Restored my tail light housings
 

Spent a majority of my free time over the past 3 evenings restoring my “GTO” tail light housings… only to find out the gaskets I had for them looked odd. Long story short, I have a nice pair of LeMans housings for sale lol.

Totally my fault for not checking so I can’t be mad. I did assume they were correct as they were mounted in the bumper when I got the car and ass-umed again the lenses in the trunk weren’t on because they were broken to bits. Live and learn I guess. Hoping the reproductions aren’t that bad!

I can't remember what part it was ... but I did that a couple years ago, worked on something for a couple days before I realized the GTO part was different.

Beg, borrow or steal (not mine of course ) a set of originals if you can. They are not identical, Left and Right
The repros have issues. As our sponsor says, "use as a last resort"

GTO housings are made from fiberglass and are fragile. Not hard to repair if you find a set that are cracked or broken. New or rebuilt sockets are usually required. I have the tooling from another member here necessary to install original style sockets.
Just ask and I'll send them along.

**GTO ONLY** AS OF NOW THESE ARE THE ONLY REPRODUCTION ON THE MARKET AND **WILL** NEED MODIFICATIONS FOR MOUNTING!! ALL SOCKETS *MUST* BE DIELECTRIC GREASED PRYOR TO BULB INSTALLATION AND CONTACT SPRINGS MAY NEED STRETCHING. LENS ATTACHING INSERT NUTS INCLUDED. PLASTIC HOUSINGS COME WITH LEADS AND SOCKETS W/O BULB. LENS AND HOUSING GASKETS INCLUDED. LENS GASKET SUPPLIED IS TOO THIN, RECOMMEND L160L GASKETS. **USE AS LAST RESORT**

I was afraid of that OG. I swore I read somewhere in the past the reproductions were ill-fitting and not worth it. I unfortunately have a set on the way already as it was either that, rig up the LeMans housings to work temporarily by getting creative, or contemplated actually fabbing something up out of sheet metal till I could find a used set.

I’m usually not that way but my top priority for this car is to take my Dad for a ride and his mobility is declining so rapidly (almost day by day) I’m afraid I won’t get him in it unless it’s now! He actually was able to stand up long enough and walk over to the car to put our Pontiac emblem in place on the Endura bumper so that made my day. :-)

I’ll have to be on the lookout for ‘68 housings and rehab them. I see they don’t turn up on the main sites too often. Maybe it’s something I can nag the car part-out people for on marketplace! Haha

Thanks for the help guys!

Wow, I did not know that... hard to get the mental image out of my head when you realized that ... :oogle: What The ... :censored: ! ... Why The ... :censored: ! ... How The ... :censored: ! ...

What a good sport to share that, thank you brother, that will undoubtedly save some poor bastage allot of trouble and embarrassment... namely... me :o.

Edit - Best of luck for a timely cruze for you and your father. I can only wish I had that opportunity. Thanks again for the post it's sure to help others.



Frank

My apologies to for adding to what it apparently a useless post, but I just thought I’d follow up on the aftermarket taillight housings in the event anybody else didn’t want to listen and source out old originals as people recommend.

Mine were from NPD but I’m assuming they’re all the same unit regardless of the seller.

I initially thought they weren’t “too” bad. 5 out of the 6 bulbs went right in and appeared to have a decent snug fit. Often times these things seem to cock the bulbs at slight angles even though the light socket looks perpendicular to the housing. These ones were all rather straight. The 6th bulb would not seat because the person who installed the socket never pulled the wires straight through the bottom before cinching down on them with the outside protective cover. One wire was mangled in the spring and wouldn’t let the bulb seat. Not too bad of a fix, but not expected for the $$$ they charge.

The overall housing seemed like a quality plastic with just the right amount of flex to it. I can’t comment on the fit to the bumper because I assume my bumper is a reproduction anyways. That said, the lemans units I had installed appeared to fit spot on, these ones did not line up at all so I had to get creative.

The “ground straps” they supplied to join each socket to the bumper in one place were garbage. One side was covered in surface rust. Instead of one unified ground strap they decided to piece together several small pieces held together with simple low quality screws. Their system also was 100% obstructed by the bumper/frame mount brackets. I ended up making my own grounding system.

The gaskets did fit in the housings well (yes the lens gasket was thin and useless) and the silver coating they used in the inside was decent. The lens retaining system where the screws lock the lens into the housing is a joke. They use little steel caps on the back side that the screw is supposed to pierce and then draw the screw inward. Half of them popped off during the first test fit, and the rest popped off after I removed the lens the first time. Looks like that whole lens retention system will be a DIY. Can’t say I’m surprised… but for the $$$ they charge, it is rather pitiful.

Sorry to hear all that. The factory used the silver retainer caps too but they stay in place.
You may have to epoxy the new caps to keep them from flying off. I have also read that the wiring is different colored from factory and the brake / tail light wiring sometimes gets mixed up at the plug. So test them before putting the bumper back into place.

Thanks, you’re 100% right. The wire colors are nowhere near the originals. So far all I know is that the brake lights are functional. I still need to get my reverse switch in place to test. Hopefully I can track down all those caps that popped off or things are really going to get complicated. If things don’t work out maybe I’ll be trying to source out some LeMans lenses till I find some real GTO housings. As long as I can hit the road soon I’m happy… lol

Hmmm, maybe the brake/tail light wiring miss is my problem as well? I have a set of repops, and they don't work correctly. Gotta take a look....thanks

SOB! Reversed the wiring in the plug to the tail light housing (my brake lights were on all the time) and it fixed the problem. Nice! Thanks