I finally picked up an '85 yesterday I'd been trying to get from a guy at work. I thought it was an '86, as it has the third brake light, and I though that's what year it started. So, they started in '85........right?

 

1986 started the third brake lights in the F-body line.
It was located on top of the rear glass hatch.

George

 

Maybe the glass hatch broke and he replaced it with a newer one with the 3rd stop light...

 

I checked with the original owner----the hatch hasn't been replaced. It's a later '85 car, so maybe that has something to do with it. They didn't change the hatch, or add the light. Far as I can tell, they didn't change a single thing. They're older, too, and not really into swapping parts.

 

is the light in a little pod on the outside or is it on the inside of the hatch? if it's on the inside it is a lter style and DEFINATLY swapped out. if it's the outside kind it could verry well be somthing they did in late 85. i don't know.

 

The light is in a pod on the outside. I looked at an '86 I spotted this weekend, and it's the same light. I think it must be just a very late '85 that got an early light.

 

did U check the VIN to make sure it was an '85?, my camaro is an '84 model year but it's manufacture date is 9/83, they could be confusing the year they bought it whith the modle year

 

In the not so distance past the car mfg started showing and selling new models in September. Example 1986 model was introduced in Sept 1985. Still a 1986 model.

 

My friend had a 1982 with a third brake light, so who knows when they started doing it?

 

The government mandated that 3rd brake lights were to be mandatory starting for the 1986 Model Year.

In 86 the F-bodies had it mounted on the top outsode of the rear hatch, in 87-90 they were in the rear spoiler on camaro's and under the rear spoiler on the birds, Which is also the reason rear spoilers were mandatory and no longer an option, then in 91 and 92 the 3rd brake light was moved to the inside of the rear hatch on both cars.

It would be possible for a late 85 manufactured car to have the light, as they could have been out of hatches without while tooling up for the 86 model year.
ANY Camaro or Firebird with a brake light before 86 (or late late 85) was swapped on at a later time.

 

My friend bought his car new in 82 and it had a third brake light. I guess it was a frankenstien.
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oops, wait, sorry, never mind. I forgot that he transplanted a firebird rear hatch to his camaro.

 

My 85 is sans brake light

 

I replaced the hatch on my 91 with one from an 84. Looks so much better without that ugly third brake light IMO.

 

86 should be the only year with the third brake light mounted at the center top of the hatch. Mine is an 86 with center mounted, 87 had it in the spoiler.

 

'87 Sport Coupe's (and Firebird's?) without a spoiler had the '86 style third brake light.