tail light assembly swapping

[dclewallen]

I'd like to swap the tail lamp assem. on my 53 Starliner. I have heard that a 56 will fit but the price for a good pair is too extreme. Since Studebaker used this basic body style for many years, which lamp assemblies from later vehicles will bolt on. And are there differences in these assem. between the various body styles [coupe, hardtop, sedan, wagon, etc.]? Thanks for the help

Darryl C. Lewallen

[Roscomacaw]

Darryl,

The lite bodies from 53 thru 56 are straight across fit ups. and only from C-K cars. Later C-K (Hawks) incorporated fins or a different top moulding that would require said trim differences to be incorporated to accomodate later lite bodies.
Sedan and wagon lite bodies and lenses are not even close.

SI was having repopped bodies made for the 53 thru 56 C-K cars but the vendor that was making these lost all the tooling in a fire. The last I asked SI about it, they weren't planning on going into this venture again. [V] Certainly, it has to be outrageously expensive![:0]

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[buddymander]

hey wouldn't 62-64 Hawk taillight housings fit if you cut off the tail end of the chrome strip?

[Roscomacaw]

Buddy, you COULD do that although you'd have to slide the 53's cap strip back some to engage the protrusion of the GT taillight body. trouble then is that the front end of the strip no longer fits the little rise in the quater panel that it otherwise falres into. Since the GT's cap strip runs continuously to the front fender, that little rise in the quarter panel's not an issue. The little "dogleg" pot metal part of the cap strip takes care of that problem

Of course, you COULD get a pair of those dogleg pieces and dice them up to make a filler between the GT taillight body and the stainless cap strip. That might look OK. And that way you would have the BU lites on the car without mucking up the decklid with them.

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[buddymander]

excellent solution biggs. I'd like to see that cuz I want to eliminate the door and front fender chrome on my GT. Is there a difference between the earlier cars and the 62-64 GT's right in front of the taillight; underneath that chrome strip?

[StudeDave57]

I don't remember where I saw it, or whose car it was, but I once saw someone do as Mr Biggs suggested above, but with the little piece of trim from the front fender of a GT- the part with the lighted plastic spear... Now that was cool!

[8D]

StudeDave
San Diego, Ca

'54 Commander 4dr
'57 Parkview (it's a 2dr wagon...)
'57 Commander 2dr
'57 Champion 2dr
'65 Cruiser

[N8N]

I don't think you could make the GT taillights work on an early car with only trim changes. The shape of the quarter panel changed slightly in '62; when they went to the GT taillights they extended the little crease all the way back to the end of the quarter panel. If you look at a 53-55 (or '56 non-Golden Hawk) you will see that crease follows the stainless trim, and ends where the trim does. You can use either style on a finned Hawk of course, but you can't put an early quarter panel on a stock '53-55 and you can't use a non-GT quarter on a GT. Unless, of course, you want to put GT Hawk taillights on something...

Now if you were repainting the car, it wouldn't be any big deal to weld on some metal to fill in the little gap...

nate

--
55 Commander Starlight
62 Daytona hardtop

http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

[studegary]

quote:Originally posted by N8N

I don't think you could make the GT taillights work on an early car with only trim changes. The shape of the quarter panel changed slightly in '62; when they went to the GT taillights they extended the little crease all the way back to the end of the quarter panel. If you look at a 53-55 (or '56 non-Golden Hawk) you will see that crease follows the stainless trim, and ends where the trim does. You can use either style on a finned Hawk of course, but you can't put an early quarter panel on a stock '53-55 and you can't use a non-GT quarter on a GT. Unless, of course, you want to put GT Hawk taillights on something...

Now if you were repainting the car, it wouldn't be any big deal to weld on some metal to fill in the little gap...

nate

--
55 Commander Starlight
62 Daytona hardtop

http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

Nate - In general, I agree with you, but I think that you "mis-spoke" when you said;"...you can't put an early quarter panel on a stock '53-55..." I believe that you meant that you can't put a Gran Turismo quarter panel on a stock '53-'55. The '53-'61 panels were generally more available long after the '62-'64 panels. A little filler work made them usable on '62-'64s.

[N8N]

Of course! my fingers work faster than my brain sometimes.

nate

(and sometimes I'm just wrong...)

--
55 Commander Starlight
62 Daytona hardtop

http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel