I never saw them around here until the late 70's or early 80's on a regular basis and don't remember seeing any in the 50's or 60's. I think my Dad said that they were worth an instant ticket around here in the 40's and 50's and no one ran them for that reason. I've followed some that weren't bad at night or in the day and others that drove you nuts at night from the purple light and had hard to see brake lights in the day time. I had a buddy in the late 70's early 80's that ran them on his rod and carried a pair of regular red lenses in the trunk to switch in case he ran into a patrolman with no sense of humor. Now days the patrolmen around here have lots bigger fish to fry than worrying about off color tail lights on old cars.
I ran the blue dot law through the Idaho legislature in the mid 80's. Mostly because I had a 40 Ford coupe and the sockets pointed up in the air and I used to get warned that my lights were too dim by law enforcement. I tried aluminum foil, painting the sockets white, silver and nothing seemed to work. It was much better when I converted to a 12v system. I was surprised how quick the bill became law without much disapproval. I did a research on them then and found that they were popular with cars that ran a 6 volt system and had very poor visibility at night. Blue dots were the answer to that. If the dot is placed in the center of the bulb area they are much brighter and as said produce a purple glow. The fad is still around but the LED lights have become the light of the times. I'm not a fan of them but I do like to be seen from the rear.
[QUOTE Before the days of m*** marketed, made in 3rd world fuzzy dice, girls used to make them for their boyfriend's car. ..[/QUOTE] Yep, here on the West Coast, in the early-mid 60's Fuzzy Dice was hanging on every Teenager's car. My sister drove a '58 Rootbeer Brown BelAir in High School and old poloroids show the dice. My Sis remembers them being pink and that all the girls use to make them for their boyfriends. Of course she also peddled Malts & Shakes at Don's Hamburgers, in Oxnard, and, I think, wore roller skates.
Yeah, my dad was 16 in '52 and married in '54. His girlfriend, mom, made him a set of argyle dice when they were dating. He said it was a popular thing back then for the girls to do in and around the Paramount/Hollydale/Bellflower area.
Zombie thread back from the dead. Blue dots are the bee's ***s. Nothing, NOTHING is cooler than watching and hearing a Flathead powered car cut through the night with a set of blue dots.
I remember the Blue dots from the late 50's and early 60's. They really made an impression on my memory. I can remember the blue dot display at Standard Auto in Dearborn. It was a yellow card board display,about 2' X 3', with all the popular lens from the 40's & 50's era. You could also buy just the blue dot itself. I bought a pair of the blue dots and took them home and tried to install them in my Model "A". I was disappointed to find out a regular drill bit would not work on gl***. It was 30 or 40 years before I learned the trick of using copper tubing and valve grinding compound to drill holes in gl***. I am now getting rid of all my blue dot tail lights in favor of LED's.
The first blue dots I can remember were on a '49-'50 Ford that my Dad was repossessing. My mother was driving the car and I was in the car with him following her. It was in Wichita Falls, Texas about 1954 and I was 4 years old.
Sorry I can not help much with the history, but I have a complete extra blue stop light on my 27 roadster that is from the model t year range and I think the early optional stop lights may have been blue. Gary
When I was a young boy in the early 50's ALL the really cool 46-50 Fords & Mercs ran em' . I don't run them anymore, but I still like them on the right cars.
I recall Dad referring to them as "Ambulance Lights",...This was in early 50's,...Around Buffalo NY . In New York State, volunteer fire men were permitted to display one forward facing blue light, when responding to a call. 4TTRUK
Ps; if you can get the gl*** ones, they show up much better. I had plastic ones on my 2000 F150,...and you'd almost never notice them at night. I found gl*** ones in the Speedway catalog. 4TTRUK
"This is in awesome picture for this discussion" And--it's in Tennessee! That is where (see my post way above) I observed the only "feral" blue dots I ever saw before the Streetrod age! Hmmm...I wonder if Tennessee failed to outlaw them?
It's funny, I've always thought they were it. Never have put em on a car, Now in the last two years I've aquired two different vehicles where they were already installed. I figure I'll put a dab of grease on them to get inspected. One of these days I've got to get a ford to run my radiator cap with the devil on it.
