Parking light differences...

[montana_highboy]

I was out at the salvage yard earlier today and noticed a few things, maybe this is old hat to most but it was new to me, the '73 and '74 parking lights are self contained in a metal housing (lens is seperate) and the '75 and up are in a plastic housing (lens attached) but yet i found two seperate '74's with both, a metal and a plastic housing, was this one of Fords other mid year changes? and if so when did it change over? on a side note, when did Ford switch from the clear lens to the amber lens on the parking light? was that mid-year '76?

 

[TexasNomad]

Hmmm not real sure on that, I know ( err pretty sure) they changed to all plastic in late 75 early 76...
THat's a good one, i'm not real sure..

 

[velocityboy]

Ford seems to be good at those mid-year change dealies. I had issues when searching for a driveshaft and yolk assy for our '96 E-150. All the info I found online and all the salvage yard dealers said our van had an aluminum d/s and OD xmission. Except ours has the old-school metal ds and c6 xmission (yes, it's all original). And good luck explaining this to the salvage yard dealers- as they classify everything by year- I literally spent all day hitting every yard in town and puzzling them all until I finally found a shaft off some older model van- 94 I think. ...and even then, the yolk didn't match. (wound up having to do the u joints and reuse the old yolk).

I'm still not entirely sure what the deal was with the discrepancy. ...the only conclusion I can come to is a mid or early year changeup by Ford.

 

[LEB Ben]

To be honest...I thought the steel to plastic housing switched between 73 and 74. I thought they went to all plastic in 74...maybe it's possible that Ford was up to their crazy antics and used surplus parts the next year...who knows. But I was pretty sure '73 was the last year for the metal housing, and then com pletely swapped for '74.

 

[LEB Ben]

Just checked your post again...and noticed the amber lens switch...yes they did switch from clear to amber lenses midyear 76. So the only discernible difference between a 76 and 77 would then be the badging on the fender instead of on the cowl in 77.

 

[montana_highboy]

To be honest...I thought the steel to plastic housing switched between 73 and 74. I thought they went to all plastic in 74...maybe it's possible that Ford was up to their crazy antics and used surplus parts the next year...who knows. But I was pretty sure '73 was the last year for the metal housing, and then com pletely swapped for '74.

I always thought the metal to plastic conversion happened in '73, i thought the bumpsides in '72 were the last to have metal housings, obviously i was wrong, apparently it happened sometime in '74 or '75 the best i can gather.