Can you put newer model tail light on an older car?

I am asking because I think the new Mini Cooper tails would look good on a 53-53 Bel Air or 49-50 Ford.

 

Yes.

 

hey, what are those cars called, you know, where people put parts from one car onto a different car, and modifing them? I think it began with a "C" or a "K"...

 

Ha! Just wasn't sure it was acceptible "Kustom" ettiquite.

 

not traditional, because they didn't have '05 minis in 1958, but in customizing, anything goes, photoshop it and see how it works out?

 

i was folowing a new mini the other day and thinking about those lights for a kustom.

 

o.k. ?



traditional style doesn't necessarily mean strict adherence to eras . . . rules were meant to be broken and all that. . . but the challenge is to do it with intellegence

traditional to me means repecting the original designs and the things that motivated it. . . streamline, early ideas of aerodynamics, race car functionality, art of the time, whatever. . .you can do that with some newer parts but try to look for deeper reasons why some things look good and others don't

for instance. . .here's a quick theory. . .those new pod within a pod style lenses are a really different aesthetic . . . they look comuter designed rather than drawn by a designer by hand . . . does anything on a shoebox or tri-five chevy look like it was designed with a computer? there is your answer.

 

wow- i just spelled intelligence wrong. . . .

 

To begin with, anything can be used to customize anything else.
Some parts are easier to make fit and look "right" and some not so easy.

Those lights are made to fit flush with the specific contour of that car.
The 1/4 panels of both the Ford and Chevy cars you mentioned roll out and have a rounded "fin" shape that would have to be completely eliminated and reshaped to fit those lights. Not easy and there are more "complimentary" lights that would work in easier and look better.
What they would fit fairly easily would be the fender shape of a '47-54 Ford or Chevy pick up or in the 1/4 panel light area of a suburban or panel truck of that era.

If you are really intent on doing something outside the box, the usual '59 Caddy, 50 Pontiac or '56 Packard kind of looks, look into maybe a mid 60's Renault Caravelle/Floride tail light turned sideways for the Shoebox or a '65 Sumbeam Alpine tail light for the Chevy. The Sunbeam is probably still produced for all the Tiger restorers. Probably not cheap but gotta be cheaper than the Mini lights, unless you already have them.

Oh, one more thing, if you start using visible parts on a custom that are newer than the '60s, even if the car itself is older, you move into the palette of "Contemporary Customs" The smoothed over dub wheeled rubberband tire designer cars, and they just don't look right mixed with the wide whitewalls and red wheels kind of looks.
Many have tried, most all have failed.
What I mean is, if you use something like the Mini tail lights, you need to use the headlights or something similar at the other end to "tie it together" visually.

Now if you was going to traditionally tunnel that light into a fin on one of those cars, that might just pull it off.

 

It's cool to think outside the box, but I think you just left the room the box is is.

Those lights look like **** anyway.

'59 Cadillacs and '56 Packards weren't the only cars with cool taillights. Think of some cool taillight treatment using a more traditional style.

Even if they did look good, they still wouldn't be correct. Look at 49-51 Mercs with those late 80's Cadillac lights. They look great, but not correct

 

Of course, it will accent your 20" billet wheels nicely. You can mimic their shape in your engine cover, so you can't see any of that nasty internal stuff like wires, headers and carbs. Get it yet?

If newer means '60 lights in a '50, then yes.

 

Well said.

 

With customizing a car you can do just about anything. Today, we can create things we couldn't do 40 years ago. Put it on paper, or the computer and "WHAMM-o" its cut out from a CNC machine.

I believe the important thing about customizing is staying within a "theme" of the car...you either go one way or the other.

Example: On a shoebox Ford, you wouldn't french the headlights w/ Merc rings and put a set of Nissan 350zx taillights in the rear....

Pick a side and go all the way....either the mercedes headlights and mini cooper taillights...or use parts of the same era...pontiac headlight rings w/ Buick taillights (50's)?

