As I waited for an opening at the paint and body shop, I turned my attention toward removing lights from the car. I started with the taillights and side marker lights.
When I removed the rear side marker light on the drivers side, I discovered it was clearly burned. Clearly at some point that light got very hot.
So I knew this meant I would now be searching for another side marker light. Luckily I was able to locate a complete set, front and rear, of NOS side marker lights including the bezels from a private seller.
Removing the taillights was far less dramatic. While they were dirty they were in extremely good shape. I decided I should disassemble and clean the taillight assemblies.
Here you can see the taillight assembly with the thick body gasket removed. The gasket was actually still completely intact and pliable. I’m unsure if I’ll be able to clean the gasket enough to be able to reuse it.
At this stage, the chromed outer ring has been removed.
By removing the red plastic brake light lense you can now see the two inner gaskets around the perimeter of the light housing. Again the gaskets were fully intact and pliable.
With those gaskets removed we can now see the bare taillight bucket, inside and out. Again these are in remarkably good shape for their age.
Here are the red plastic lense after being carefully cleaned. I spent particular attention to ensure the bright trim rings which are glued to the lense weren’t removed. I will hand polish these to remove any micro scratches, etc.
The chrome outer rings will be sent out to be repolished prior to reassembly. You can see just how much luster has been lost by looking at the protected areas in-between each trim ring.
Next Step: Interior Removal