Tail Light seals
- KalamazooJohnny
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:09 pm
- Your car is a: 1976 spider 1977 spider 1965 1100D
- Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Tail Light seals
Converted my 77 to later 79 style tail lights. The rubber seals are warped and shrunk too small to stretch and look and fit good. I know they sell them, but have seen many complaints as to fit. Does anyone sell good fitting rubber tail light seals for the 79 and later tail lights?
"Get used to people calling it an MG. Hardly anybody recalls Fiats, but people remember MGs because they once saw one on fire." -Corey Farley, Autoweek January 20, 2003
76spider
77spider
65 1100D
76spider
77spider
65 1100D
- KalamazooJohnny
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:09 pm
- Your car is a: 1976 spider 1977 spider 1965 1100D
- Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Re: Tail Light seals
Thank you for the offer, but I have 2 sets of used ones and I think they will probably all have similar issues. I found some rubber weather stripping that I am going to try, so far it doesn't look too bad. Got a tube of silicone for touch up, hopefully the artist in me will come out on this.
"Get used to people calling it an MG. Hardly anybody recalls Fiats, but people remember MGs because they once saw one on fire." -Corey Farley, Autoweek January 20, 2003
76spider
77spider
65 1100D
76spider
77spider
65 1100D
- 124ADDHE
- Posts: 365
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:19 pm
- Your car is a: 1974 Spider Amalgamation with C40 Solex
- Location: Salmon Arm, BC, Canada
Re: Tail Light seals
When i bought a new light to replace the broken one for my 81', the "new" seal must have been NOS, I really had to work that think with boiling water and stretching and it still never fit perfect....that said, I did read of a technique that a M.B. restorer uses; take your rubber bits, usually ones than cannot be found new, soak in brake fuid for varied amounts of time..apparently things can swell to original size and some elasticity is restored - I have not tried this yet but I am eager to and a gasket like this might be a perfect canidate.
Regards,
Keith Cox
1973 124 Spider
1973 John Deere 500c backhoe
1987 Jaguar VDP
2013 passat tdi
2015 cherokee
Keith Cox
1973 124 Spider
1973 John Deere 500c backhoe
1987 Jaguar VDP
2013 passat tdi
2015 cherokee
Re: Tail Light seals
I used the foam insulation you would get at the hardware store, the stock seal on my car never looked good even when it was new. I think it was the ¾ by ¼ tape you would put around a door or window in your house, its self adhesive and I just put it around the tail light hole then mounded the tail light.
Re: Tail Light seals
If you had described that to me sans pictures, i'd have told you it would look cheap and stupid. After seeing it, though, I'm quite impressed.
- KalamazooJohnny
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:09 pm
- Your car is a: 1976 spider 1977 spider 1965 1100D
- Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Re: Tail Light seals
Yep. Thats what I ended up doing. When I got them in they looked pretty good, so I didn't even use any silicone, for fear of making them look bad. That foam stuff squishes just about right. Looks about the same as your pictures.
"Get used to people calling it an MG. Hardly anybody recalls Fiats, but people remember MGs because they once saw one on fire." -Corey Farley, Autoweek January 20, 2003
76spider
77spider
65 1100D
76spider
77spider
65 1100D
-
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:29 pm
- Your car is a: 1976 spider
Re: Tail Light seals
Will the foam absorb water, or does it repel it? It looks nice!
76 Spider
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis, MO