Assembly-Line Correct 1969 Trunk Lamp (RPO U25)

[ZLP955]

I have a trunk lamp (RPO U25 for 1969 MY) which I believe is assembly line correct, but would like to know for sure. Seems it's not that easy to find details of an original, and (as usual) ebay is rife with items described as correct, but which have various different shaped brackets (angled in 1 or 2 planes), materials (plastic vs metal), wiring colour (orange, black or both) etc etc. NOS and over-the-counter parts are also very different, like so many other items.
So, if your car has a known factory original, I would appreciate your feedback. Also, if anyone knows what the 'BP' stamp denotes (manufacturer?).
Here's mine:

[ZLP955]

Surely somebody here has an original trunk lamp? How about considering all model years 67-69?

[ko-lek-tor]

2 or 3 my friend. Let me see if I can dig one up. Old Yell'r & Blue still have their OE lamp.
As soon as I get time I'll get you a pic or 2. Yours does look correct from memory , btw
Let me know if you need the clips that hold the wire to the trunk lip?

[ZLP955]

Great, knew someone would have an original, should've thought of you Bentley! I have the wiring clips thanks, just missing the mounting screw and washer; AMK has a very close alternative, so I'll get one of those when I order my master fastener kits!

[69pace]

AS with many GM parts there were a couple suppliers so there can be a variance in color and stamping but that looks good to me. Shake it and if it sounds like a slight rattle (mercury moving inside the capsule) then it is factory.

[Steve Shauger]

That is an assembly line correct trunk lamp assembly for a 69 camaro. 

[ZLP955]

Thanks guys, appreciate your advice.

[ko-lek-tor]

Took a pic or 2 of a loose one I have. The ones on the cars are un-accessible at the moment.

[ZLP955]

Thanks Bentley; bracket looks very similar, housing differs a little in yours being all metal, and your wiring is black. Maybe a different manufacturer, as Brian mentioned?

[69Z28-RS]

Bentley's unit, although rusty, looks like the originals I've seen wrt the housing, grommet, and wiring than yours Tim.  I've never seen one with the large white part as on the back of yours, nor one with a larger orange wire as yours has?? 

[ko-lek-tor]

Not rusty Gary, restorable! Gotta like Patina if your going to live in Ohio.

[bcmiller]

Rusty, but restorable.

[ZLP955]

Bentley's unit, although rusty, looks like the originals I've seen wrt the housing, grommet, and wiring than yours Tim.  I've never seen one with the large white part as on the back of yours, nor one with a larger orange wire as yours has?? 

How many have you seen Gary? Factory wiring is orange, so I'm comfortable with that detail. Plastic versus metal likely just different manufacturers - my car was built at LOS.

[69Z28-RS]

My Camaro doesn't have a trunk lite, and I can't tell you how many in '69 Camaros I've seen, but the ones I've seen in 'countless' Chevys of various years all appear very similar; I don't recall ever seeing one in a Chevy that had the 'white ??' whatever it was (Can you describe that?  is it porcelain? or ??)..  The thing that seemed odd to me re the orange wiring, wasn't so much the color, although most I've seen have been black or brown wiring, but the *size* of your orange wiring appeared HUGE .. but maybe it was the photo??  what gauge is the wire?  how many conductors inside?  generally they get one 'hot' wire, and are grounded to the trunk (or hood) via the attachment..

[ZLP955]

Single conductor, no idea on determining wire gauge but it looks no thicker than the individual wires in the harness inside the trunk, white part looks like plastic to me. When you describe black or brown wiring, that immediately makes me suspect a dealer-installed lamp because the factory wiring harness color should be orange....

[Steve Shauger]

Here's a few pics of the trunk lamp on my orange Z. Disregard the orange overspray from a repaint years ago.

[69Z28-RS]

My apologies Tim.... (and maybe I'd NEVER previously seen a '69 Camaro trunk lamp!)..     Probably the ones I've seen on Chevys over the years WERE dealer installed accessories.   I suppose I wasn't even aware of a 'factory installed' trunk lite'...??

Were there also similar factory installed 'hood lites'   Does anyone have one?  I'd love to see photos of these trunk/hood lites 'as installed'..  so at least I know what to look for when I see Camaros..

[Steve Shauger]

Gary the aux lighting package ZJ9 included; under dash(foot well L&R), under-hood and trunk, ashtray, glovebox. My rs/z's were optioned with this feature and will take pics.

