Round tail lights....orange or red???

[Rontx]

I have one set of each and the center on one is red and the other is orange....what application do they apply to?

Thanks,

Ron

[Grant]

I believe that the cars made before 1970 have the red center. 1970 and later cars have the amber center.

[leonine99]

I thought it was the 1600s had the red center and the 2002s had the orange.....I could be wrong. This is why I have a squaretail, no confusion there....!!!

Jeff

[Mars]

'66, '67 and early '68 1600's = red centers

'68 (early) 2002 = red centers

all others are amber/orange centers

exceptions: rare Italian rear lights which were clear.

[jwcurry]

I don't think the above is quite right since every 69 2002 I've ever seen, also has red centered taillights.

My early 70 has amber. My 69, 1666176, has red.

Who knows....probably another one of those "Hans, we've run out of red lights, use the new amber ones" type of thing.

Jerry

[eastsidebimmer]

My 68 2002 has red centers and I think Mike Self told me his 69 was would have had them, but they were replaced for some reason. As dumb as this sounds, I believe the red center taillights are US spec and the amber was Euro Spec. I had a 69 VW beetle that had Eurospec orange taillights/turn signals and the original all red ones in the parts box.

Quite the opposite to todays "Altezza" Euro disasters that are all the rage.

Even BMW stopped using rear amber signals in the past 6-7 years.

[Harv]

As dumb as this sounds, I believe the red center taillights are US spec

I think you are correct on this.

John

[dlhoovler]

...Mike Self has said his late '69 (spring 1969, shortneck diff, dual-line brakes, etc., etc.) came with red centers and a stuck-on brake light. When he found the problem, the lenses had melted. The replacements he got from the dealer were already amber-center. My early '71 (12/70) has amber-center originals. I'm not sure if Euro cars continued with the red centers, but I think the change to amber was a running production change that affected all cars (1600 & 2002, US & Euro), possibly affected by US regs.

So if you want to be original, 67-68 '02s almost certainly have red centers. 70-73 have amber centers. 69s could have either.

-Dave

[Delia]

Here's my '69 2002 (#1666747). The picture is from 1973. Those are red-centered taillights.

It's true that USA regs required red centers in 1969, just like "Ammurrikan Iron" but changing them to amber was more "European."

I don't remember when the factory started issuing the amber ones. Check your product line brochures from '69 - '72.

Cheers!

Delia

[John_in_VA]

I remember a buddy with a '71 or '72 automatic that had them since new.

[Grant]

I'm pretty sure that I got my information from the Macartney book. In the beginning of the book he lists the model year changes, and I'm pretty sure that it said that '70 was when they switched to the amber tail lights.

The reason I remember that is because my car originally had one of each on it, and I was wondering which one was correct.

[Mike Self]

centers thereafter. When my 69's red center lenses melted (factory misadjusted brake light switch) in Sept '69, the dealer was unable to get a new pair of red center lenses for me (NLA he said) so mine had amber center lenses until 2000, when Carl Nelson found me a set of red center lenses. (Thanks, Carl)

That being said, the factory was notorious for using up stock of "obsolete" parts so that '70 automatic may have been an early one and there were still some red center lenses laying around the factory, so they used 'em. Or that '70 was really a '69 that was sold in the 1970 model year...another one of those little 2002 mysteries.

mike