33 Coupe Last Details 34
7/17/04
To find a good location for the tail
lights, I made a mockup of some out of sheet aluminum. I cut them the
same size as the real ones and used a red felt marker to color them in.
Then I used some tape on the back so I could easily move them around
till I found the spot I could live with.
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After I found a good spot for them, I
used the gaskets that came with them for a template. Now after looking
at the way the light-can was designed, I couldn't just cut to the line
like I thought because the distance between the aluminum bezel (outside
part) and the
light-can (underside part) was made for sheet metal, not fiberglass. What's the
difference? Sheet metal is much thinner than fiberglass which means that
the hole that I was getting ready to cut would have to be done a little
differently.
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After tracing around the gasket with a
scribe, I added a second line at each end that was 1/8" inward from
the outside. The
reason for the second line was because the lens is the same size as the
gasket and being that the thickness of my body panel is much more than
sheet metal, the lens would end up being loose. By cutting out the hole
size a little smaller and then putting an angle on the ends, this would
allow me to fine tune the lens so it would end up being tight.
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I drilled a 1/2" diameter hole
first and then used my Dremel to cut out the hole. Then by taking a
little bit off at a time at the ends, I was able to have the lens fit
just right with no slop at all. If you notice, the lights are not exactly
inline with each other. There is a 3/16" difference at the top if
you were to use a string as a straight line between the two lights. The reason for the
slight angle is that when I was using my sheet metal mockup, it just
didn't look right when they were straight but when I placed them like
you see below, it looked much better. I think the reason is because of
the shape of the body lines and the panel that there mounted in has a
curve to them. I guess if people tell me " Hey, what happened to
your tail lights, there at an angle" then I know I need to do some
rework.
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