(first posted 10/26/2011) Now that I have your attention, here is the 1991 Cizeta V16T, a supercar built briefly by a group of ex-Lamborghini employees, sporting its stacked dual headlights that pop up separately. This did not start a trend. Welcome back to the wonderful weird world of hidden headlights.
In Part 1, we observed their classic-era emergence and disappearance, and followed their reappearance on certain important sports cars, the new personal luxury cars, and finally the big three full-size cars, from 1962 through 1970. Here in Part 2, we’ll see the role of hidden headlights in malaise-era Broughamification, real sports cars, and the front-drive GT coupes of the eighties and nineties. Finally we’ll see them vanish just as quickly as they appeared, and we’ll muse about what hidden headlights tell us about the face of a car, and how we relate to these metal and plastic creatures.
Surprisingly, the full-width grille with headlights hidden, so widely seen by 1970, did not last at all. It was the ultimate end-point of the once universal sixties rectangular grille with lights. The 1973 Dodge Monaco and Chrysler Imperial (shown here, CC here) were the last.
After one theme plays out, sometimes an earlier theme comes back around in a new form. The 1969 Lincoln Mark III appeared with a tall neo-classic grille flanked by hidden headlight body panels. This look was widely adopted across Detroit for luxury and faux-luxury cars for the next twenty malaise-filled years.
Here we see a few of the many examples: the 1975 Mercury Marquis (upper left, with especially baroque headlight panels), ’76 Dodge Royal Monaco (lower left, CC here), ’78 Lincoln Mark V (lower right), and finally the last of its kind, the 1991 Chysler New Yorker that inspired this piece (top right, CC here). Lincoln Marks III through VI carried this style with hidden lights for fifteen years, right thru 1983. In ’84 the Mark VII was the first American car with the composite shape-fitting headlights that put an end to sealed beams and the desire to hide them.
Chrysler created the Dodge Magnum in 1978 to keep NASCAR champ Richard Petty racing Mopars. Its headlights were not-so-hidden behind retractable clear covers. This seemingly pointless exercise allowed a smooth surface on the NASCAR racer, without violating the US prohibition on fixed headlight covers that spoiled the E-Type Jag. Here they are in operation, at about 0:50 in this video. (Thanks to slow_joe_crow for the tip.)
As Detroit was hiding headlights purely for styling, sports cars everywhere hid their lights for more objective reasons, mainly to cheat the wind. Here is the 1968 Opel GT our CC cohort longrooffan recently captured. This pocket Corvette was sold through Buick dealers over here, and it was a dandy little car. A big level on the center console mechanically rotated both lights sideways, the same direction. Kathunk!
Sleek sports cars like the Lotus and Corvette hid their lights in pop-ups for style as well as aerodynamics. After all, you don’t see headlights on pure racing cars, unless they’re endurance racers, so without headlights a street car can look like it just came off the track. There was another compelling reason for pop-up headlights: height. The 1974 MG-B Mark III’s height was raised one inch to meet the new 24 inch headlight height spec. Pop-ups on a low front end can raise the lights up to legal height, so this became the preferred solution. Here we see (clockwise from upper left) the 1979-85 1st generation Mazda RX-7 (CC here, 3rd-gen popping here), 1975-81 Triumph TR-7, 1976-88 Porsche 924, and 1975-85 Ferrari 308 GTB.
I have to include my favorite set of pop-up headlights, the 1990-97 Mazda MX-5 Miata (my ’93 shown here). Each light has an electric motor, and some owners got a little creative with the wiring.
Front-drive GT coupes emerged in the eighties, most of which followed the same hidden headlight look as sports cars. Here we see an ’88 Honda Prelude, which used pop-ups from 1983-91 (upper left), an ’86 Toyota Celica (like mine), which hid its lights from 1984-92, the 1990-91 Mitsubishi Eclipse (also badge-engineered as Plymouth Laser and Eagle Talon), and an ’88 Ford Probe, which stayed with pop-ups its whole ’88-’97 run. This class of car has nearly vanished (why?), with only the Eclipse still sold in America.
