C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

[Rod37853]

How rare/odd is it for a C2 to have 6 tail lights (2 back-up lights & 4 brake lights - RWR RWR)?

[Ed Jennings]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

I have seen a lot of midyears with the six tail light modification, but never one with back up lights. That might have been done later as an afterthought. Not a bad idea though, if you are going to go with the six light routine.

[Tom B.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

A friend is in the process of buying a '64 with a custom front end and six tailights right now. It has back up lights in the center on each side.

Tom

[Joe L.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

Rod-----

It's not too rare, at all. In the 60's and 70's, adding an additional pair of tailights to 63-67 Corvettes was quite popular. Although, usually, it was 6 red tail lights, other combinations are easily possible. Many of these have been converted back to stock configuration now, so they are more rare now than they used to be.

If you're asking how rare it was as a factory installed option, then it's quite rare. In fact, the number of PRODUCTION Corvettes built with 6 tail lights was ZERO. So, that makes them very rare.

[Ray C.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

I believe the year and options may have something to do with the back-up lights. My 65 has the Z01 Comfort Option which includes back-up lights. The previous owner added a third set of red lights to the inside of the cluster. Back-up lights were optional in 63 and 64 and I believe they became standard in 1966. 1967 has a totaly different style of back-up light.

Ray

[Michael S.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

Joe,

Was not Bob Wingate's 67 "FSO" car not a production car? It was built completely at St. Louis, on the production line with 6 tailights and delivered new to a Chevrolet dealer with 6 tailights.

Granted, it had a little help from Joe Pike however it was a production car car non the less.

[Jim38243]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

I owned a black 1966 coupe with six lights and I do believe several of Bob Wingates corvettes came with 6 lights installed at the factory.In fact there is an article about Bob Wingate in the Volume Twenty nine number three winter 2003 of The Corvette Restorer. I also recall reading another article about him recently as well, I think that was in Vette-Vues.

[Terry M.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights *TL*

Read the two Restorer articles carefully and you will not find any assertion that the six tail lights were installed at St. Louis. The car was delivered to Clippenger Chevrolet that way, but the mechanism that produced the six tail lights, as well as the other non-production details, is not yet known. In fact, the owner/author of the Wingate car/story is trying to find more information on the process that produced that car.

[Franz E.]

[Joe L.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

Franz------

So, you're the guy that converted all those mid-years to 6 tail lights! I wonder if one of your conversions became the car immortalized in Jan & Dean's classic song "Deadman's Curve". If you recall, one of the lines in the song went "......all the Jag could see was my 6 tail lights.....". Not too long after that song came out, it proved to be incredibly prophetic when Jan Berry was nearly killed when he demolished his 63 Stingray (with 6 tail lights, I think) in Los Angeles.

Seriously, though, in the 60's and 70's I used to think that all mid-year Corvettes actually came with 6 tail lights since so many of those running around California had them.

[Michael S.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

Terry,

The article written by Bob Radke and published in Vette Vues Magazine specifically states:

"The next 1967 Corvette that was built for him (Wingate) is the one I have found and restored. This car was done completely in St. Louis and shipped directly to Wingate."

"The factory guy mentioned that they could probably do something like that in St. Louis if the wanted too, althought Wingate didn't think much of it at the time."

Page 15, Vette Vues, Volume 31 , number 4.

I guess the term "done completely in St. Louis" could be interpreted several ways. I understand that statement to mean at the "St. Louis Corvette production facility". Unless it was done next door at the truck/car plant.

If Bob Radke is still researching the build, that is great. I mentioned this specific car per the information reported by Bob his published article.

Thanks for your response.

Mike Strinich
#11202

[Joe L.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

Mike-----

Since 6 tail lights were certainly "not typical of factory production", I would think that the only way to verify if such an installation were actually original and installed on the line (or, even, off-line) at St. Louis would be to inspect original documentation for a car. If it were done by Chevrolet at St. Louis, then it would have to appear on original documentation. Certainly, Chevrolet would not do it for free and the factory would have to have some "official" instruction to do it. In either case, there would have been documentation.

Although pre-67 Corvettes did not have tank stickers, they did have build sheets. Occasionally, one of these may even be found in a car. In any event, they definitely did have window stickers and these should have a reference to the 6 tail light installation. Unless Chevrolet did it for free and "off-book", which I seriously doubt. I've yet to see any documentation for any of these "6 tail light factory installations". That's not to say that they did not happen; they very well may have. Unfortunately, without some sort of valid, original documentation, I would, personally, consider all suspect as to their factory origin.

[Terry M.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights *TL*

Mike you are correct, and the exact same wording is in the article in The Restorer. My editorial skills are less than I thought. I should have asked Bob the basis for that claim.

[Tom B.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

At the very least you would think that there would be a line on the build sheet or window sticker indicating "Special Modifications" that were done off of the production line.

Tom

[John H.]

Re: C2 with 6 tail lights/back up lights

Bob's (Wingate) car's tank sticker clearly shows "Build To FSO", which indicates that it was built to an Engineering-approved deviation to production specifications approved/issued by the Chevrolet Fleet & Special Order group (which was a subset of the Sales Department). The crux, however, is that the only way to find out what deviation(s) that particular FSO authorized is to have the original F&SO letter for that car, and that's what Bob would just LOVE to get his hands on, as it would answer all the questions he has.