[ko-lek-tor]

Gary the aux lighting package ZJ9 included; under dash(foot well L&R), under-hood and trunk, ashtray, glovebox. My rs/z's were optioned with this feature and will take pics.

And I'll add, the under hood light is located on the Right side of the hood on a BB car, opposed to the Left on a SB and (assuming Six Cyl. goes on Rh side as well?) It's in the AIM.

A little unrelated, apologies Tim, but one of my cars has foot well lights with all the other Aux. lighting package. I only thought Verts got that? I should start a new topic and may just do that.

[ZLP955]

No apology necessary Gary, there's so many things we may never learn about who supplied what and how it was all put together by each assembly plant. That's why I asked the original question, and Bentley's lamp could be OE too. But I'm very glad to see Steve's pictures above! As well as the trunk lamp, my car has under-dash courtesy lights, and remains of wiring that appears to be for the glovebox and ashtray lamps too. So I think it probably came with ZJ9, but can't be sure as most of the wiring was pulled by original owner.
I do have an under hood lamp assembly, although that one isn't from my car (it was an sYc classified ad score). As with the trunk lamp, there are many types of underhood lamp that purport to be correct for '67-'69 Camaros, but each has different details. As far as I can tell, the OE-correct style should have a single black wire, a hole in the back of the curved reflector (heat dissipation?), and two round mounting holes - later versions, possibly service replacements, seem to have at least one slotted mounting hole, and no hole in the reflector.

[69Z28-RS]

Gary the aux lighting package ZJ9 included; under dash(foot well L&R), under-hood and trunk, ashtray, glovebox. My rs/z's were optioned with this feature and will take pics.

Hi Steve...  my car has the glovebox light and ashtray light, but I don't think it has any of the others... can't remember about the footwell... but I suspect those came on with the o/h light when the doors are opened (we always disabled those lights in the cars we drove)..  so the lights would NOT come on when the doors were opened..  

[BULLITT65]

Gary the aux lighting package ZJ9 included; under dash(foot well L&R), under-hood and trunk, ashtray, glovebox. My rs/z's were optioned with this feature and will take pics.

And I'll add, the under hood light is located on the Right side of the hood on a BB car, opposed to the Left on a SB and (assuming Six Cyl. goes on Rh side as well?) It's in the AIM.

A little unrelated, apologies Tim, but one of my cars has foot well lights with all the other Aux. lighting package. I only thought Verts got that? I should start a new topic and may just do that.

they go on the same side as the dip stick for the motor, so you can read the dip stick under the light right?

[ZLP955]

Austin I think the only exception to that is with ZL2, based on the AIM (U26/A1 view 'C'). Otherwise small block was on the driver side, L6 and 396 on the passenger side - and 396 with AC required the lamp to be relocated 4" to the left.

[ZLP955]

Here's a few pics of the trunk lamp on my orange Z. Disregard the orange overspray from a repaint years ago.

Thanks very much for posting those pictures Steve. Do you know if 'BP' was the manufacturer?

[BULLITT65]

I haven't seen one with the ZL-2 hood. I would almost think the hood insulation and how hot that light gets would be a fire hazard.
(I have seen guys at shows with the lights, and they removed the bulbs as not get them to hot, or wear down the battery)

[ZLP955]

one of my cars has foot well lights with all the other Aux. lighting package. I only thought Verts got that? I should start a new topic and may just do that.

Bentley, I missed this part of your earlier reply until re-reading it just now. As I understand it, under-dash courtesy lamps weren't available on convertibles. Possibly because there's no interior dome light? (although I'm not familiar with convertible features).

The CRG PDF 'Option' list doesn't mention courtesy lights for 12x67 (convertibles) under the RPO ZJ9 description, but does for coupes. Plus although each type of lamp in ZJ9 is also available separately under U25-U29, the courtesy lamps U29 are listed as requiring 'coupe'.

Also interested to see the reported production numbers of each RPO U25 to U29 listed, some are very close to the total for ZJ9, but I believe those figures reported separately are in addition to ZJ9 totals.....

[ko-lek-tor]

one of my cars has foot well lights with all the other Aux. lighting package. I only thought Verts got that? I should start a new topic and may just do that.

Bentley, I missed this part of your earlier reply until re-reading it just now. As I understand it, under-dash courtesy lamps weren't available on convertibles. Possibly because there's no interior dome light? (although I'm not familiar with convertible features).

The CRG PDF 'Option' list doesn't mention courtesy lights for 12x67 (convertibles) under the RPO ZJ9 description, but does for coupes. Plus although each type of lamp in ZJ9 is also available separately under U25-U29, the courtesy lamps U29 are listed as requiring 'coupe'.