Round w/ round, square w/ square....

Just my 2 cents...

 

I couldn't do it, but then again I'm really closed minded.

 

Year 1965 dad buys 40 plymouth coupe,Buys 1965 wrecked car and puts 273 hipo engine in coupe they were doing back then and we are doin it now except everybody is tellin me it aint traditional.Almost all hotrods have had newer powertrains and running gear because as time goes on for the most part rods have had new parts installed because technology gets better .While would you want to use a banger motor if you had access to a nailhead.Especially customs and such.Like puttin 40 ford lamps in a model A lamps are way newer than said car.I say style and execution is where its at if done tasteful okay.

Shoe

 

I saw a gray primered 50's car with the new nissan Z tails grafted into it and it really looked retarded IMO.. If I see it again i'll post pics of it in this thread..

 

I have a 1930 tailight on my 1923 car. It is possible.

 

yeah man, dopnt go for it, SO many cooler options./...

 

They are a lot easier to install in Photoshop.

 

Actually, in '65 no one would have given a **** because no one CARED about '40 Plymouths then. Except theneighbor across the street, the Engineer with the pocket protector who bought one for his daughter to drive to school and then got all upset when she brought home a new boyfriend with an orange 39 Ford coupe HOTROD, and then Engineer Dad got the bug and bought himself a '65 Ranchero with a V8...
(Mom drove a red '60 Mercury rag top, so they weren't all totally lame.)
But the Plymouth never got anything but driven. People knew an old Plymouth's place back then. (Yea, I know if you gut the thing you can make a V8 g***er, and some did, but that's not a "street custom.")

If you're wanting to use those lights because you can get them in good condition and can't get "period correct" lights. You might use them for a base light housing with some plastic "fins" or louvers or bullets glued on top of them and like I said before, tunnel them into a 1/4 panel fin similar to the ones on the El Capitola in another thread on here yesterday.

 

You could but why? Ick.

 

This is your brain on drugs...

 

A custom-hot rod staple, 39 Ford teardrop tailights. So how do you customize your 39 Ford? Those PT Cruzer tailights look like they could fit the bill. But the question for me is do I want to do that. I might!

Oh and I think Customs and Traditional Hot Rods are two completely different animals.

 

I t sounds like what everyone is saying is if you wear a brown belt you should wear brown shoes...I think???

 

The very POINT of customizing is to think outside the box, but as it has become primarily a nostalgic pastime, that point is frequently missed.

The first guy who put a DeSoto grille in a Merc must have had swarms of onlookers saying "Wow, that looks pretty cool, who'da thunk?" But a guy who does it today is not innovating at all, he's just copying an old idea that works; maybe proving that he's fairly hip for an old dude.

The Mini taillights aren't bad looking, but I agree with the Doctor that they wouldn't improve a shoebox or a '53 Chev. If you put them on a car that had really stupid taillights AND the right contours for the lights to fit -- maybe a '49 Kaiser -- that could work, but maybe you'd be so far outside the box that nobody would notice you were there...

If you think of a mod that involves a modern component, that hasn't been done before, and that looks terrific on the recipient vehicle, good for you. You've done an authentic job of customizing.

By the way, I think the skinny Cadillac taillights in the '53 Mercs are a perfect example of this. *****in'!

 

Those tailights would be awesome on a bathtub Hudson.



Mutt

 

It all depends. Will they suite the car? Will they make the car look better? I've seen a '51 Mercury with '90s Cadillac vertical tail lights that looked killer. I've also seen a '50 Lincoln with Honda headlights that looked like ***.

 

Were you posting this to see if it was "cool" enough to go through with ? It seems to me that nowadays everyone is so caught up with hoping that they can pull something off that shows everyone else how "cool" they are. God damn, if you like the idea/look, go with it. After all, it's only sheetmetal....it can always be cut up and put back to stock, or changed, if you don't like it.

-Aaron