Head lamps

[Joe E.]

I am currently working on a 62 and it is a very original Corvette for the original owner and it has Westinghouse headlamps. The original owner says that it came from the factory with them and only one has burned out since new and he looked and found one that matched the originals.
Has anyone seen or knows if it would be possible that they did use something other than Guide lamps. The owner wants to get this Corvette judged but he does not want to change the bulbs to Guide.
Thanks for any help, Joe

[Joe L.]

Re: Head lamps

I am currently working on a 62 and it is a very original Corvette for the original owner and it has Westinghouse headlamps. The original owner says that it came from the factory with them and only one has burned out since new and he looked and found one that matched the originals.
Has anyone seen or knows if it would be possible that they did use something other than Guide lamps. The owner wants to get this Corvette judged but he does not want to change the bulbs to Guide.
Thanks for any help, Joe

Joe------


The owner does not have to change them to Guide brand sealed beams. If he's convinced the car was originally built with Westinghouse sealed beams, he should leave them that way. He can make his case to the judges. Most likely, he'll lose, but we're really talking about a pretty small point deduction and I think it's worth it to stand on principle.

As far as whether the car could have been originally built with Westinghouse sealed beams, I'd say it's very possible. These things were being used by the millions in 1962 and GM may have had to use more than their own in-house Guide manufacturing operation to supply them.