A GOOD READ by Seth Doulton
If you ever run out of books to read about Chevrolet and GMC trucks, visit the Department of Motor Vehicles. They have a book called the VEHICLE CODE that helps tell the story of the trucks as they were changed to conform to the law. Many things we take for granted today did not exist before they were put into law. For instance, seatbelts, two taillights, and reflective taillights. As you may remember, 1955 and 1956 panel taillights had no reflecting qualities, and in 1957, Chevrolet redesigned the lens to include a reflecting area. The cars had reflecting rear taillights for years prior to the trucks. That brings up the fact that most of the laws were written for the cars first and they would follow up on the trucks a few years down the line, the two reasons for this that I can think of is that first there weren't as many trucks being produced back then, plus they wanted to be easier on the manufacturers so that they could gradually change their vehicle instead of all models in one year.
I wonder if this will change now that more trucks are being produced than cars?
Here are a couple of things straight out of the book that changed the look of trucks and you may have wondered why. All vehicles manufactured after September 15, 1961, for sale in the lower 48 states had to have amber front park or turn signal lenses. This is why there are two kinds of lenses for 1960-1966 Chevrolets (clear or amber). Same goes for 1962 through 1966 GMC lenses. 1962's were clear and 1963-1966 were amber. You might have noticed that some 1955-1957 Chevrolet trucks have amber lenses and some have clear. Well, none of them came with amber. However, the early 60's vans used the same lens, only in amber. This gave some people the idea to use them on their 1955-1957 pickup, just to be different. You may have also seen amber 1958-1959 park lenses around. I can tell you firsthand where they came from because I was the first to start selling them directly to Chevrolet truck owners.
This was back in the early 70's, when the clear lens was still available from G.M. had noticed a Checker Cab that had the same park light lens as a 1958 and 1959 Chevy pickup. I got hold of the Checker Cab company, and it just so happened that they had a large inventory of both clear and amber lenses that they wanted to unload Guide, the manufacturer of the lens, had never made it in amber for General Motors because it had become past model in 1960, two years prior to the change to amber. Now of course, they reproduce them in both amber and clear.
I will take credit for the 1958-1959 amber lens making their way to the truck scene, but I really can't for the 1955-59 amber lens. I believe how that evolved was that someone back in the early 60's needed a park lens for their 1956 Chevy pickup. They went to the dealer to get a clear one and the dealer only had an amber one in stock. It all probably began there.
Quick! Do you know the fastest way to tell the difference between a 1967 and a 1968 Chevrolet truck? That's right. All trucks manufactured after November 13, 1968, had to have side marker lights not lower than 15 inches from the ground. The cars had this one done to them in 1965, so G.M. changed the trucks for 1968. There are many changes that the marker light went through from reflective to lighted, etc. It's all in the book!