It’s this tail light lens too far gone?

[Steve McMahan]

Is this a lost cause?



I took this second pic to illustrate how white the lenses has become:

 

[MAD IRISHMAN]

You might try some of the 3M Lens & Hard Plastic Cleaner. Work pretty well for me in the past.

 

[Stanglover]

Believe it or not brake fluid works very well on acrylic plastic. It will dissolve paint and other crud, so just be careful where you use it. Do not get it on the metal parts. Use a small scrub brush and wash thoroughly with hot soapy water after.

 

[Stanglover]

Believe it or not brake fluid works very well on acrylic plastic. It will dissolve paint and other crud, so just be careful where you use it. Do not get it on the metal parts. Use a small scrub brush and wash thoroughly with hot soapy water after.

EDIT: I mean non silicone brake fluid.

 

[Hemikiller]

I saw this trick, use at your own risk. Run a propane torch over the lense....

 

[Steve McMahan]

I think the brake fluid with 400 grit sand paper did the best. But, couldn’t sand the outer lenses. The light looks better than before. I’m wondering, is there an 1157 replacement in LED that doesn‘t require any other changes than the bulbs? I’m not ready for changing the flashers, dealing with new problems. I’ve got enough to do. Steve

 

[Stanglover]

I think the brake fluid with 400 grit sand paper did the best. But, couldn’t sand the outer lenses. The light looks better than before. I’m wondering, is there an 1157 replacement in LED that doesn‘t require any other changes than the bulbs? I’m not ready for changing the flashers, dealing with new problems. I’ve got enough to do. Steve

Bill at HiPoParts.com sells very good quality replacement bulbs for ALL your lights. Take my advice, do not piss around with ebay crap bulbs. You will also need the correct grounded LED flasher. In this pic, I needed to add jumpers because the Ford harness was wired backwards and I didn't have the tool to pop out the wires and switch them. LED bulbs and flashers are polarity specific. I know you said without other changes, but flashers are not that hard to install. You'll need two, one for the 4 ways as well and must be grounded. I don't know if there are any that will work with electronic flashers and be satisfactory.
www.hipoparts.com
As for the lenses, glad the brake fluid worked. I found no need to sand though. Let the fluid do the work and use a tooth brush or similar on the fine lines around the outside. Perfect is likely not going to happen, but damn good is obtainable.

 

[tpj71mach]

I think the brake fluid with 400 grit sand paper did the best. But, couldn’t sand the outer lenses. The light looks better than before. I’m wondering, is there an 1157 replacement in LED that doesn‘t require any other changes than the bulbs? I’m not ready for changing the flashers, dealing with new problems. I’ve got enough to do. Steve

I am not aware of any LED bulbs that don't require swapping the flasher out. But the electronic flashers are not expensive or that difficult to replace. I used regular incandescent 1157s, when I had the tail lamps apart and cleaned the lenses I just painted the inside of the housing with chrome paint and they are pretty bright IMO. I also use Meguair's PlastX polish on the lenses to clean and clear up the lens. That's how I have always restored taillamps and they seem to work well for me. Pics are just riding lights and back up lights on, they obviously are brighter when brake lights are also lit.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Thanks for all the help. The painting the covers white really helped. I just wanted to be sure I would pass an inspection from the CA.lighting station. My nephew is a CHP officer and he tells me, most officer inspectors will require a lighting inspection prior to the VIN verification required by the DMV. While I can’t find any data that proves that, it makes sense the CHP wants to make sure you headlights are aligned correctly and the other lights are all working and visible.

 

[Stanglover]

Thanks for all the help. The painting the covers white really helped. I just wanted to be sure I would pass an inspection from the CA.lighting station. My nephew is a CHP officer and he tells me, most officer inspectors will require a lighting inspection prior to the VIN verification required by the DMV. While I can’t find any data that proves that, it makes sense the CHP wants to make sure you headlights are aligned correctly and the other lights are all working and visible.

LED conversion headlights will make a HUGE difference. Search my post on this. It doesn't have to be expensive.

 

[Steve McMahan]

I will. I’m doing a three phase redo of my Mustang. I’m in the first phase, the get it legal on the street phase. Phase 2 is body/interior, and phase 3 is performance. I’ll save this till phase 3. I want to get my inoperative A/C AZ car on the street before the temps are too high to do that.

 

[Stanglover]

I will. I’m doing a three phase redo of my Mustang. I’m in the first phase, the get it legal on the street phase. Phase 2 is body/interior, and phase 3 is performance. I’ll save this till phase 3. I want to get my inoperative A/C AZ car on the street before the temps are too high to do that.

Good plan, man.

 

[Spike Morelli]

Funny thing about using Brake Fluid on the lenses. It's not a new trick. Back before any tire shine products were invented, even before Armor-All was invented, ( yeah I know, how old is this guy ), we used to wipe brake fluid on our tires to make the rubber shine. All the hot rodders did it.

 

[mrgmhale]

LED conversion headlights will make a HUGE difference. Search my post on this. It doesn't have to be expensive.