Only one American car kept its hidden headlights long enough to make it a brand signature, the Pontiac Firebird. (Besides Corvette, which is a class by itself.) For twenty years, from 1982 to the end in 2002, Pontiac used pop-ups to give its muscle car a clearly different look than its Camaro sibling.
In its final years the Firebird evolved into a heavily sculpted “custom” shape, with air-breathing nostrils between some big wide shades, like this one I saw at the coast this weekend. This look always reminded me of the Joe Camel cigarette character that was seen everywhere at the time.
What happened to hidden headlights? Why didn’t lights go into hiding everywhere? Real world experience wasn’t always so good in winter, when covers froze shut. Covered headlights usually didn’t get washed, if they did then the covers stayed dirty. As mechanisms failed, owners would just leave them open all the time, usually not a good look. Someone hit by a car with pop-ups open could get eviscerated, so global safety standards eventually put a stop to that. Ultimately headlights evolved into a form that is featured, not hidden.
The tyranny of big round standard headlights (in the US anyway) ended in 1974, when the feds permitted rectangular sealed beams, less than 4 inches high as duals, to help aerodynamics for fuel economy. This new look got popular fast and dominated by 1980. Then Ford got permission to put aerodynamic composite headlights that matched the fender’s shape in the 1984 Lincoln Mark VII (CC here). By the 1990s, clusters of small round halogen lamps in styled reflective settings under aerodynamic clear covers started to appear, and now of course they’re everywhere, no need for pictures. Headlights are highly styled automotive “jewelry”, not hidden any more.
The first were the last. As Lotus in 1962 and Corvette in 1963 opened the hidden headlight era, they stayed in it continuously, and closed it together in 2004, with the final Lotus Esprit and the last C5 Corvette. No headlights have been hidden in any production cars since then.
The 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite is “Bugeyed” because its headlights were never hidden. Originally designed with pop-ups, A-H cut cost to the bone, even a trunk lid was left out. Too bad, it would have been the first postwar pop-up, years ahead of the Lotus.
But what an endearing face it has instead! Would we be as fond of this car without the bug eyes? Once a rider became one with a horse, now of course it’s the car we choose. It becomes the face we present to the outside world, functional or fantasy, a statement of class, aspiration, even values. The driver of this Sprite becomes a light-hearted athlete, modest, lean and fast, and most of all fun-loving.
Faces are everywhere. We’re all highly developed pattern recognizers, and we see faces in all sorts of things without even knowing it. Naturally, spotting a face quickly and reading its intent is good for survival in the wild. But making a face is not the engineer’s objective in designing a car. Two headlights, up high and far apart, light the road best. An opening for air below. Centered in between, once a logo-bearing radiator cap, now just the logo. All very functional, and just like a face. Two eyes, up high and far apart, see the world best. An opening for air below….functional. Cars and faces, coincidence of function? Or the masks we choose to wear outside? Or both.
If headlights are eyes, why hide them? In a fast car, for aerodynamics, and to bring the lights up high when needed. Maybe also to suggest power or exclusivity. People hide their eyes too, some more often than necessary.
Why does this man wear sunglasses? He’s ready for action, and without seeing his eyes, you can’t tell what he’ll do next. This GTO says, “Do you feel lucky, punk?”
Why does this woman wear sunglasses? Mystery, and a statement of class. Her eyes will never meet yours, you’re not a part of her world. This Lincoln Mark III stays above it all on the road.
Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge is so high-tech, he’s moved beyond eyes. He can see colors you never knew existed. This Dodge Charger will launch you into outer space and take you to alien worlds. Maybe a little too alien to live with every day here on Earth.
The Cadillac Ciel concept car has gotten great attention at this year’s shows. Its LED headlights are hidden, can you tell where? Light-emitting diodes have grown powerful and affordable enough to be commonly used in taillights, and LED headlights have started to appear. As with taillights, arrays of small LEDs with integrated lenses can be placed freely on any surface. In the Ciel they’re lined up along the fender ridges. Sometimes the best way to hide something is to put it in plain sight.
Ahh yes, the 1978 Dodge Magnum! Haven’t seen one of those for years, but if I was Jay Leno, I’d have one in my garage. I never knew that those clear covers retracted, I thought that they were fixed.
