-way radio and a couple of leather saddle bags on each side of the rear wheel along with the requisite red light up front, clipboard on the handlebars along with a handlebar mounted speaker finished off the police equipment list. The explanation for the blue-dot tickets was that blue lights were for police use only. They do look cool, but modern ones turn the taillights purple and visibility is lowered considerably. The lack of visibility one reason I never ran them. To be fair, my friends blue-dot re-pro 50 Pontiac taillights in his black primered 29 A full fendered roadster are brighter than the regular re-pro 39 taillights in my 32. Both running #1157 bulbs fwiw. The taillight buckets in both cars are painted inside, mine metallic silver, his gloss white and like Digger Dave said a while back - after running some light meter tests on taillight bucket colors - white is the most reflective. I used to run a pair of Bob Drake Halogen #1157 style base bulbs in the 32's taillights and they were considerably brighter than the regular #1157's, but one burned out so I went to the regular #1157 bulbs. I have a couple pair of re-pro 50 Pontiac taillights sitting on the shelf and have been thinking about installing those so as to gain some much needed taillight visibility on the rear of the black 32. What's been holding me back is that the taillight holes for the 39's need to be enlarged to fit the Pontiac's and I like the 39's so well it would be a big hassle to go back to them.
Yup, Just like those cheesy 29's on deuce rails, Deuce coupes, wide whitewalls, flathead engines, spotlights, cheater slicks, guide headlights, lakes pipes and all that other "80's nostalgia" crap. Better to buy a sensible Volvo or Honda and avoid all these stupid 80's nostalgia statements... I had blue dots on my 58 Pontiac in the 60's and I'll probably put them on the A coupe I'm doing now. I like 80's nostalgia statements I guess. Probably put cheesy tuck and roll in it too.
Had them on my '50 Chevy in 1958 but for some long forgotten reason traded them for a pair of lowering blocks. If I come up with a spare set of lens I'll probably put blue dots on the '50 Olds. Got to admit I don't know the history and just liked the way they looked. The tail lights back then were nearly all dim compared to todays billboards.
I do remember them as being rare back in the late 50s. It could have been because being pulled over was a certanty. The cops didn't have 7-11s to keep them busy. Interestingly 50 Pontiac tail lens are plastic but the original blue dots are glass. Probably a hold over from the 48s. One of mine is cracked.
Had them on my 51 merc. in 60 or 61. Cost me a ticket one night after running the local police, they were waiting in my driveway when i got home about two hours later. said i had the only blue dots in town.
Sure Joe, just like those. I think the point was that regardless of their popularity - or lack of - in the 50's or 60's they were seen as manditory equipment for anyone building a nostalgia rod in the 80's. Sort of like Guide headlights right now.
Blue lenses in the center of the red were standard equipment on 32-34 Packard V-12 models, as well as V-12 and V-16 Cadillacs from 31 thru 34, I think. It was a way to distinguish the car from the lesser models at night. As a point of fact, blue light is used because it travels farther than other colors of light therefore can be seen from a farther distance, a benefit to police and other emergency vehicles. The light from the back of a Packard 12 was ideed intense and very attractive. While it does lend a purple cast to the lighting I believe it's much easier to spot at night...good reason for havin em in my opinion. Fad? Sure, why not.
My grandfather had '39 taillights with blue dots on his '31 Roadster back in the late '50s and he did infact get pulled over! Guess the cops figured it was too much of a distraction -Dean
I had a pair on my horse when I was in the Cavalry in 1863. Got my ass shot one night by a sniper who spied me from afar. That purple glow illuminating my rear quarters musta been the tip off. Blah blah blah blah blah.... If you like 'em, run 'em. If you don't then don't. Next topic please. (Sorry... rough day and I had to take it out on someone. You understand, don't you? I knew that you would. Gimme a beer.... no- not PBR! I said a BEER!!!)
