rear sc tailights

[boomerang]

Hey guys
anyone ever take apart rear lights to r&r
caulk or weatherstrip all dried up and non funcional
thinking of using a dow corning black silicone when putting back together
any other ideas dum dum 3m caulk ????
thanks
David

[kiwiokie]

I used plumbers putty. Seemed to work OK.

[D911SC]

If you're talking about the seal between lights compartments I used a small length of irrigation pipe (left over from my home sprinkler system) and cut a slice down it. The pipe is very soft and presses nicely when the lens is attached. Far from OEM but it's tidy, cheap and works well.

For the backing plate I used a dense foam weather seal - hard to see on this pic but it also works well.

[Alan Lindquist]

Wow. How timely. I just took mine apart for the first time (have the car 5 years) to track down a dead wire and found plumbers putty. Don't know how long it's been there, but it all fell apart, was a mess, had degraded in places and bled around the inside and it all seemed kind of cheesy. I wouldn't recommend it for that environment.

I think the weather strip foam looks like a good idea and I have a bunch, so I'll try that.

Why the white paint instead of silver?

[boomerang]

thanks
the putty in the back is from factory i believe
nice work exactly what i was looking for

[D911SC]

Originally Posted by Alan Lindquist

Why the white paint instead of silver?

It was white as factory - mine is a Euro which I believe is different to the US models.

[RWebb]

The earlier ones were silver - note the small hole near the bulb - my '73 has that also - it might be there to vent the "rear compartment" of the housing

[Jdub]

I used white non-drying bathroom/shower caulk - worked great.

Were you amazed at the amount of dirt, gravel, and the like above and below this unit when you pulled it out? When I did this, I spent plenty of time washing, drying, and waxing inside and out before putting the taillight unit back in. Peace of mind.

I never found a good "chrome" type spraycan finish - maybe that white is the way to go?

[Alan Lindquist]

You waxed inside? Really?

A pile of dirt came out. I was constantly siting in it and I'd sweep it up and then more would appear. Finally I went scraping around inside and knocked everything loose. There was a lot. A week ago I removed my rear wheels and cleaned up the wheel wells. I knocked a FULL dustpan of dirt out - piled high. Was tempted to weigh it. I took a photo of it and my daughter wanted to know why I was taking a photo of a pile of dirt. She just doesn't get it. She has no idea how much weight penalizes at the rear. But she's young. When she's older she'll respect not being heavy in the rear.

[boomerang]

keep the junk out of the trunk