My dad owned a 1977 Lincoln Town Car with the covered headlights from 1984 to 2004, and the covers always worked. This car was only driven on long trips so it stayed parked for long periods of time, and even then the covers always stayed closed.
My only gripe about today’s headlamps is that they are designed for minimum cost as well as for pedestrian safety, so we no longer get to have non-yellowing, non-hazing glass lenses (which could be adequately protected from rocks by using a thick plastic film covering that could be replaced if needed). The cars I own now have headlights that cost $200 per side to replace, while the sealed beams could be had for less than $20. Ain’t progress grand?
That’s one of my big beefs with composite headlights too. I’ve tried polishing the composite headlights on my pickup. It removed most of the yellow haze, but it eventually returned.
My second beef with composite headlights is that they sometimes start to leak and get moisture inside. This leads to hazing inside the lens where you can’t polish it out, and damages the reflector. Then you’re stuck buying an expensive replacement composite light unit.
With sealed beams, when the light burns out and you replace it you get a nice new, non-pitted lens AND a new silver reflector.
Amen to the two above posts. My work truck is a 2003 Dodge van, with the faired-in non-sealed-beam lights…being as it was a Florida car, the headlights have yellowed and fogged.
I’m debating buying snowplow pedestal light housings – bolt them to the bumper and just pop in round sealed beams. No more spendy than replacing the headlights; and it will make later replacements much, much cheaper.
Moisture inside the headlights can also be a sign that the epoxy (super glue? library paste?) that holds the lens on is failing. My ’98 Grand Prix had really bad moisture in the lights that I didn’t pay much attention to. One day, the passenger side lens just dropped out and I drove over it. I put a good bead of silicone on the new set before I installed them, never had problems with moisture after that.
Try putting those fogged-up lights in the oven at a low temperature for a while. It will evaporate the water right out of there.
I’m with you on the hatred of composite lamps, they WILL pit, yellow and haze over, it’s just a matter of when. Can’t say I agree on sealed beams though, especially on older, rusty cars here in the midwest. Replacing and aiming those things can be a bear on an old car, what with their numerous trim rings and stuck level screws.
I find I prefer the hybrid approach of a styled housing made of real glass. I have them on my ’95 Impreza, and despite 16 years and 218k miles of abuse, they still look practically new. Swapping out a bulb is way easier than replacing a whole sealed beam, but I’ll never need to replace them due to yellowing.
If you need to replace one due to an accident, you’re likely going to be replacing a whole slew of parts, the headlight assembly being the least of your worries.
Great article Mike, one nitpick though: The top left image in your FWD GTs photo is a Honda Prelude, not an Acura Integra.
Thanks for the heads up! I stayed up later than I should have last night. I fixed it, and generally revised the FWD GT coupe paragraph.
What did happen to the FWD GT class anyway? What’s the Celica / Prelude / Probe / Eclipse / Scirroco driver driving now? In my case it’s a Prius or a Miata, depending on the weather. But I’m pretty strange.
The could be buying the last Hyundai Tiburons, I always thought the V6 manual trans version wouldn’t be too bad. The last generation of those cars had some nice two tone leather options.
Good point, I haven’t been in the habit of remembering the Korean cars, but now they’re as good as the others. I see the Tiburon is replaced by the new Veloster, which is more of a small hatchback. Maybe the FWD GT coupe market morphed into the hot hatchbacks.
Not wanting to sound like a ranting old man, but why can’t we (the auto industry) seem to get headlights right after all these years? The misaligned or non-working hidden ones, and now the yellowing, oxidizing, fogged over lenses that will inevitably plague virtually all new vehicles made today in a few years. It is a matter of time and they will all look like crap, and long before a vehicle rusts or the paint fades. How to prevent? And if not prevent, if you keep a vehicle for more than 7 years, where do you get replacements? I saw a couple of examples yesterday – a beautiful Lexus LS 430 and an Infiniti Q45… both pristine … except for their huge YELLOW eyes. Yuck.
I never realized the Magnum headlight covers retracted. I had wondered why they were permitted to cover their sealed beams.
As a child, I found the look impossibly futuristic, since it was the only one on the road that appeared to have translucent headlight covers.
