taillights
Always hard at work in the never-ending pursuit to do something just a little different, Darryl Nance and the crew at D&P Classic Chevrolet in Huntington Beach, California, recently added a pair of Chevy Cobalt taillights to one of the mid-’50s pickups that they have been working on. The Chevy is a frame-off project that was completed to exhibit all of the tricks that the D&P team can throw at it, and we were on hand when they installed the late-model lights to the old-time treasure.
If you are building a street rod, sooner or later you will have to select the taillights you want to use. As with so many other parts, the taillights should match the style of the car you are building. A smooth, high-tech rod should have taillights of the same style, perhaps flush-fit diode lights that match the shape of the body. If you are building a resto rod, the stock taillights are generally used, stalk and all. Internally they can be updated with bright bulbs or a diode kit. If you are building a nostalgic or a traditional rod, there are several different lights that were used by builders in the ’50s and the ’60s. The rod seen in this story is being built in a traditional style, so there were many lights to choose from.
There are many reasons why the icon cars have achieved the lofty status they now enjoy, but one of the more obvious reasons is the simple fact that they were finished. Their existence and subsequent high-level exposure have inspired many a young lad to undertake similar projects, and for every famous car built in the early years, probably two others were started in an attempt to either copy or outdo it, but they never saw the light of day.
