[daoldbuick]

Just wanted to share this with everyone. I wasn't able to find replacement tail lights for my 36 buick so I deceided to try and rebuild them. There supposed to be perfectly round and cone shaped. They were pretty rusted, many holes and had lots of dints. Not being a metal smith I just put a layer of fiberglass on the inside and a some filler on the outside to smooth it out. Problem was I couldn't get the surface of these pods either perfectly round or a smooth conical shape. I started thinking " if they were wood I could just put them in my wood lathe and turn them". Woodworking is one of my other hobbies. A little more thought and I mounted them on the lathe with a bowl chuck. Then while S.H.M.B.O. turned the lathe by hand I applied a thich layer of filler. When it dried I turned lathe on and sanded filler off. MAN DID THAT WORK SLICK!! 2 perfectly cone shaped tail lights for a few hours work.

[Rob Keller]

Well if that is not a good example of how knowledge of other trades can come in handy when working on your old hotrod.

Pictures Pleeze





R

[daoldbuick]

Here are a before and after pic. You can see dints and rust outs in the before pic. There is also a hole for the lic plate light lens. As this was no longer needed it was filled in with fiberglass/filler. My only concern is will the heat from the tail light bulb cause this repair any problems later on?

[alittle1]

After they're painted on the inside with white semi-gloss paint, just add a small piece of chrome tape to the topside of the housing over top of the bulb. This will reflect heat and light off the surface.

I would like to see you put a step by step procedure of this in the Crankshaft Coalilition WiKi that is connected with this message board. That is excellent material that would help others.

[Willard083]

Thats a real slick way to take care of getting those smooth.