But the cool factor wore off fast, because those covers became opaque pretty quickly. ChryCo chose the wrong plastic, and UV light exposure yellowed them even when the cars were pretty new. Newer cars use much better plastics for this purpose. No, not as scratch resistant as glass, but pretty darned good in most cases.
I thought hidden headlights were once cool – until like I said in part 1 – you saw lots of cars stuck in a permanent state of “wink”, one exposed, one hidden. Another unnecessary expense for the sake of being cool.
I miss the simple sealed-beam lights. My 2004 Impala’s headlight lenses have taken a severe beating from the highways over the years and are somewhat frosted, but not yellowed like Chrysler was (still?) known for. What’ll that cost me, should I elect to replace them? Don’t even want to think about it. I’ll try buffing them out first if they get so bad.
It cracks me up when I hear carmakers want to cut costs, but use such needlessly complex “systems” to do mundane things, for what? Style? Didn’t used to.
Joe Camel? Ha! That’s what you’ll look like if you smoke, too!
You should be able to polish out the haze. There are polishes made specifically for plastics, but anything with extremely fine grit should work, like Bon Ami or polishing compound.
Haze on the surface, yes it can be polished out; though it will come back quickly unless the clear coat on the headlights is put back.*
But yellowing can be deep inside the plastic, and some headlights develop crazing, tiny cracks within the plastic. Yellowing inside the plastic, or crazing can only be solved by replacement. Aftermarket replacements are a crapshoot, with sloppy reverse engineering, weak attaching points, poor workmanship and inconsistency the rule. Just ask Daniel Stern. The problem is that once a car gets old, replacement OEM composite headlights may be rare or nonexistent.
* Nothing seems to last as long as factory UV protective coating, but rattle-can catalyzed clear coat seems the best. I have been experimenting on an old headlight that I polished, then coated 1/3 with nothing, clearcoat and ceramic, and have left outside in the sun. Jury is still out.
I like how you related the cars to well-known people/characters. The sad part is that 1st gen (66-67) Chargers are my favorite, and now every time I see one I’m going to be reminded of Geordi. Thanks a lot.
I was wondering how long the Acura NSX stuck with pop-up headlights because it went unchanged for a long time. According to Wikipedia the change-over year was 2002.
Aside from the fancy LED headlights, the Cadillac Ciel is the latest concept car to crib styling cues from the 1961 Lincoln.
Look at it more closely and look at it from more angles, its more of a modern adaptation of the 1971-1976 Eldorado.
Now that you’ve pointed it out, I can see the Eldorado in there too.
Didn’t tightening pedestrian crash standards also make it harder to have hidden headlights? I thought that was one of the reasons that Mazda dumped them on the Miata.
You know I love big land barges with hidden headlights but I think my most favorite usage during the 90s was on the Miata, perhaps that was because I was just acquiring my driving license about the time the Miata was unleashed. In fact I’m thinking I need two cars to satisfy my automotive desires, a large sedan that still handles decently and a 1990-1997 Miata for the pure fun of it.
Yes, pedestrian crash standards were the final blow I think. Thanks for reminding me, I meant to include that and it slipped away. I just put it into the edit.
That’s the ticket, a bigger car for family, hauling and/or trips, and a pocket rocket for personal getting around. Both fun and maximally efficient.
As if getting hit at 30 mph by a ’77 Continental is going to be much worse than a ’01 Civic. You’re still going to have a really bad day!
Right, I always sort of laughed at that. Getting hit by a car is a bad thing, period. Though it almost sounds like we need the Mythbusters to start ramming various vehicles of different ages into Buster to tell us how much more survivable pedestrian to car crashes are.
As long as they don’t wreck any more Imperials or ’67 Furys.
The other factor is fixed headlights were lighter, and if you know your MX-5 stuff you’ll know how much effort they took to save even 10 grams from parts.
LeVar Burton has said he that he hated wearing that prop on his face. (Called a VISOR in the show.) It gave him a headache every time he put the damn thing on.
According to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge in our Modern World) the first VISOR was made from a Honda engine air filter.
I thought the first VISOR was made from a woman’s hair band, or maybe that was just the inspiration for the design.
As high school kids (telling you roughly how old I am) we would sometimes try a Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge impersonation by using what was called in those days a “banana clip.” http://www.indiecrush.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/banana%20clips.jpg
It usually involved stealing one from one of the cheerleaders.
