Herald 1200 chrome light bezels

[307e]

Hello,
        Just noticed our herald 12/50 has two different sized headlamp bezels! :O I am just curious as to which of them is actually the original....as it seems one is pitted yet the other looks new. The overhang or 'eyelid' at the top of one bezel is longer and the body is deeper and more shapely. The other is more shallow and plainer. Sorry for the explanation - but it's difficult to describe!!

Anyone know which one is correct for the 12/50?

Thanks.

Steve

[herald948]

It depends on when your 12/50 was built. The change from the earlier ("deeper") rims to the later ("shallower") rims was somewhere in the 1963-64 timeframe. (The Spare Parts Catalogue is not extremely helpful here!) Maybe Bill Davies can narrow it down better (can't find my Costigan book at the moment  :( ).

[Casper]

Many cars have one of each!
My notes show that the change to sealed beam was at GA114739 May 1963 and I have a note:
?Short headlamp cowl.
I think there may have been a long changeover period.  The 3 ¾” long version can be easily detected as there is a hole underneath the peak that you can get your fingers in.  The shorter 3 ¼” ones don't.
C.

[herald948]

1337 wrote:

My notes show that the change to sealed beam was at GA114739 May 1963 and I have a note: ?Short headlamp cowl. I think there may have been a long changeover period....

I would have to agree and add that it might even have differed from one intended market to the next. For example, GA119167LCV, June 1963 build, has been in my family since new and has always had the "long" cowls. I'm also relatively sure that my long-gone GB19033LCV had them as well, as I'd never had a "short" cowl until sometime in the early 1980s when I picked up a bunch of NOS cowls and discovered, for the first time, that there were two types!  ;D