Tail Light seals

[KalamazooJohnny]

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?

[azygoustoyou]

I might have a used set. I can show you pic's if you want.

[KalamazooJohnny]

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.

[124ADDHE]

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.

[Ken]

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.

[Danno]

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]

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.

[donerehart]

Will the foam absorb water, or does it repel it? It looks nice!

[Ken]

it depends if you use open cell or closed cell foam