Yes, that’s the “hair band” I was thinking of but didn’t know what it was called.
Ha! Didn’t know about the air filter, that’s great. I think LeVar Burton is brilliant to be able to act so effectively without using his eyes.
Composite headlights: $2.00 to manufacture, $200.00 to replace. Petroleum Jelly not included.
Excellent piece, and awesome debut, Mike! Magazine quality, or is that now not a compliment anymore? Loved the tie in to faces. Really enjoyed it; Thanks so much!
Thanks to all who share my obsessions with such things! It’s great fun kicking all this stuff around with the best group of commenters I’ve ever seen.
I was flattered you picked up my Kathunk from the previous comment thread.
Great post.
Thanks to Mike for this interesting piece, and thank you Paul for opening CC up to submissions from others!
@Mike Butts: Well done sir. I haven’t laughed at an article like this in a long time. I found the comparison of people and cars especially amusing. And so many cars I haven’t seen juxtaposed together before. Really great!
The only car I had with hidden headlights was the 1983 Trans Am. I had a ton of problems with that car, but I was a maximum hooning age when I owned the car too. One thing I never had a problem with was the headlights. I knew folks who had Fieros and other cars that had “one up one down” disease, but that was one of the few places my T/A had no problems.
I forgotten how much I missed the original Diamond Stars, I really liked those cars, but never owned one. I have drawings (somewhere) that I did in the early 80’s when I was an Industrial Design student, the assignment was to come up with a personal car for the year 2000. My sketches were similar to the final DSM coupes in terms of overall size and some details. I would have specified an even smaller motor than what actually appeared in the DSM, but many of the other ideas I laid out in that series of drawings came to be in the production cars.
It’s like they found my drawings… 😉
I believe that the one-up, one-down phenomenon of hidden headlights was largely restricted to Fiat X1-9’s and Fieros. I very seldom saw a Honda or Mazda looking like that. Of course Mazda especially had quite a few years to get them right.
My carpool driver had a Triumph TR-7. In typical Limey-car fashion the headlight motors weren’t wired through a relay, and I remember one day when she turned on the lights only to have the motors start spontaneously opening and closing the lights, left, right, left, right…. Never did find out how she got it fixed or what caused it.
What a fantastic read. I LOL’d hard over the “shades” series of pics — just perfect.
There is another domain of headlightdom: “visible headlamps that aren’t aimed straight ahead unless turned on”
Some examples I can think of:
Porsche 928: useful for spotting police helicopters in their ‘stowed’ position
1982-83 Toyota Celica: normally tilted at 45 degrees to be flush with the face of the car; when switched on they rotate to 90 degrees to illuminate the road. The Celica is a car clearly designed with the US market of the day in mind: Everywhere else, flush headlamps could have been installed without the need to rotate. I suppose its a similar solution to the one Dodge came up with on the Magnum and the anti-NASCAR St Regis.
Are there others?
Lamborghini Miuras, Lancia Scorpions, some De Tomaso Mangustas, & early ( ~1984 ) Nissan 300ZXs
Got him again!
I’m getting better at nailing that bug!
There is also the “sleepy” semi-hidden headlights like on some of the Pontiac Sunbirds and Isuzu Impulse from the 80’s.
I always thought those looked more uncircumcised than sleepy.
Would you prefer a turtle neck or crew neck, madam?
The Isuzu used the slight pop-up cover only on North American exports; elsewhere a custom-shaped headlamp was fully in the grille opening under the hood.
You beat me to it. I was just scrolling down to mention the Impulse, both for the eyes and for the “handling by Lotus”. But I cheaped out and bougty a 4 cyl Musyang instead. I’m still not sure I made the right decision, nearly 30 years later…
Delightful article, and I loved your ending.
I would like to add one of my favorites: Not many cars gave either plain or hidden lights in the same front end, but the 72 Fury did. It shows how one design can be either awful or cool, depending on whether the lights are hidden or not.
Now this one is the cool one. Sort of like a nerd trying to wear Dirty Harry-style sunglasses.
Love the front of the ’72 Fury! If I made a horror movie where the villain was a crazed suburban mom, she’d drive a Fury wagon with hideaways.
