Slick 60's

My 63 had the orange lenses when I bought it, but several years ago I changed to clear. Why are their two different color lenses? Was it an option? Or are the clear just something that the aftermarket came up with!?

I was going to reply that the 63 was clear and the 64 was amber, however I have a pic from twenty years ago that shows my 63 parts truck with amber. Maybe early 63 had clear and mid year it went amber. Possibility #2 is the fade factor. Was your clear lens once amber?

The 1961-64 were all originally amber with a clear bulb. The clear lenses came stock on the 1959-60 models. I guess just to be different, some people would run the clear lens, with an amber bulb, as a slight mod item.

My 63 has Amber. My buddy's 62 has clear. They appear to be the same size lenses.

Edit: the 63 I have my uncle gave to me and is completely bone stock aside from the radial tires and new shocks. The 62 my friend has his grandfather bought brand new and is also completely stock and unmolested. It still has a bias ply spare tire lol. I'll look at the part number on my 63's parking light lense and pull the part number off my buddy's 62 next time I'm out his way. That might give us some insight into the question.

Aussie ones had clear lenses 65-66. I used to run amber bulbs, but having an amber park light is a no no down here (I have no idea why) Soooooo ours have clear indicator/park lenses and bulbs. They may have made the clear lenses just for the export models

I had big red roadworthy'd about a year ago and whilst it's 51 years old they still complained that I had amber bulbs.

For you young guy, at that time the federal government decide that all new cars had to be amber and a lot of people changed the lens if amber was ones were available.
I remember plastic that was shaped to go in the clear lens to change the color, I put these on my 59 convertible (man was I cool)


Johnny

Thanks everyone for the insight, think I'll polish up my original orange ones and put them back on.


Black Moon Hot Rods

The information about government mandated changes is correct but I don't remember the exact dates. Same with t he seat belt law. Original Ford lenses were available for these trucks for a long time because these lenses on the 64 and earlier were the same ones used on the vans up to 1970 and perhaps later. Part number prefix was something like D0UZ. If, you are at a parts swap keep this in mind. I have bought a few sets of Evilbay over the years. Most likely, I paid more for originals than repo's.

My 63 with amber says - Tpt-59 FOMOCO Sae-PI-68-EC
My friends 62 with clear - Tpt-59 FOMOCO Sae-PI

To be exact, the year that the amber park lights were federally mandated was 1963. 1962 and before they were clear. There were a lot of people that bought after market lenses for their 62 and older trucks.

Well I guess I should check local laws... I've had a set of NOS clear front parking lenses for awhile for my '66. Even bought a set of amber bulbs. I figured I'd be okay to use them since the early '70s dent-sides used clear parking lenses. Guess I'll look into it further before installing. That is, if I still have them... truck was broken into recently and I lost my toolbox, which they may have been in. But I really think they'd look pretty cool (and rare) on the front.

Norm