.....and don't forget the miniature stoplight to hang in your rear window. I had one of those for a while.....you hooked them into your brake light wiring, and they changed from green to yellow to red when you applied the brakes. A 50s item, along with plastic, colored bug deflectors on the hood and those matching plastic "breezies" on your wing window. Those things, and many more, could be purchased thru the catalogs of JC Whitney, Warshawski and others......advertised in the little rod and custom magazines we used to read after school at the local Rexall drug store. We just borrowed the mag from the rack, stood there and read thru them, then put em back instead of buying them. I think blue dots were considered illegal for a while in Missouri in the 50s and 60s. I ran a set on the Plymouth until a friend told me how hard it was to see my taillights at night....have gone back to original lenses, but kept the blue dots "just in case". If you want to see some of the nifty stuff in a 1958 Whitney catalog, here's a link to a post from March of 2012 done by Squirrel who scanned a bunch of pages...........http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=679472
Ok I dig the whole blue light thing, especially for the '49 Ford...but what about the other colors? I just stumbled on to a site that had green ones, amber ones...what are your thoughts? I dunno maybe it's because I'm a chick but the thought of running green dots on St. Patrick's day makes me all giddy lol...
I have owened my '39 Chevy. Coupe since 1978. I was told from previous owner, that the blue dots, came in car new. Gumpy, in Dayton, Ohio did the Louvers back in 50's also, I was told. I get a lot of compliments on them. They are gl*** Blue Dots, with bright bulbs, and man you cans it a mile away at night. Also I added Aluminum Foil years ago, when I first got it, in order to see during bright sunny day. I have added a third brake light that says " MY 39 ". I have never been pulled over my any Officer of the Law for it, and I have drove it many places. I always try to co-operate with them, as a lot of them do not know the law on them in todays world. If they came from Factory with anything installed there, it is standard equipment. If a car came from Factory with no Seat Belts, you can not be cited for it. You can be harrased for it, but they will loose in court. Ask them to show you the Law on it. Say it was put into effect in 1980, and you had them in 1950 from Factory, they will loose also. Grand Fathered Law ! Most Will co-operate with you if you treat them like a friend, don't argue, just ask to see the Law in writing. With P C's, they take out after 20 years.
Hey, my thoughts are if you can run them all!!! I have green in my reverse light, blue in my stop/tail, and amber in my turn signals. Who knows, maybe I'm a chick too! Paul
Talk about resurrecting an old thread. Shocked me to see C9 commenting. Miss him. But on the flip side, what is the story with red dots in headlights? What purpose does that serve. And many manufacturers seem to sell them. Never saw them back when. Is this something recent for the tuners?
The oldest Lynx-Eye "Blue-Dot" lens counter display I've ever seen had 33-36 Ford as the oldest lenses on it. There were, of course, Mopar and GM of 33 as well as some others. I believe that the lenses became available in the later 30s and continued to be made through about 1958 which is the newest lenses I've ever seen in a factory counter display. Sadly I sold all the displays I had since back in the 80s they were worth crazy stupid prices!
Holy **** you're old ! Forgot about that little stop lite. Seemed like it was maybe 6" tall. Black and even had those little eyebrow shields above each lens. My uncle gave me his for my 49 Dodge! Swapped from those plastic bug deflectors, vent deflectors, etc. to stainless ones. Also the headlite top shields and/or half moons. We were kool in central Illinois. I'll swear that stuff made my little Dodge go faster. Or maybe it was the split tail pipes ! I know these didn't make it go faster but still looked cool and added privacy---aluminum rear window venitian blinds and rear side window screens. Great addition at the drive in picture show! Remember the white fuzzy dice and that angora rear view mirror cover. The Red Crown valve stem caps and the Knecker knob? And along with another post, the 4" WWW with deep maroon paint job with 57 Caddy hubcaps. i can hear them pukin now!
I, too, heard blue dots were used to camoflauge cars at night from enemy aircraft during the war. You saw them on cars located primarily around naval and air force bases or manufacturing plants devoted to the war effort. As for fuzzy dice, rumor has it women would make a pair of dice for their boyfriends heading off to war as a good luck charm. When they returned, the dice were hung off the cars rear view mirror. There was also rumor that the trend for making dice migrated its way into high schools as a means for a girl to show her affections to a guy (kinda like getting pinned). Truth? Who knows for sure.
Veeeeery interesting. Just something else I gotta check on. Actually makes sense. And we do know everything to do with hotroddin makes sense. Thanks. I do remember those danged girls giving us the fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror, later a pair of baby shoes. But that's another story!
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