I’ve really got mixed feelings about composite headlamps; on one hand they can be contoured to fit the front of the vehicle to give it a smoother appearance-on the other hand they pit like crazy. The lenses on my ’08 Odyssey were badly pitted, the use of a DIY repair kit got rid of most of the scratches and pits but I know they’ll eventually reappear again-then I’ll probably be stuck with replacing both units. Can somebody please figure out a more durable composite material?
I read somewhere that the U.S. manufacturers got a DOT reg watered down to permit a cheaper material – one that pits and yellows.
On my 93 Crown Vic, I can keep them decent with an annual hand polishing with a good cleaner wax. On the 99 Town & Country i bought a couple of years ago (that I just gave away) they were too fargone, and my mechanic refinished the covers with a refinish kit that puts some sort of coating on the plastic that is supposed to stop or slow the yellowing process. My lights looked good for the 1.5 years I had the car. My 07 Honda Fit has covers that are still like new.
Can any of our overseas readers tell us whether the terrible yellowing is a worldwide phenomenon or just a problem with U.S. spec units?
I think the cheapening happened in the early 00’s. I have a 95 Sunfire and a 97 Cavalier both of which have clear lenses. Neither one of these cars sees a garage with any regularity. In fact the Cavalier has never spent time in the garage since my BIL took delivery 14 years ago.
OTOH, my daughter’s dear departed 2004 Sunfire’s headlight lenses clouded over to almost opaque in the two years she had the car. I believe that it must have clouded over once before we got the car, because I can’t imagine what would accelerate the hazing process so quickly.
No it is everywhere, although the local manufacturers haven’t had problems with it for years. The 1995 EF Falcons have terrible trouble with yellowing, they will eventually turn opaque, from 1998 they seem to have it fixed. I think Ford had a specific light globe that may have been better – trouble is very few people stay with OEM light globes.
I see lots of imported cars with yellowing too, sometimes on a lens inside the actual body of the headlamp and some quite new cars too.
Given the reliability of some cars’ pop-up lights, I can’t help thinking that the last on your list of media comparisons should be either Mr. Magoo or Alex in A Clockwork Orange…
Indeed, I nearly posted a picture of Alex in the chair to comment on the duct-taped covers Paul just posted. Fogging composites brings Mr. Magoo to mind.
Great article(s) on hidden headlights. As a kid in the ’70s, I was fascinated by them and by their successors, the rectangular lamps that seemed so new and cool at the time. I always thought it was a cheat that the Lincolns, Thunderbirds etc. hid round headlamps behind their covers, instead of the new “squares”. My favorites were the full-width grilles, like our ’70 Chrysler 300, which had a full-width taillamp that echoed its front. So simple, elegant and sporty! The covers on our (used) 300 inevitably failed, of course, and my parents were never going to spring for a repair for something so minor and cosmetic. Oh well, I guess that’s part of what led to their demise.
True, Ford never put square sealed beams under their hidden headlights, even the last hidden headlight 1983 Marks still have roundies underneath.
And single roundies, to boot! On the Mark especially, it seemed a bit disappointing. Am I imagining it, or was there a version of the Mark VI with exposed lamps cut out of the headlight cover shape? Aftermarket maybe?
Those would be the rare Mark VI “touring lamp” option:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/3988108634/
I actually saw a car with these two years ago…alas, it was a fleeting glimpse on the road so there was no chance for a picture.
I don’t know about the Marks, but the early 1980s Fox Thunderbirds did have single rectangular lights under their covers:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3805435/1980-ford-thunderbird
Ouch! That squinty-eyed Mark VI was rare for a very good reason!
Haha! That’s exactly what I was thinking of. That made the car look so silly!
I was hoping someone would mention these!
There was a CC on these just a month ago:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/car-show-outtake-1983-lincoln-continental-mark-vi-an-unmemorable-mark/
They weren’t *that* rare – I remember back in the day that about 20% of Mark VIs I saw seemed to have them. Of course the Mark VI itself was a flop so there weren’t that many even when they were new.
Did any other cars have covers that lit up? The ’80-’82 Thunderbird looked like the parking lamps wrapped around onto the headlamp covers but I don’t think that section actually lit up.
