- Messages
- 297
I have two different sized license plate lamp brackets When did these change and what is correct for early vs latter cars?
license plate lamp question : two different sizes what is correct , when did this change happen
- Thread starter boss-tiger
- Start date
- Messages
- 333
Do you have pictures of both, curious to what I have
Austin Healer
Gold forum user
- Messages
- 1,381
Very early cars (MK1) were 7.5" left to right, later MK1, MK1a and Mk2 are 8.5" Best guess is after Alpine Series IV 94100887... so Spring of 1964. Tiger B9470865LRXFE has the smaller version . I have a couple of the wider ones from Series V Alpines I've parted out. My Mk2 and previous Mk1a had the wider bracket.
The parts book shows that the Alpine bracket was changed starting with B395016692 with a production somewhere the week of 07/31/1967. The notes in the parts book shows the use of two brackets until car # B395016779 built the week of 08/07/1967 with these VIN's being series 5 production. After that the early bracket was superseded by part # 2236802 which was used until the end of production. The parts book doesn't say anything about the width of the bracket. Just sounds like another change made by Chrysler going to a different vendor to save money. The bottom line is that if you needed to buy a bracket starting in 08/1967 then the only thing available was the later one.
Austin Healer
Gold forum user
- Messages
- 1,381
Simply not the case. Both my late '66 MK1a Tiger (2 owner car) and early 66 series V Alpine (2 owner car) had the larger bracket as does my current and previous Mk2 Tigers built in Feb and April '67. The Alpine was B395003535 making it a possible late '65 build. I also have a transition bodied MK1a (July '65 build) with the larger lamp bracket. In any event, that's not what the parts list shows. It shows a supersession from part #2231205 to 2236082. The notation for part # 2236082 says "up to intro" of B395016692. What that means is confusing. Normally an entry for a change is written as "FROM" car number Bxxxxxxxx. I would think that the notation means the later part number was used up to B395016692... and then with a few exceptions (about 30 cars or so) this bracket was used to the end of Series V production.
But if the change was really in July of'67 then all Tigers would have the narrow version as the Mk2 Tiger production ceased in June of '67.
The change point I listed B94100887 shows the introduction of a gasket between the body and the bracket... I took a leap of faith in guessing that Rootes introduced the gasket when they changed the bracket... though, in practice, I have never seen a gasket in this location in 30+ years of tearing the cars apart.
But if the change was really in July of'67 then all Tigers would have the narrow version as the Mk2 Tiger production ceased in June of '67.
The change point I listed B94100887 shows the introduction of a gasket between the body and the bracket... I took a leap of faith in guessing that Rootes introduced the gasket when they changed the bracket... though, in practice, I have never seen a gasket in this location in 30+ years of tearing the cars apart.
Last edited:
FYI, It seems that being consistent in production was not something done by Rootes. It seems that Rootes used what they had available and in stock. That may account for differences in the size of the bracket being discussed. If you read the parts book you'll find parts used varied to meet regulations as to where the ship to location might be.
Austin Healer
Gold forum user
- Messages
- 1,381
BMC did the same thing on their cars and made notations in the parts books similarly. Usually these were confined to lighting requirements, but sometimes it also applied to engine specifications and exhaust as well. Cars bound for the German market would have octagon knock offs instead of eared ones (a requirement from 1958), cars for France had yellow headlamps. Others in various markets required left, right or asymmetrical (vertical) dipping headlamp lenses. Some countries required clear indicator lenses (Italy) and others required amber... Some countries had different wattage specs for certain bulbs (W. Germany), Ignition shielding was required is some Euro markets.
- Messages
- 297
My Mk2 and the Mk1a that is wrecked in FOR SALE listing are both the larger bracket FYI - my B9473118 has the smaller license lamp bracket. Also I found interesting that I have two different colored glass lense, one has a light purple tint, the other more clean. I have one of each I will be listing for sale soon.
- Messages
- 333
Sometimes as glass ages (telephone insulator glass) the glass will tint over the years as UV has an effect on it. I understand colour will depend on what was added to the glass upon manufacturing. My lenses also have a purple hue also.
I'm aware of the quirky specs for cars in Germany and France. I have an NOS set of Wipac reverse lamps with yellow lenses. I also have several sets of Lucas sealed beam head lights for RHD cars. There are two cars that I'm glad I didn't keep. The problem with them both were electrical problems. The first was the MGB I bought new and the other was a 69 Opel GT.
Austin Healer
Gold forum user
- Messages
- 1,381
My wife collects glassware.. The purple/violet color of some of it is due to radioactive isotopes in the glass.
I had a Swiss market Healey in for restoration a number of years ago and had to find Lucas asymmetrical/vertical dipping headlight units for. Another interesting thing about German and Swiss cars was that they required the chassis number be stamped into the body shell. German cars had an additional chassis plate as they required axle weights to be included. I have also observed secondary chassis plates on French market cars... Then there were cars that were ordered for personal export by US service (armed forces). These were destined for the US/Canadian market and were to that spec, but they often had options that were not available on the US market. The advantage to a personal export car was reduced tax burden and the armed forces would ship the car back to the States for $1.