tailight seals....

[trwp72]

Question... I found some brand new looking tailights for the 84... I carefully seperated the lense from the back to repaint the silver reflector inside, so they will be nice and bright, after one of them came apart while I was trying to remove the lights from the car at the junkyard...

So what would be the best thing to "Glue /seal" them back together... there is no "tabs" or anything holding them together, just a rubber / foam gasket... which of course is no good...

I want to make sure they don't come apart for obvious reasons... And I want a good weather seal...

I was thinking some black RTV sealant... Any other suggestions???

Tom!

[LTDMan83]

Black RTV should work just fine. When I took apart the original ones from my 87 they had strips of very tacky Butyl Rubber, (like what is used to seal up front windshields), holding them in. Seemed to make a watertight seal and was still in decent shape, so I reused it. I'm pretty sure that Napa sells that same Butyl rubber in strips, if you wanna go with the factory way.

Here's a good tip for all you guys that I learned the hard way. When you have the Tailamp lenses off, DO NOT try and clean the inside of the lens with Water or any other liquid. The Lenses actually have a protective chemical film on the inside of them, to keep them from forming Hairline Stress Cracks in the Lenses during periods of extreme Temperature Change, (Such as during the summer).

I made the mistake of doing so with mine (Mint Condition) before I knew about that, and 3 days later after I had put them back on the car, it was unreal the amount of small stress cracks that had formed inside every mm of the lens. I had to junk them after that and get new ones. Just a word of caution. They should be fine if you just wipe the dust out of them with a rag.

[86VickyLX]

So what would be the best thing to "Glue /seal" them back together... there is no "tabs" or anything holding them together, just a rubber / foam gasket... which of course is no good...

My dad used this nice clear silicone stuff, it works grat.

[trwp72]

OK, For one thing THANKS for telling me about the washing thing... They were very badley dirty... So I washed them using a very soft brush... I will probably use some plastic clear coat to keep it from doing any cracking... Also I did notice when I was cleaning the old gasket material out that there is six tabs on the lights... three on top three on the bottom... So I will use some black rtv... and snap them back together... I am going to use some silver paint and repaint the reflectors... so they will be nice and bright... And I think i will use some clear yellow model spray paint to redo the turn signals. They make a clear spray paint, in most of the safety colors... Amber, Red Blue, and Green... I used the red to redo really faded relights... and it works great! Even works on glass... so they will look like new.. then do the clear coat over the whole lense on the inside....

Tom... And for the we want pictures people, I'll do some before and after shots.... Tom....

[86GmLsCoupe]

When I did my tail lights, the gaskets were shot and letting water leak in on the pass. side and the reflectors were all oxidized. I washed them but they were already in poor shape. I repainted them with silver bumper chrome paint and got them back together with that butyl-rubber stuff. I hate working with it, it's a pain to clean and always gets stuck to itself but it does do its job well. The silver paint worked well, I always get people asking me if my lights are on whenever the sun is out because of the reflection. IIRC, Teamfordparts does sell replacement gaskets if you'd care to go that route.

[P72Ford]

I think clear silicone would be the best bet (wouldn't black show?); make sure its 100% silicone if you want it to be totally waterproof.

[LTDMan83]

You can't see the black through the outside of the side of the lens. The stock seal is black and is not noticeable at all.