Funny that zee Germans didn’t really play around with hidden headlights that much…
914
924/944
928-sort of.
M1
8 series
Thats all I could think of.
(+Opel GT) Yes, I noticed that too. Europeans in general hid the lights less than the rest of us. Presumably that’s because they had more liberal performance-based headlight specs in the EU. If they had to cram sealed beams onto a car for Americans, well they probably figured that was our own damned fault.
Of course any frivolous feature like headlight covers is strictly verboten from serious German cars. Do they put in cup holders yet?
Great article Mike, congratulations!
I think the all-time worst composite headlights for scratching, pitting, and yellowing (in the US at least) were those used on the first-generation Dodge/Plymouth Neons. Those cars looked like they had a bad case of cataracts after a few years on the road.
Most have now gone to the great junkyard in the sky, totally blind, at least in my area.
Ford Australia got into the act too, unfortunately, with the 1974 LTD.
That is an odd one, thanks! I added it to the incredibly complete list at the Wikipedia’s hidden headlights page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_headlamps#List_of_cars_with_hidden_or_pop-up_headlights
Australian cars in general and these Fords in particular are fascinating to this American. They’re so much like the cars we got, only different, often better.
Late to the party here, but congratulations on your articles, Mike! Look forward to more.
Here’s a pic from the FB big Mopar page. When this went up I commented,
“Chargers look like bodyguards in wraparound shades escorting the Polara.”
Ha! They totally do, thanks.
I keep coming back to the ’73 Imperial photo above. Damn that’s a great looking car.
In 1986, Honda went with the wedge look for the Honda Accord and the then new Integra (always wanted one – in blue or red in the 2 door with sunroof) that used popup headlights too, similar to what the second gen Preludes used.
I had an ’88 Honda Accord and the only issue I had was the headlight wiring on the passenger side went bad and had to have it replaced.
Other than that, the headlamps got tweaked in a very, very minor bumper tapping accident since I drive with my lights on all the time so by then, I had to leave them up.
But by this time (2003 after I’d had the car about 5 years) it was not in as great a shape as it once was and by 2006, sadly, it was in a pretty sad shape but still ran fine but needed lots of TLC, leaked water, was rear ended and had no muffler nor decent tires anymore.
I have composite headlamps on my truck (1992 Ford Ranger), though I think these were glass as they haven’t fogged up yet and aren’t pitted, but the beam pattern, while reasonably even, are too far out and weak but do the job.
My personal favorite popup lamps are on the 2nd generation RX-7. They had a trapezoidal mechanism so they faced forward even in the down position. This allowed a flash-to-pass lens withouta separate bulb.
Funny, I always thought that the Joe Camel character looked like Jay-Z.
Hey guys! Speaking of seeing faces in things:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/tweed/the-face-of-testicular-pain/29118
Ha!!
Oh sure, it always devolves into “testicular pain” jokes around here… :}
No mention of Cougars! It was COTY in 1967, hidden headlights though 1970. It was the first Pony car with hidden headlights. Camaro had the flip lights as an option.
With the sequential tail lights it had both ends covered in the “cool” department……..like the Thunderbird, but sportier.
Mark VI (touring lamps) vs Captain Sparrow
http://www.messengerpuppet.com/2012/01/09/28-years-later/
The only Australian car that went into production with hidden headlights was the 1973 Ford two-door Landau:
Another Australian example – the 1975 Ilinga AF2:
The third and final Australian example – the 1984 Triad:
I am a fan of the menacing 69 through 73 Imperials front ends. Here is a picture of my 1973 coupe!
Brings back lots of Mannix memories – fuselage Imps were a big favorite for crime bosses and other assorted miscreants. Occasionally, an Armbruster-Stageway limo would turn up.
Agree the 72-73 Imperial was the end of the full-width-grill era, but wouldn’t put the 72-73 Monaco in the same boat – that was a much more complicated front end, and the headlight doors were mostly body color, with a thin strip of “:grill” bracketed by trim pieces. Both weird and kind of cool. My grandfather’s last car was a dark green on green Monaco Brougham & it looked a hell of a lot better than our ’73 Furry III.
