Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

If a truck had plain black non-deluxe knobs, and it came with a cigarette lighter, was the center button on it still silver, or was there an all black version?

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Edit: Incorrect info. See next post below.

Interesting. Thanks! Now I'm off to the WTB section...

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

--
I told you wrong on the lighter. I had to go out to the shop and check. I was right about the copper plating and black oxide coating but they still have the stainless button in the center.... Sorry.

Leon

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Thank you. I suppose most people are interested in the deluxe stuff anyway.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Possibly a lot of non-deluxe [or 'Standard,' as they used to say] trucks came without any cigarette lighter.
My stepside had been an obvious fleet truck, all manual everything, but the build sheet [long lost now] stated "Deluxe Ash Tray''.* The lighter however, was a generic aftermarket unit. Likely from JC Whitney or Western Auto. It had a reverse-conical chrome knob, unlike the dash knobs. I've replaced it with a GM style lighter, but it has the white metal center.
[*Other oddities included 7.00x17.5 6-lug rims and tires, SM465 4-Speed, and L25 292 L6. WC Jr mirrors, Heater, no radio.]

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

I suspect my truck was a fleet vehicle too based on the drilled out rivets on the door jamb, the CalTrans 516 orange, no radio and idiot lights. My drivetrain was a little more 'standard' though with a 307, although it did have a Powerglide. Is your cigarette lighter from a 67-72 truck, or is it from some other vehicle? I've never seen one with a white center.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

My 70 I believe to be a pretty plain jane truck and it has a black center on the cigarette lighter, which still works btw!

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Very interesting. Was the cigarette lighter on the SPID? Any chance you'd be able to post a photo of it?

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Factory pic from another thread.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8181/...1c5f87a9_b.jpg

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

My cigarette lighter has the normal deluxe stainless steel center. ''In The White'' is a gunsmiths term for unblued metal. It's GM-style Counterparts 68/72 piece from Desert Auto Parts, a local Tucson brick-and-mortar shop who carried parts for '60s/'70s muscle cars and classic pickups. Sadly, they folded, driven out of business by on/line shopping.

I think my Stepside was also a CalTrans truck. Although anybody could select 516 Orange. The PO told me he was a sergeant when he bought it from the Catholic Chaplain at MCB Camp Pendleton, Calif. The Padre had orders for 'Nam, and advertized in the base newspaper for someone to take over payments. So he bought it. A few years later, with the Arab Oil Embargo, the price of Gas jumped. His then pregnant wife made him sell it to buy a Toyota. [He wasn't too happy about the deal.] I was a civilian --just graduated from junior college -- when I bought the truck from the former Sgt. For my own reasons, I wound up joining the Marines later that year.

I still have the plate under the VIN plate. It states something like: ''This vehicle has been furnished to the dealer equipped with the latest safety equipment as mandated by Federal regulations...''

Besides the idiot lights and no AM radio, my truck had once had a radio antenna or amber gumball machine in the center of the roof. Holes from long-gone cable clips trace a track across the upper rear window edge, below the floormat to under the dash. A rubber grommet in the hole still does not leak.

How the Padre came by it is an untold sea story. It was only 5 years old when I bought it in 1973, and the sergeant had it a couple years.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Interesting. It looks like it has a deluxe headlight switch hiding behind the steering wheel.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

That is very cool to know the history of your truck. I bought mine from a guy who bought it about a year ago from a long time owner of it. He said he received a pink pinkslip from him, which means the guy owned it since at least 1988. That's all I know.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Looks to me like that truck has a lighter delete plug in it. Unless my old eyes are deceiving me.

LockDoc

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

I had the California pinkslip, but had to turn it in to the AZ/MVD to get an Arizona title. Had to turn in my Black/Yellow Calif plates too, but I still remember the number:
10 566 A
Also Felix Chevrolet in Downtown LA was the original dealer.

The ex-sgt never scraped the Chaplain's base security sticker off the front bumper. He was a Navy Captain [0-6 = Marine/Army/USAF full-bird Colonel]. When I reported on base at Cherry Point NC, about 1-1/2 year later, as a PFC, I got a snappy salute from the gate guard MP Sgt, which I returned with my most military style. The second time he said: "My compliments to your father, the Colonel.'' The third time, he asked if I did have a father who was a Col? When I said no, it was just a used truck, he said he thought so, pull over there, and the royal blue Colonel's sticker was scraped off and a fresh red [enlisted] sticker slapped in its place.
And no more crisp salutes.

:flagw:

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Haha. Great story.

I'm surprised your truck had black & yellow plates from 1968. I would have figured CalTrans would have had Exempt plates on it that they would have removed before selling it. My truck has blue & yellow plates from around 1971. I found ads online for two other trucks like ours that said they were from CalTrans and they both had early 70s blue plates. Too bad you had to turn in the plates and pinkslip.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

There's no trim plate around it either. It is strange that the radio has standard knobs.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

^^^
Agree 100%!

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

Also agree 100%!

My truck came with and still has its lighter delete which looks just like the one in that photo.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

My truck is a '68. When did the Blue/Yellow plates come in? Another possibility is that the truck was in Southern Pacific's fleet. They would not have had Exempt plates. And SP was big on Orange. Or [wink, wink] somehow some fleet manager ordered too many orange stepsides and ''had'' to sell one off to the Priest for peanuts on the dollar, as a good deed. But then why would he still be making payments on it when O/S orders came in? We'll never know.

When I bought a '71 GMC Jimmy in 1995, from a recent immigrant from LA, it also had a Pink Slip and Blue plates. I only gave the MVD one of them, and kept one for a souvenir. I told them the front plate was lost. In AZ -- after '89 -- we went to a single Rear plate. I have a German oval-shaped white/black plate on the front now just for kicks. Checked with a cop buddy. Not illegal.

Re: Cigarette Lighter on Non-Deluxe Trucks
 

I believe the blue plates came out in 69, but it took a year or two to use up the remaining black plates. From what I have found online, black plates ending on A or B are correct for 1968.