Installing Parking/Taillight Lenses
garyemily – 4/19/06
- I want to replace the aged and foggy parking light lenses on my
'51 SS. Have the lenses from Service Motors but am not sure how to
remove the black band/ring around the lenses. I do not want to do
something stupid and cause a problem. Does it just pry or pop off where
the ring comes together? Looks that way. Do you need to replace
the rings when you install lenses?
crosley19 – 4/19/06
- Very carefully take a screwdriver and bend back the rolled edge
of the parking light housing to remove the lense. You can silicone the
new lense in place with rerolling the edge back or carefully hammer the
rolled edge back into shape.
JimBollman – 4/19/06
It is not a removable ring. The lens is swaged in. I
was told a while back, by the person that probably has put the
most lights together, that you should just bust out the old lens (you
going to save it for some reason). Carefully flare out the
lip a little, and sand down the edges of the new lens a little so
you don't have to go as far with the flaring, till it is a tight
fit in the housing. Take the lens back out and sandblast and
paint, inside should be white, the housing. Stop at your friendly
glass shop and beg a piece of the rope like sealer they use for
windshields (don't remember the name). Break off a short piece
and roll it in your hand to get a thin piece and push it in to
the all painted light housing, out close to the edge, and push in the
lens firmly. Don't put so much in that it squeezes out
around the lens. You're done. It will look like it is
crimped to most eyes and you don't have to take a chance breaking
the new lens and getting an even crimp. I did my FOR this
way and the lenses are still in 6+ years later with no problems.