This was one of my favorite cars growing up. Most of my classmates liked Ferrari’s, Porsches, Corvettes…Etc. Not me…A 1973 Imperial was on my wish list..Why ??? The hidden headlights !
To my eyes the 72 and 73 Imperial are unique among hidden headlight cars in that they hid the headlights and exaggerated the turn signals so that they were evocative of Woodlite headlights of the late 20’s and early 30’s. In the early 70’s Woodlites would have still resonated with the typical Imperial buyer as they were in vogue when they were young. By hiding the headlights and making the turn signals look like headlights that weren’t legal they achieved the look that they were after legally.
I love pop up lights on the big cars.
I think we need to make a distinction between “pop-up” headlights and “concealed” headlights, especially when discussing how they’re now considered too dangerous in regards to pedestrian impact.
I can fully understand how “pop-up” lights ( TR7, C3 Corvette, Porsche 924, etc.) could hurt a pedestrian, but I don’t see how the vertical “concealed” lights of a ’68 Charger, ’73 Imperial or ’74 Landau, etc. could possibly be any more harmful than ordinary exposed headlights. So why are they now ALL banned?
Great article – I had not read this before. The post-’92 Pontiac Trans Am has always reminded by of anatomical drawings of the human sinuses.
Humans do see “faces” everywhere, Included example is a grounded electical outlet. By design the ground “hole” (round one) is supposed to be at the top,,yet 95 percent are installed “upside down” so the “face” looks normal!
Our ’86 Honda Accord’s pop up headlights had another problem not mentioned earlier related to putting moving wires into the car: metal fatigue. The headlight wires tended to snap after all the repeated folding in the same place as the headlights moved up and down. And there wasn’t enough room or slack wire to easily get in there and splice in a new bit when it happened!
I call BS on the Cizeta, simply because it looks so godawful!
You forgot another hidden, pop-up headlight car…
The Cizeta is legit. Not common – perhaps 25 were made – but very real. The styling is said to be a rejected design for the Lamborghini Diablo.
Somewhat OT, but my mom’s first-gen Nissan Stanza (with exposed headlamps) had winkable headlamps straight from the factory. If you pulled back the turn signal indicator only slightly, only one of the headlamps (think it was the driver’s side) would flash. I used this to wink the headlamps frequently. Not sure how common this quirk is on cars equipped with the flash-to-pass feature, but no other car I’ve tried that with could do that.
What I don’t get about the new aero headlights is that the part over the headlights yellowed but the parst with no lights next to it doesn’t. I have a 02 Dodge Dakota. The headlights yellowed but the worthless lense next to it didn’t. This proves that some plastics don’t yellow. Why can’t they make the headlight part out of the same non-yellowing plastic?
I always liked the styling of the 3rd-gen Accord, which was–by my count–one of only 3 sedans to ever have pop-up lamps. Fairly daring to make a sedan with such a low nose, classic 80’s Honda. Besides the 3rd-gen Accord, the concurrent 1st-gen Integra, and the Mazda 323F (which we didn’t get in the USA), was there ever another sedan with pop-up lamps?
Polishing out hazy polycarbonate headlights…Haze on the surface, yes it can be polished out; though it will come back quickly unless the clear coat on the headlights is put back.*
But yellowing can be deep inside the plastic, and some headlights develop crazing, tiny cracks within the plastic. Yellowing inside the plastic, or crazing can only be solved by replacement. Aftermarket replacements are a crapshoot, with sloppy reverse engineering, weak attaching points, poor workmanship and inconsistency the rule. Just ask Daniel Stern. The problem is that once a car gets old, replacement OEM composite headlights may be rare or nonexistent.
* Nothing seems to last as long as factory UV protective coating, but rattle-can catalyzed clear coat seems the best home remedy. For an easier alternative, I have been experimenting on an old headlight that I polished, then coated 1/3 each with nothing, wipe-on clearcoat restorer and “9H” ceramic coating, and have left out in the sun. Jury is still out. I already tried marine spar varnish. Looked great at first but not after 6-8 weeks. Had to be polished off which was a lot of work.
Did GM ever put them on a 4 door besides the Caprice? As a kid, I was disappointed they didn’t produce more of them, particularly after 1970.