Interchangeable third brakelight for 1986 Country Squire ?

Hi folks,

First post here and with a rather odd question. Pardon me if I'm posting in the wrong forum

So, I don't have a wagon, but I have an '86 Camaro convertible. For a couple of years (1986-87) ASC that chopped thesefrom coupes to convertibles for some reason used a third brakelight from a Ford Country Squire.

Now I've been trying to find one of these brake lights in great condition, but have no luck so far. So I was wondering if some of you know if these brake lights were unique to the Country Squire or if they are used on other vehicles as well ? Maybe that would ease the search

I've included a pic of mine for reference.

Thanks a lot for any pointers!


Ken
Norway

 

Doing a little checking for you. Do you need the entire assembly, or just the lens? (or just the housing...?)

EDIT:
You might also want to put up a posting in the 'Parts Wanted' section of this forum.

EDIT #2:
Appears that ALL Ford Motor Company full-sized wagons had that same 'CHMSL' lamp assembly ('Center High-Mounted Stop Lamp') assembly, so it would be on the large Mercurys (Grand Marquis and Grand Marquis Colony Park), all the way through the 1991 model year, when production ended for these wagons.

EDIT #3:
Got a POSSIBLE part # for you, for the assembly. This is NOT verified. Got it off a Ford dealer's website. Website indicated the part was 'discontinued'.

E6AZ13A613B

EDIT #4:
Go to Car-Part.com
https://www.car-part.com/

I went there, and found following listings:

R&S Auto Parts, Moffett, Oklahoma Grade A part for '88 Mercury Grand Marquis (wagon) - $20
- Grade 'A' part. Stock# 13912 Phone # 918.875.3770

Phelps Auto Wrecking, San Leandro, Calif. Stock# B2082 For '89 Ford Crown Vic (wagon) 'Call for price'
- Phone # 510.569.4845

M&R Auto Wrecking, Hereford, Ariz. Stock# J3H118, for '89 Mercury Grand Marquis (wagon)
- Call for price. Phone # 800.362.0810

On ALL of these, you should confirm with them that the lamp assembly is for a WAGON. The sedan center-mounted lamps would be completely different.

There were a couple more listings in my search, but these were the top 3.

 

Wow! Thanks man for all your work on getting me this information !!
Highly appreciate it. I've had this car for 22 years, and Im finally putting together parts for a restoration and paint job next year. This brake light has been one of the last and most difficult items to track down - so this is very helpful

Thanks again man


Ken

 

You're very welcome!

I'm curious though, Ken. Where did you get the information that your Camaro center brake light was actually a FORD part? Doing an image search, it appears that those 80's Camaros had a number of different center brake light designs, depending on whether the vehicle had a spoiler or not, and if it HAD a spoiler, what type of spoiler it was. Seemed to be 3 or 4 different ones during that period. But Chevy sold SO MANY cars, that they could afford to build their own lights, instead of having to go to Ford to get them. But you DO mention that ASC was involved in converting coupes into convertibles, and I guess THAT'S why it's a Ford part. The factory center brake light on the coupe/hatchback would have been different, attached to the underside of that hatch glass, if I remember correctly.

 

Check out this listing in our 'Parts for sale' section. old listing, from February. One of our members bought some stuff from this guy and made a listing with his phone number...... Doesn't say the wagon is '86+, though........
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/1980s-crown-vic-marquis-wagon-parts.53287/

 

I know this from the thirdgen.org forum, where all third generation Camaro/Firebird guys hang out (me included, since 1998). There is an incredible amount of knowledge there - and the info that this brake light came from the Ford Country Squire, also comes from there. However, it was not known what specific range of years and (Ford/Mercury) models used this light other than "mid 80's Country Squire and possibly other models"- so your information has been very very helpful.

When it comes to the third gen camaro (82-92) and specifically the convertible, I've gathered a pretty decent amount of detailed knowledge over the years.

So, some history - No third generation Camaro/Firebird came off the GM assembly line as convertibles. Every single one was converted by other companies. Several companies are known, ASC, Autoform, Matrix3, Hi-Line, Straman etc. etc. However, the majority of these conversions were done by ASC - or American Sunroof Company (later American Specialty Cars).
They started doing conversions of these cars in 1985/86 on an individual car to car basis ordered from dealerships (or directly by customers), before getting contracted by Chevrolet to do so-called "factory convertibles" from 1987. This means that VIN numbers for 1985-86 cars indicate coupes, while 87-92 actually indicates convertible even though they were initially built as coupes - but sent from the factory straight to ASC.
The 85-86 "un-offical" production years and 1987 had some specific parts unique to only those years. That includes the rear spoiler and side pieces of the spoiler extending all the way into the doors. And in this particular rear spoiler, ASC had used this wagon third brake light. It has been assumed that they may have used this light simply because they already had it in stock from doing conversions on Ford products.

This is the reason why the first years of these cars happens to have this light that was not made by Chevy. In 1985 there was no third brake light on the Camaro coupe, that came in 1986 and was for that year only placed on the outside of the glass. 1987-92 had it on the inside as you mention.
ASC convertibles from 88-92 had its own Chevy brake light.

The first few years had very limited production numbers - in 1987 there were officially 743 factory Camaro convertibles built by ASC. In 85-86 there are no known production numbers, but it is expected to be way less than 100. Over the 22 years I've had mine - I've come across at the most 10-15 total.

Oh, and thanks for the link to that for sale posting. I'll check it out.
I have already reached out to one of the bone yards you listed, waiting for a reply

Thanks again!


Ken