1982 tailight homemade conversion

[humfrydog]

So I need tailight for my 1982 4x4 but cant find them anywhere. also have 3 busted tailight housings from 1984 parts trucks. I am currently cutting rotted sockets from the 1982 and intend to use a dremmel to scavenge the mounting parts for the 1984 harness. the plugs are the same just need to rewire a little bit. i can post photos of how I am ding it if anyones interested. I plan on plastic welding the mounts in so the can be remved from the back like the 1984 sets do. them because i cant find lens seals I am gonna silicone the lenses to the housing permanently.

[humfrydog]

Donor Parts: ( A good Hoarder keeps everything, LOL)



Stripped down old housing and first set of removed bad sockets.


Donor part socket mounts removed with a dremel to be plastic welded onto housing.


Time to mark where to mark and grind out excess area inside donor ring on housing before plastic welding in place.

[humfrydog]

Marked the holes and dremeled them out.


Painted the inside to be more reflective with metallic chrome paint.



Gonna JB-Weld with marine grade, then onto sockets and rewiring pigtail plug. hopefully tommorow night I will be done.

[humfrydog]

I completed the pigtail harnesses. The 1984 tailight pigtail harnesses matched up perfectly along with the wiring. i jut had to add the 3rd socket, solder to the ground wire and add a blade pin to the plugs. It was fairly easy. I completed the JB Weld and test fit everything together. Installed and testd on the truck. They plugged right into existing connections and worked fine. I need to remove them to seal lenses on and make waterproof( and get photos woops). but for now they work and I need to drive the truck. hopefully I can get that done and posted soon.

So make sure to save stuff broken stuff for projects like this. parts are getting tougher to find and no one makes a suitable after tailight assembly for the 1980 -1982. Just my opinin and I tend to be a hoarder, lol.