Also interested to see the reported production numbers of each RPO U25 to U29 listed, some are very close to the total for ZJ9, but I believe those figures reported separately are in addition to ZJ9 totals.....

I would guess that I am probably way off Tim and really need to brush up on my "Auxillary Lighting" facts. I thought that because a Vert. did not have a dome, as mentioned, that all of them had footwell lighting. I have not seen coupes with footwell (other than the one I have). Admittedly, I have not seen an iota of cars that William, Kurt and others have observed and the ones I have observed, I did not pay that close attention to those details. Either I read that on this site or in a publication, but my understanding was that footwell was not in a coupe. Yet, I have seen other Chevys with footwell that were hardtops. Going on my own track record, statistically, I am probably wrong with my information and I don't like to post with erroneous information, so, perhaps a retraction until vindicated is in order. Cheers down under.

[cook_dw]

I know of 2 pace cars that had them (under dash lighting).. 

[X33RS]

My Z has the footwell lighting on both sides, as well as ash tray and glove box.  It didn't have trunk lighting originally from what I can tell but I added it anyway, it's a pain to load things in the trunk in the dark when you can't see anything.  I couldn't tell you if it had hood lighting because the hood was swapped long before I bought the car.  However it had a flat hood originally with hood insulation (deluxe houndstooth car) so I'm not sure they would have offered a hood light with that stuff, as mentioned those lights get pretty darn hot.  Maybe hood light only available on flat hood standard interior cars (no hood insulation)   Just thinking out loud.  I was thinking the hood and trunk light came as a package though, but probably exceptions to that.....?
     I kind of think all the interior lighting is a bit much.  With the foot well, dome, and rear console lighting up when you open the door.  At night it's almost blinding with white interior, lol.

Another hard top car I have also has factory foot well lighting, my 70 Formula.  Odd how GM did these.  Originally only the passenger side works as standard equipment.  If you ordered aux lighting then you got a driver side foot well light.  Strangely though that driver side light is there regardless, it's just taped up in the harness with no bulb from the factory.  Order aux lighting and they simply screwed it in place and installed a bulb.   My Formula didn't come with auxiliary lighting option but I removed the tape and fastened it to the dash and installed the bulb.

[ZLP955]

To respond to a point several made, the AIM shows a detail of removing hood insulation (where fitted) locally to allow installation of an underhood lamp bracket.

Bentley, interesting point - maybe all 'verts got courtesy lights as standard, thus explaining why that wasn't available as an option?

[KurtS]

Yes, it was standard on convertibles.

[ZLP955]

Thanks Kurt! I learn something every day here.

[Steve Shauger]

No apology necessary Gary, there's so many things we may never learn about who supplied what and how it was all put together by each assembly plant. That's why I asked the original question, and Bentley's lamp could be OE too. But I'm very glad to see Steve's pictures above! As well as the trunk lamp, my car has under-dash courtesy lights, and remains of wiring that appears to be for the glovebox and ashtray lamps too. So I think it probably came with ZJ9, but can't be sure as most of the wiring was pulled by original owner.
I do have an under hood lamp assembly, although that one isn't from my car (it was an sYc classified ad score). As with the trunk lamp, there are many types of underhood lamp that purport to be correct for '67-'69 Camaros, but each has different details. As far as I can tell, the OE-correct style should have a single black wire, a hole in the back of the curved reflector (heat dissipation?), and two round mounting holes - later versions, possibly service replacements, seem to have at least one slotted mounting hole, and no hole in the reflector.

Here are a few pics of an original I had squirreled away. It came with installation instructions for Camaro & Chevelle, and has mounting screws and wiring wraps for routing the wire. The illustration show how to take up extra wire if mounting for a small block LH side.

[Steve Shauger]

Note hole in reflector.

[69Z28-RS]

Steve:   
That's more like what I'm accustomed to seeing on Chevys since the 50's...   Is that one a dealer sold/installed accessory?

[ZLP955]

Thanks for the great pictures Steve, that confirms what I had figured out as correct for the underhood lamp.

[Steve Shauger]

Steve:   
That's more like what I'm accustomed to seeing on Chevys since the 50's...   Is that one a dealer sold/installed accessory?

Thanks for the great pictures Steve, that confirms what I had figured out as correct for the underhood lamp.

Just for clarification this is U26 Underhood Lamp assembly. I posted this at the request of Tim. I don't want to confuse anyone.