Unknown 1966 Trunk decal?

[455hota]

Here are some pics from the underside of my 1966 decklid.
There on the passenger underside is the original jacking instructions decal.
On the drivers side there is a remnant of another decal. I can partially read:
“Failure ...
these safet…
can cause…
break and th…
to burst with fo…
cient to cause…
injury.
27-0195-94... “

Does anyone have this decal intact in their trunk? Is this decal reproduced somewhere?

Another question, on my decklid hinges there are two reflective red stickers, that would be seen at night if the trunk was open and you were on the side of the road having some sort of car trouble. Are these red reflectors a factory item, or was this added by a safety conscious previous owner?

[LithiumCobalt]

My 67 sedan did not have the red reflectors. Only decal under the trunk lid was the jacking instructions.

[TonyC]

Neither did my grand's Man-Of-War nor Frankenstein have those reflective stickers...in fact, nor any car or organ donor I've ever seen. They were likely add-ons by a safety-conscious prior owner, but a very good idea, I must say.

I noticed the striker for the warning light in the right hinge, but something about its placement looks off. Unless it's of a different design from the one I have, shouldn't it be bolted to the inside of the hinge? The threads for the screws are cut into the striker, so the hinge should be sandwiched between the screws and the striker. On the other hand, if you don't have any problems with its placement, like rubbing or jamming when you close the trunk, or the striker moving around and not properly engaging/disengaging the dash light, then you can leave it as-is.

---Tony

[Dan Szwarc]

Not factory. Never saw it at an LCOC show and I saw a lot of convertibles that were original or perfectly restored.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 8.27.56 PM.png (65.79 KiB) Viewed 277 times

I think I've seen this decal on gas charged shocks.

[papawayne]

I think Dan is right. It may even be a sticker for air shocks, if they were hauling a camping trailer. I looked in the picture of the trunk but didn't see anything to connect an air hose to. Wayne

[TonyC]

I didn't think any such shocks existed in the 'vert years, that the first year for such a system on clap-door cars was '68. I have never seen such a setup on any car, but I'd love to...maybe retrofit one to Frankenstein, as I already have fitted a trailer hitch (though that's been more for structural reinforcement than for dragging things behind me).

---Tony

[papawayne]

They were retrofits, Tony. When I got my 63, there was a big honking trailer hitch on it. I'll bet it hauled a big Airstream behind it. We yanked all that stuff out and tried to give it away on this forum. No dice, it ended up in the metal pile at the dump. I did have to replace the rear springs after that though, as most recently mentioned in this forum. Wayne

[frasern]

My '66 had a FoMoCo hitch, they were offered over the counter, or dealer installed, not a factory install. Many such items have a warning sticker in the package, most people wouldn't bother to apply it, but a dealerships shop probably would.
Once the snow melts, in August or so, I will check that '66 trunk lid, but I don't recall seeing such a sticker.

[TonyC]

My grand's Man-Of-War had the hitch as well. She didn't like it, but she was not the type to haul trailers anyway. I always liked seeing tow hooks on cars myself, just never could explain why. Years later, I read a recommendation in Consumer Reports, one of few accessories they said was an upgrade. It said such an add can help reinforce the rear end in a collision, so that was the main reason I salvaged a hook from an organ donor to go onto Frankenstein. The tricky bit was aligning the hook exactly right so I could mark where to drill the bolt holes. But it worked.

I have been toying with the idea of reinforcing it more, by adding a beam of steel to the trunk floor, drilling holes in the beam for the cross member bolts to go through. But that's not a priority experiment right now.

---Tony

[frasern]

Years ago, used car dealers would remove the hitch, because they didn't want the customer to think the car had been used for towing.
My '67 had a very large receiver hitch welded to the unibody, most was cut off, but there are still some bits I need to address. The car was rear ended at one point, and the bumper, taillights, and trunk lid were replaced. I expect that's when the hitch was cut off, so it likely took a portion of the force.

[Mike]

They can go either way in a collision. They can help reinforce the rear end and in a hard hit could prevent the other vehicle ftom coming into the rear as far but they also put the force directly onto the frame so a rear end collision that might have only taken out the bumper could now cause more severe frame damage.