I have a 72SS.It has the clear turn lenses with the orange bulb.Ive seen the orange ones as well. The SS has the clear ones..right? Also,can you get new clear lenses?

From what people have been discussing on this board it seems that clear lenses with amber bulbs went into early -72 models; later production 72s got the amber lenses with clear bulbs.

Headlight bezels also changed during production. Early cars all had black bezels with bright edges. Later in production for Malibus only (as far as I understand) got all chrome bezels, while the SS, Heavy Chevy and base Chevelle continued with the black-accented bezels.

I have a 72 with clear lenses, but the outer edges are yellow:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u165/Bowtie-Bry/carpics/scans008.jpg
The pic is how I found it after sitting since the '80s, as I was dragging it out and taking it home.

Does the mid year change you mention correlate to the seat belt dash light? I did have that which would make mine a later one.

Does the mid year change you mention correlate to the seat belt dash light? I did have that which would make mine a later one.

That I cannot say. I don't know how they phased in the changeover with the lenses, just that they did at some point (it may have been different for different plants).

There was a rusty '72 base Chevelle coupe near my house a few year's back that had 1 amber and 1 clear lense. Also it was a base no emblem, no side chrome car, but since it came with an L65 350 2-barrel it had factory 350 numerals on the fenders all by themselves. I have a picture that I took of it somewhere (it might have even been 10 years ago).


The seatbelt and seatbelt buzzer changes were definitely phased in as a requirement for January 1st, 1972 in order to comply with regulations.


BTW Bryan, I like what you dragged home :thumbsup:

Cam is correct, the seatbelt buzzer was a federal mandate after January 1, 1972. This is mentioned in the 1972 Chevrolet New Product Information manual if I am not mistaken. Therefore, early 1972 Chevelles/El Caminos may have gotten a dash without this feature, but later cars, especially all those built after 1-1-72 certainly got the feature. It is likely however that cars built earlier than 1-1-72 also had the seatbelt warning feature so that Chevrolet could ensure that it was compliant come 1-1-72.

With regards to the turn signal lenses and black headlight surrounds. There has been active discussion on this board for over ten years with regards to these two topics.

The general consencious is that no one can tell why or when the lenses and surrounds were installed. It's much like the plastic inner fenders. Remember, 1972 was a year that was not supposed to happen. GM was switching over to their colonnade styled A-bodies which was suppose to happen for the 1972 model year but instead because of a strike happened in 1973. This being the case, I think it lends a bit of credence to the generally accepted theory that the head light surrounds, the turn signal lenses and the inner fenders were all installed as supplied by the suppliers. Why some cars got plastic inner fenders (or one metal and one plastic or both metal, why some cars go black headlight surrounds and others got chrome or why some cars got clear lenses and others got amber most likely depended on what plant had what supply from what supplier when the cars were going down the assembly line.

It has been proven to be a wive's tale that SS cars got all clear lenses and also that clear lenses were only on early cars and no later or mid year cars go them.

I think it really boils down to what the factory had on stock from what supplier. Why some lenses are clear and some are amber, I would imagine as something to do with the carry-over 1972 model year not being supposed to happen.

My June '72 built SS 454 has clear lenses & one plastic (L)& one metal (R) inner fenders
car is all original body panels & #s matching

I realize after much study and discussion that it is really impossible to give a single diffinitive answer to the marker light question. I seriously cannot give a single answer.