ive seen a lot of people running these lights. they look good, but a little over used. i was just looking at some clear ones on WIRTH'S CUSTOM AUTOMOTIVE. question is, is it legal to run clear tail light lenses if you run a red bulb? and how hard is it to put blue dots in these? you can buy the red with blue dots, just cant find the clear with them, any ideas?
I can't answer any of your questions so im just gonna be useless and talk about myself. haha. I think caddy lights are overused too...I take that back, i think caddy lights are used in the wrong application and put in wrong way too often. I put them in my car because my dad had some. I decided to use the clears from Roy Whirth as my back up lights. I love them. Heres a photograph.
That's how I'm running them... I couldnt find any red bulbs, but I found Little red bulb "condoms" at autozone. I like the way the clear lens lights up the whole frenched socket.
well, heres my thought. take a late 50's style bed, and take the berails and turn them into really long stretched out cones with thes tail lights frenched in them. somewhat simulating rockets in a way. jsut a thought. anybody on the blue lights in clear lenses?
In CA you must have a 2" diameter or equivalent area RED reflector on each side of the rear of the car. The clear tail light with a red bulb is legal but the reflector is law anyway. Some early 60's Caddy had just that setup, I don't rememeber which year though. Not having the red reflectors is what got all the tuner cars with the clear tail lights busted when they first got popular. I have red reflectors I cut out of some 240Z tail lights screwed into the "tunnel" above my Caddy lights on my truck.
you got any pics of this? how about some red recleftor tape on the base of the talight, so when people shine their lights they see it?
To blue dot a clear lense, i think you'd have to cut the lense off so that the hole left in it was the correct size for the blue dot. Remember, blue dots aren't legal in most states. As for teh red reflector, you could probably get away withput it, atleast for alittle while. Rods and customs don't seem to get hassled as much as the ricer crowd(example, all 50 states have fender laws, but look how many fenderless rods you see)
the cops here are cool, they just pull you over to talk about your car if you arednt doing anything illegal. had blue dots on my last car, no hassle except from a training cop, who just let it fly.
I know a guy who got so tired of getting pulled over for the (considered illegal in CA by some cops) blue dots on his '36 Ford pickup he took them off, and he's a Sheriff Lieutenant! Technically, ANY changes in any part of a car from factory stock is illegal in CA. Sucks don't it! If it was enforced more than the arbitrary way it always has been there wouldn't be any aftermarket non-OEM parts sold at all. Reflective tape won't get it, get some round tail lights that have the reflective part around the outside, '60 thru '64 Chevy, lots of mid to late fifty's Fords, whatever, nd cut and fit around your Caddy lights, or go to a plastics store and buy some of the prism cut sheet and red sheet and laminate them. I got some at Plastic Depot for cheap per lb a couple weeks ago. 758 W. 190th St Gardena CA 310 217-7080 http://plasticdepot.com/
blue dots are leagle in oregon pre 1959 the thing that missing from the re-pop cad lites are the factory defusers that make the lites glow and the ribs shine
This is the best I have now. I set the light in lower than center because I wanted it to be lined up in the curve of the side piece when seen from the profile rather than the center of the tunnel. The reflector is about 1" tall and 3-3/4" wide and is in the tunnel above the light. A 2" diameter is aout 3-1/8" sq and mine are 3-3/4" sq so it's "legal". You can't see the reflector in the pic but I think you can understand where it is. It and the light are screwed/mounted to a piece of wood that is held in the tunnel by two screws coming up from the bottom and one screw on the inside. I can take the whole mounting board out to change bulbs and to re-varnish the bed. Yea, what kind of weirdo would put Caddy lights in a flatbed!
so it sits flush with the back piece right above the the tail light? sweet truck by the way. nice wood flatbed too.
The Jalopy Journal