I agree with StangLover re: a well designed LED lighting system for the taillights on 71-73 (and other) Mustangs (or cars) making a big difference in light brightness. One of the more popular reasons (excuses) for moving to an LED taillight system is to get a Sequential Turn Signal flashing effect. But, many LED lighting systems require a 12 volt switched circuit to power the LED light panels in order to get the Sequential flashing to work, otherwise you have the traditional "all lights" flashing effect - not as much fun. I have installed a few of those "power wire required for sequential flashing" LED products, and they do work well. Running a switch power wire back to the trunk was only a bit of a PITA, and on one of our 73 Mustangs I opted to use the headlight relay to turn on the headlights any time the Ignition Switch was in the Run position, then used the power from the parking light circuit in the trunk to power the LED, which spared me the grief of running a power circuit to the trunk.

But, there is a better way. VintageLEDs.com has a microprocessor on both of their LED panels that negates the need to provide a switched power source to its LED panels to get the sequential flasher effect. But, you will likely still need to replace the bi-metallic strip turn signal and emergency light flashers with a set of electronic flashers. VintageLEDs.com offers the electronic flashers for a very reasonable price. Their LED panels install easily. I have two YouTube videos (of course) on the LED conversion. One is for installing the VintageLEDs.com LED panel system. The other shows where the electro-mechanical, oem flashers are located on the 71-71 Mustangs and Cougars, and how to properly install, and ground, the electronic flashers.

An aside, I opted to just replace my red taillight plastic lenses, as opposed to cleaning them up (one was cracked, so...). I also replaced the old taillight pod rubber seals at the same time. I purchased my parts from CJ Pony Parts, but other vendors have the same parts as well. As far as how the LED taillight projects turned out, I have absolutely no regrets.

Here are the two aforementioned YouTube videos Lynda and I posted. I hope you find them useful:

https://youtu.be/mZGMztZvLeI

https://youtu.be/npY1fxaNonY

 

[mrgmhale]

Funny thing about using Brake Fluid on the lenses. It's not a new trick. Back before any tire shine products were invented, even before Armor-All was invented, ( yeah I know, how old is this guy ), we used to wipe brake fluid on our tires to make the rubber shine. All the hot rodders did it.

Yeah, another old timer here. Brake Fluid was like a magic liquid back "in the day" (mid-60s - early 70s being the Golden Age for muscle cars). BUT.... Be very careful around painted surfaces. There are very few compounds that can destroy painted surfaces as well as the old school DOT2 and DOT3 brake fluid products. I do not know if DOT4 or DOT5 are as bad for paint or not, but me not being one to take needless chances I would suggest not letting them touch any painted surfaces also.

Being forewarned is forearmed. Keep brake fluid away from painted surfaces. Unless you are looking to turn an otherwise good day into a really bad day.

 

[mrgmhale]

Good plan, man.

I also like the three phase approach. Sensible, realistic. As for the A/C part of the project, I am assuming it is a factory A/C system. If so, and you want to keep the original A/C system in use, Classic Air has a division that specializes in providing parts to replace the oem equipment. They have been very helpful to me with our 1969 Shelby GT500 and its factory A/C system. I get our R-12 off eBay.com. The R-12 often comes in one pound cans with Japanese characters all over it. But, it works. If there is ANY chance the A/C system internals has been exposed to the atmosphere you will need to pump the system down to a vacuum. I left out vacuum pump on overnight, which was likely overklill (my specialty, overkill). But, having been open to the atmosphere for an unknown amount of time I did not want to take any chances. Also, with any degree of exposure to the atmosphere you really ought to replace the receiver/Dryer as well.

If you decide to replace the A/C system I highly recommend using Classic A/C. Vintage A/C also has an excellent reputation. But, the shop that installed our A/C units on our non-A/C 73 Mustangs said they preferred the Classic A/C units. We got the complete kits, where the old vacuum actuated hot water valve and air direction doors are replaced with electric motor controlled units, and the control head in the vertical dash bezel was replaced with thei own new control head. It is a nice looking system, and it works perfectly.

https://www.classicautoair.com/

https://www.originalair.com/

 

[Steve McMahan]

My plan is to use mostly the original system. My father was a sheet metal worker and taught me the ways of HVAC at an early age. So, I own an unusual amount of those specific tools. Since I’ve transplanted an 87 TBird drivetrain, I have a custom job anyway. It will be fun to do.

 

[Stanglover]

There's some great info running through this thread.
Going back to the tail lights, when you get to assemble them, I'm 99% sure water can seep through where the aluminum trim fits over the plastic. When I put mine together, I applied a small amount of clear RTV to the inside surfaces of the trim. In other words, take care of any potential leak areas while you can. Also added to that and as the new repop rubber gasket seals are not that good, I used black body sealer around the lamps to ensure no water was ever going to get into the trunk again. This of course, was the major cause of the taillight panels rusting out as well as the lower quarter panels. Ford did a ****** job of that in the first place.
As for what my rear LED's look like, here's a pic.

 

[Stanglover]

As a side note to this and I know we're talking rear lights, but LED headlights do make a night and day difference and do NOT have to be expensive to install. I added relays to mine and that makes quite a difference to the interior light brightness. I'll not go into all the details here right now, but here's a pic of what you could expect. Definitely something to put on the wish list.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Yea, all LEDS are on the Phase 3 spreadsheet. So it is written, so it shall be done!