Tail Lights and Deck Lid Brake Light

[MrObnoxus]

#33/101 NM Edition has heat damaged (crackling) tail lights and the Deck Lid light. Anyone have a lead on a good used set or any ideas on if they can be repaired somehow?

 

[rexster314]

It'll be a quest to find taillights in decent shape, but the decklid third light is available new through GM for around 170$.

 

[DOUG ASHBY]

Source for tail lights?

I was just watching an episode of '*****ing Rides'. They were customizing a Hummer and had built a custom front end for it. This part had a large boomerang-shaped cavity for the head lights. They used some sort of a laser scanner - ran it over the cavity multiple times from different angles until it was completely digitized in their computer. These coordinates were then fed into a 3D printer which spit out the lens housing. I realize this was only for the empty housing. The 'guts' still had to be created and mounted inside the housing. But could this possibly be the answer to our quest for tail lights, or even headlights? I know this comes back to the question of who's going to pay to set all this up, but since the folks at Dave Kindig's shop already have the equipment and the know-how, and are doing this for one-off car mods, perhaps they would be interested in creating something for us? Of course he won't be selling millions, or even thousands, of these, but perhaps it would be enough to interest him in such a project?
Did anyone else see that episode? Did that laser scanner peak your interest like it did mine? Any thoughts - pro or con?

 

[MrObnoxus]

I was just watching an episode of '*****ing Rides'. They were customizing a Hummer and had built a custom front end for it. This part had a large boomerang-shaped cavity for the head lights. They used some sort of a laser scanner - ran it over the cavity multiple times from different angles until it was completely digitized in their computer. These coordinates were then fed into a 3D printer which spit out the lens housing. I realize this was only for the empty housing. The 'guts' still had to be created and mounted inside the housing. But could this possibly be the answer to our quest for tail lights, or even headlights? I know this comes back to the question of who's going to pay to set all this up, but since the folks at Dave Kindig's shop already have the equipment and the know-how, and are doing this for one-off car mods, perhaps they would be interested in creating something for us? Of course he won't be selling millions, or even thousands, of these, but perhaps it would be enough to interest him in such a project?
Did anyone else see that episode? Did that laser scanner peak your interest like it did mine? Any thoughts - pro or con?

I saw that episode too and thought it would be nice if someone could do that for existing parts that are hard to come by. I wouldn't mind reaching out to them and see if this is something they could do on a limited production basis when they're not busy (ha ha).

The scanning is a one time deal. After that, it's just about pumping out the parts and assembling them. If they did the scan, we might find another source for the 3D printing if they cannot make the parts.

 

[MrObnoxus]

Seeking source for reproduction lights

So I just sent off an email to the folks that operate a little restoration shop in SLC to see if they would be interested in further discussions on making some lights for us. I will keep you posted as the news comes back to me. Fingers crossed!

 

[long Tall Sally]

no need

you could never get them made as cheap as you can buy used ones. As 10-15 cars get totaled every month supply will exceed demand and prices will continue to drop. Don't count on anybody helping to front the upfront cost as people on here will tell you they will then never follow thru. had a friend that happened to. Taillight prices have dropped a thousand bucks in the last year and headlights about 500-750 less than a year ago. They will continue to fall.