NL320 Tail light repair

[mklotz70]

Came across this from my ODPL postings....I don't think it was ever put on ratsun.



Aside from the rust, one of the light sockets was complete toast, so I had to come up with another option.

This is the worst of the two.




I started removing some of the bar nuts.




Actually had to drill the bottom ones out since there wasn't any metal to brace against.




If you stick a flat blade in like this, the bar nut will stop against it instead of the plastic lense. The tip is just behind the metal edge for support.




Sweet! .....NOT! Carefull with the gasket. This is the "good" bucket.




Mmmm...rust and bent metal. What more could I ask for.




This is what the stock socket looks like and as you can see....I only have one.




And this would be the bad bucket!




Some time with the sandblaster. I followed up with the glass beads. Too bad they are both as nice as the one on the left.






So, I stuck the bucket in the mill and bored the hole out. Honestly, if I do it again, I'll use the cutoff wheel and a carbide bit in the die grinder. I had milled a test hole in another piece to figure out the size I needed. I put the oring on to help seal out moisture. Snaps in firmly and seems to seal well. This socket need to be removable because you would not want to have to remove the lense to change the bulb.





http://i88.p



This is why I don't put the dual filament bulbs in.....it's set up exactly the way I needed it to be

http://i88.p



I wish I had the time to follow through on the Lab Metal, but I ran way short on time and did it very "down and dirty"...so to speak

I guess I'll redo them better if I ever restore this rig, but for now, I need it on the road for the Canby show.



I did put a small amount of Lab Metal(LM) on the refector assembly to replace some missing metal.
I taped some waxy cardboard over the hole to act as a backing to support the LM. It wasn't waxy enough, so I'll use aluminum foil or wax paper next time.













I cleaned up the screws and nut plates a bit. A dip in acid would have been a bit more effective, but this was quick and simple. I've highlighted the "cup" on ratsun. Basically, it's a tupperware with screen clamped over the end. I can drop a bunch of nuts and bolts into it, put it in the blast cabinet and stick the gun tip into the small hole. I shake and shoot and after about 30sec-1min, the stuff is usually pretty clean.....and I haven't dropped any into the beads


These are the repops I got through Ken last year. They are super sweet, but one of mine was a bit "off"



You can see that the flange is extra thick. I'm guessing the male part of the mold wasn't pressed in quite hard enough. It was a bit wide to fit into the reflector plate, so I put it on the disc sander and shaved some off.





With the width tweaked enough to fit, I found that the screws would not reach through. I did a little more tweaking with the dremel on the couple of them.





I was trying to buff the surrounds up a bit with the bench grinder and let's just say I "oopsed!" I nearly destroyed one of them. They got finished by hand. Luckily, I was able to tweak it back close enough that it's not noticeable unless you actually look for it. You can see a bend and tear at the lower left of the first pic and the second shows how it bent the whole thing out of whack.

[mklotz70]

 

 

 

Since I needed a good ground to connect to the second wire, I tacked a non-insulated terminal to the new light socket and put some heat shrink on it. I got the larger sizes from Harbor Freight.

 

 

 

 

aaahhhh.....that's so pretty.............in a lumberjack, manly sort of way!! :)

 

 

Lucky me!! You can hardly tell I nearly trashed this one!

 

 

Last, but not least, heres a quick pic of the brake light switch. I simply spliced some wire to the ends at the firewall mounted hydraulic switch(which is eliminated) and ran it to the brake pedal. It's taped into the wiring harness, so there's nothing to show of it now. This switch gives a much faster response time to brake application. It will turn the lights on even if you don't press hard enough to apply the brakes.

[Paul G.]

I would have recommended you leave some small drain holes on the bottom where they originally rusted out. I've done that to several older American cars, usually adding one or two 3/32 inch holes before there is any rust through.

[mklotz70]

Good idea :)