"Yup, Just like those cheesy 29's on deuce rails, Deuce coupes, wide whitewalls, flathead engines, spotlights, cheater slicks, guide headlights, lakes pipes and all that other "80's nostalgia" crap" But with the big difference that those other things were demonstrably around in early rodding--look in 1938 Muroc books, Custom mags from 1952, Super Stock in 1962, etc. and you will immediately spot those things on every page. I was around the fringes in the late days of tradition, and saw them all, coveted the parts in the catalogs and ads, and saw people who were older and actually doing neat stuff using all these devices...But whereinhell were the blue dots?? I was noticing unusual cars as far back as the early fifties, and continually questioning my father about anything old or odd that appeared. I sure would have noticed cars emitting a purple glow--where were they? I don't think I saw ANY on the road before the street rod revival. My only encounter, probably around 1960: I spotted a new boxed pair for a '48 Ford (our old family car, still mine) in a gas station in Tennessee and pointed them out. My father just frowned and said "illegal". Are they in the old mags at all? I don't think so, though I've never searched for them deliberately. I'd bet that those that made it onto rods were immediately ticketed into oblivion. PS. What about fuzzy dice? California only, or what? Never saw any of those--recently found a slightly snide mention in an early sixties R&C in the column where they posted little pics of new stuff from the schlock catalogs. Did those ever actually exist on the street before the time of the NSRA?
Back then, things like blue dots were harder to come by. Most customizing could come from other cars and junkyards or be modified or made. Add on stuff probably had to be mail ordered because you wouldn't find it in your local parts house or speed shop. Before the days of mass marketed, made in 3rd world fuzzy dice, girls used to make them for their boyfriend's car. More popular on the rear view mirror were garter belts and of course every high school senior had to hang their tassel from graduation on the mirror. I remember a lot of shrunken heads and trolls too. Even rosary beads. People have been sticking stuff on rear view mirrors as long as there have been rearview mirrors. I'm not gonna get into the tail draggin gook wagons with curb feelers, extra antennas and all those texas stars on the skirts...
Story I heard was that they were used during the war (wwII) to make it more difficult for planes to see the lights and or the source. This is also the reason I wa given for the half covers for the headlights. I am not sure how accurate this is but it seems believable when my pop talks about the forced black outs they had in CT during the war when he was a kid.
I'm almost 60............I remember blue dots back in the day...I even bought some from "Honest Charlie" when I was a kid, for the car I was gonna get!! It might be a local thing, but I remember quite a few cars with 'em. If you like them run them.....I do!
The story I heard about those fuckin fuzzy dice was they originated as a give-away air freshener from some car wash chain out west. How it took off to be a "must have" on any tri 5 chevy I'll never know...but they turn my gut. I actually had a plan to build a 57 2 door sedan drag car similar to "project x" and name the thing "No Dice" as well as an international road symbol (the red circle with the line through it) with fuzzy dice behind the line. I can't say enough how much I hate that shit. Blue dots tho...hey my Harley had one. Might put one on my sled one of these days. I used to sell em at swap meets, real glass, $5.00 a pair. Had like 300 of em. I think I'm down to my last 30 or 40.
You could tell a lot about a guy, by what he added to his car. Dice, eight ball, blue dots All gambling "bling" with one thing or another. Money, Law or Life.
I had the blue dots and fuzzy dice in my nova SS in the 80s, as said they were mandatory equipment. The dots actually made the tail light brighter as long as you could line it up with the center of the bulb, anywhere off to the side and they were not worth installing. I would love to put them in my cadillac but drilling glass lenses may not be so easy.
Had a State Patrol cop tell me your asking for it to get pulled over.He said they are illegal in most states because they look like emergency vehicle lights at night. I said Yea it is a emergency for the dumb ass behind you to STOP! He didn't see the humor that I did.LOL.
I am positive this is a regional thing, with some states outlawing them and others allowing them. My uncle (a hardcore car guy) and dad (ditto) put them on their cars in the late 1950s and early 1960s and thought they were really cool. They lived in the Akron, Ohio area. (Home of the Ernst Chevy and the Polynesian.) By the 1980s, though, they both thought they were kind of hokey.
The Jalopy Journal
