84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Topic: 84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused (Read 2310 times) previous topic - next topic

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #15 – August 03, 2007, 10:24:36 PM

Ok. So why would I have one all silver metal one and a faded chrome black plastic one? Could one be an 83 and the other an 84? That would explane a bit to me, since 83 was the first year, they might have made it nicer or as a test thing maybe?

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #16 – August 04, 2007, 01:40:20 AM

Could it be a turbo coupe tail light? We all know the trim and such was blacked out on the turbo coupes. Maybe the early lights had chrome or black to match the trim?

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #17 – August 04, 2007, 01:52:09 AM

Could be. Either way, I like the metal one, I wana paint the center of it black, maybe white could be intreting

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #18 – August 07, 2007, 05:04:37 PM

Could the emblem on the driver side be a C Pillar emblem? The Cat emblems on the C Pillars are metal, I assume the same with birds. Maybe someone didnt want to hassle find a tailight, and took the C Pillar off an unsuspecting Tbird.

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #19 – August 07, 2007, 05:12:36 PM

The 1984 Cougar taillights had two different versions. And I'd talked about them for years, nobody ever heard of what I was saying. But I proved it to Ric when we met up at a swap meet last year. We found two NOS '84 Cougar taillight lenses, one left (XR7) and one right (GS/LS). They are noticeably different. The XR7 does not have chrome around the Cougar head and tiers; it's black. The LS/GS version has the normal chrome in those areas.

So Fila, it's possible that one of your Thunderbird taillights is Turbo-Coupe spec, while the other is non-TC. It also could have been a running change somewhere...but I'm betting it's two different types. Someone that knows early TC parts would know about any taillight differences, I'm sure, maybe someone over at NATO could help.

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #20 – August 07, 2007, 06:15:01 PM

Thanks Eric. I'll pull them one day and get better, detail pics. I might try playing around with the 86 style tail lights as I like the style a bit better and I have a matching set. If they fit I'll get a good set ( mine are cracked)

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #21 – August 08, 2007, 10:18:42 AM

Quote from: 84 Fila;165865

Ok. So why would I have one all silver metal one and a faded chrome black plastic one? Could one be an 83 and the other an 84? That would explane a bit to me, since 83 was the first year, they might have made it nicer or as a test thing maybe?

Fila, welcome to the real world of cars. If you are just repairing a driver any part will do but if you want your car to be correct the devil is in the details. As Eric mentioned there are at times running changes throughout the production year as well as different suppliers.

There is a reason correctly detailed muscle cars go for big bucks and the folks that restore them get paid well. Do you think you’ll see a concourse car with 2 different taillights? There are also differences between models. To the best of my knowledge 83 Heritage has silver plastic emblems with a chrome trim around the rim of the lens, 83 TC has a silver plastic emblem with no chrome trim, 84TC has a black emblem with chrome around the edges of the emblem and no chrome trim.

NOS can mean several things too. Service replacement parts, many times called NOS, are usually made much later and don’t always match what was originally on the car. After all they are just replacement parts. Date coded parts and true NOS can be different than service replacement parts.

So if you are just looking to keep your car on the road, grab anything that fits. If your goal is to have an $8000 Fila, you’ll have to do your homework, spend lots of money and do it right. Even then the market will decide what a car is worth.

84 Tail Lights.. I'm confused

Reply #22 – August 08, 2007, 04:21:33 PM

This metal/plastic bird emblem thing intrigued me so I dug out my parts books to see if there was anything listed.
I found it interesting that even though the 1983 & 1984 taillights look the same, each have their own part number. So it may be the difference is in the bird emblem material as Fila has found on his car.

For 1983 there were two taillight assemblies listed in the parts book:

E3SZ-13404-A   w/o bright chrome on lens
E3SZ-13404-B   with bright chrome on lens

In 1983, both the base Thunderbird & the Heritage model got the lens with chrome trim. The Turbo Coupe received the taillight w/o the chrome lens.

1984 is listed the same way, however with a new 1984 base number:

E4SZ-13404-A   w/o bright chrome on lens
E4SZ-13404-B   with bright chrome on lens

In 1984, both the base Thunderbird & the elan model got the lens with chrome trim. The Turbo Coupe & Fila models received the taillight w/o the chrome lens.

Brent