Muscle Car concealed headlight system

[jefflilly]

Which Concealed headlight system do you feel is the meanest looking ever installed on a Musclular vintage ride?

[jefflilly]

Well I believe the 69 Camaro SS/RS but the 1970 Torino is right there. Man where do I come up with these questions. Working on these cars is messing with my mind. Have you ever rebuilt the flip up lights on these cars? They can drive you crazy just finding the parts. Jeff

[MrPbody]

I know, I sound like a broken record... '68 and '69 GTO. Camaro is a pony car. Torino looks okay, too. As far as I can recall, GTO and Torino are the only muscle cars that had hidden headlights.

Jim

[KManiac]

You want to talk about concealed headlights? Here is my two-cents worth, having grown up a car nut in the 60's and 70's.

The majority of concealed headlight systems consisted of fixed mounted light assemblies with flip-up covers that acted like eyelids. Systems other than these will be described where applicable.

Camaro - Some of the 1967 though 1969 models had concealed headlamps. These were the "flip-up" design, but were hinged vertically.

Chevrolet - Some Impala's and Caprice's had concealed headlamps in 1969 & 1970.

Corvette - Starting with the 1963 Sting Ray, the headlight assemblies either rotated up or flipped up for many years.

Pontiac - Some 1968 & 1969 LeMans/GTO's had them, as well as the 1968 Grand Prix (the last full-sized GP).

Buick - The 1965 Riviera had a sophisticated concealed headlamp system. The front end styling of this year model was identical to the original 1963 & 1964 Riv'. However, the 63 & 64 had fixed headlights in the grills and the vertical pods on either side of the grills contained massive parking light/turn signal assemblies. In 1965, the headlights were removed from the grills and mounted in a fixed, vertical position inside the vertical pods. The headlight covers were two pieces and resembled the light pods of the previous two model years when closed. When you turned on the headlights, the upper half flipped up into the fender, the lower half flipped down into the fender and revealed the vertical headlight assemblies in each pod. The 1966 & 1967 Riv's used a simpler flip-down headlight assembly. The headlight assembles moved and would flip down in front of the grills when needed and retract back above and behind the grills when turned off.

Ford/Mercury - Selected models of full-sized Fords & Mercury's had concealed headlamps from 1968 through 1972. The same was true for Fairlanes and Torinos in 1969 & 1970. All Cougars had concealed headlamps from 1967 through 1970 and this may have continued through 1973.

Chrysler - The 1967 through 1969 Chrysler 300's had concealed headlights. Selected full-size Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths had concealed headlamps from 1970 through 1972.

Charger - The Dodge Chargers from 1966 through 1970 all had concealed headlights. The 1966 & 1967 models used a rotating headlight assembly. When you turned on the headlights, the headlight assemblies would rotate 180 degrees to reveal the lights. The succeeding years used flip up doors. The concealed headlights became an option in 1971 & 1972. A concealed headlight returned on the Dodge Magnum in 1977 through 1981.

That's the history of concealed headlights during the "Muscle Car Era" as I remember it during this sitting. Now, I am sure I either forgotten some or mistakenly mentioned others. Feel free to add or correct this list as you see fit.

You will notice that I did not differentiate between "Muscle Cars", "Pony Cars" or generic "High Performance Cars". As far as I am concerned, any car that can do 0 to 60 in 7 seconds or less is a "Muscle Car" regardless of how the factory marketed the platform. And that includes my 300-K's. If anyone begs to disagree, I invite them to meet me at a traffic light when I am behind the wheel of either my "Dual Quad, Ram Inducted" 300-K or my "Factory 4-Speed" equipped 300-K. I just love to enlighten the "unknowing".

[MrPbody]

I was thinking about this over the weekend, and realized I missed the Dodge Chargers. The early one ('66, '67) were pretty rare and seldom seen. The '68-'70 model DID also offer hidden lights. Not bad looking, either.

Jim

[M3FordBoy]

'68 Galaxie XL...just cause that's what I got ha.