The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1937-38 LED Tail Light

Apparently there is a 1937-38 (maybe for other years before 37 or after 38) LED tail light conversion.
This is something we have needed for these trucks. The trick with these tail lights is the license plate illumination. The stock, original set up is very unique with the license light bulb being it's own lens in a rubber washer set up to water proof it. This stock set up is, in my opinion, antiquated .
Has anyone installed or using the conversion available from at least one of the vendors? I'd be interested in opinions on this "new" product.

I thought the pickups used the same tail light as the car. Not true?

No - the pickup tail light is larger then the car tail light - same shape.

What's got me confused Joe is the part about the light being unique and the bulb having it's own rubber washer. The car tail light housing is nothing like that.
Car tail light.

I see for the pics of your truck the light is different though so I won't be able to help since I have no experience with those.

The 31-39 truck tail light actually looks like the 31-36 car, but it is larger. Here is a picture of one on the catalog page of The Filling Station Catalogue, upper left hand corner of the page.

https://www.fillingstation.com/catalog/flippingbook/index.html#207/z

I'll take your word for it Joe. My confusion came because your thread is titled '37-'38 which should be identical between the pickup and car and don't have a special purpose tag light.

Tiny, imagine the housing with a hole about 3/4" drilled in the top of the housing. Then imagine a rubber grommet fit in the hole with the top of the bulb fitting up against it from the inside of the housing.

...I'm with Joe on this one but I guess back in the day it would have been "sufficient".

Why the $15 difference at The Filling Station, between the
BA25 and TR64 for the AD trucks? Both appear to be the same light.
dg

Unless the pickup housing is different from the car there is no such thing is the problem. I'm going to assume they are different and just shut up I guess.

The correct tail light for the 1931-39 Chevrolet truck is the SA-140. If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, you can see the rubber grommet that the bulb pushes against inside the housing to create a "lens" for the license plate light. The light is actually shown in the picture upside down. The correct tail light for the 1940-54 Chevrolet truck are all of the tail lights listed and shown. There are several through the years and the correct one for the late 30's car is a tail light similar to the truck tail lights with or without tail light lenses for license plate illumination depending on whether it was a right or left tail light.
The tail light that was introduced as the in the 1940 truck model year has for many years been assumed to be the same tail light that was used as the 1931-39 truck tail light. It was not, but was very similar to the early to mid 30's car tail light in shape, but was actually smaller in size. .

Tiny,

Yes, the car and truck tail light housings and lens are different in 37/38...

Mike B

If you want to see one in all it's radiant glory, NOS, here it is!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1936-1937-1...82501256?hash=item1a06c19b88&vxp=mtr

And what a bargain that is at $350 plus you pay the shipping.

But, that link does show the grommet and seat for the
tail/licence bulb very nicely Joe. Din't see a part number
on that nos box though.

dg

That Ebay seller also thinks that light fits passenger cars back to 1931, but he's wrong...

They are being reproduced by Jim Carter.

Item Number: LG158, Retail: $67.50 EACH

Mike B

You are right , Mike. The passenger car light, while very similar in looks, is smaller in overall size and does not have the unique license plate light. It has a glass lens.

The tag light lamp/grommet set-up was used on passenger cars from 1935 and back. The first Chevrolet tag lamp under glass was the 1936 cars.

Pre-1937 cars had 4-5/8" lens with "Chevrolet" stamped in the glass while 1934-39 trucks had a 5-1/16" lens with the "Bow Tie".

Mike B