Had this one for maybe 15 years and if I remember correct it came out of a Camaro.

Just curious if there were a factory delete option for the cargo light and they used this to plug the hole ?

as you see from the pictures it’s molded identical to the light housing next to it

 

That's very interesting and I've never seen one before, even on some very bare bones cars.

 

Sure looks like that’s what it would be. The prongs would even hold the unused plug perhaps. Never seen one myself either.

 

You'd think it would be cheaper to simply give all customer's a light, as opposed to molding a whole other piece!

 

I can't see the point on a thirdgen, since cars without the light just didn't have the hole cut out. It's more likely that GM used the light on multiple applications, and potentially the delete plug was used on one of those other cars. But I'm just spitballing.

 

could be and agree don’t really see the point .. however I personally removed it from an 80’s Camaro however it was sitting in a junk yard at the time so who knows ... I thought it was a cool find at them time and grabbed it

 

In all my years of junkyard searches, I've never noticed the same light used on other models. I've always been into GM products of the 80's and 90's. I used to go to the junkyards once or twice a weekend, every weekend and look at all of the GM cars because even the ones that did not interest me me were usually a good source for parts that I needed for the ones that did interest me. I won't say that GM didn't use that light elsewhere, but I certainly don't remember it.

It's kinda not surprising that they would have a dummy light to fill a hole that was needed for most f-bodies. I have an '89 Celebrity wagon that was not ordered with a split folding 2nd row seat. Most wagons produced had split folding. When I removed the seat, I found that the car was welded together with the center mount for a split fold seat, but the mount was cut off with a torch before the body was sealed and painted. Earlier years when the solid seat was more common, the center mount was not welded on to start with. By the end of the 80's, I think GM actually lost some money here and there for deleting common options just to simply the building process.

 

What gets me the most is how it's molded exactly the same meaning it will hold the prongs and light bulb as well as the plug no problem. Why spend all that much money on a blank? Also, the face is smooth instead of textured all over. Have you tried shining a flash light through it to see if light can pass? Maybe it's a "dimmer" model because frankly when I accidently look at mine at night, it is like looking into the sun.

 

I've never seen that either but honestly never really looked. Very cool find

 

I could not find it in the parts catalog, I found the clear one, apparently there were 2 kinds of those, 82, and 83-92
Of course I might not know where to look... I would have thought it would be located with the rear panel stuff in section 15 of the illustrations... Is there a part number on it? I did not see one on either.

John