First Generation Firebird-L Mailing List .........................................................................
Discovered another problem while trying to get the passenger side one in without leaks. Really pulled my hair out with multiple tries and resealing with weather strip rope/caulking. Lots of leak tests and a couple days later, I discovered the lens itself leaks. The back-up light insert (white lens part) is glued into place. My passenger side one is not glued all the way around the permiter of where it sets into the lens so no matter what it would leak. Fun, fun, fun! I'm going to have to disassemble once again and try to run a very fine bead of super glue around the perimeter of the insert from the inside of the lens. Way too much work for how much these parts cost! Sheen > .........................................................................> > > The originals don't fill in the center, which seemed wierd to me too. I think > the originals are a bit thicker plus they use a soft puddy all the way around > the gasket. Mine was still really plyable, which surprised me. > > The OER's > are a stretch fit to get them around the lens. So, they end up folding in on > all four corners. The tail panel mounting plate is in the way so you can NOT > pull the corners out with your fingers to get them to fit right. My fix for > the leaky/goofy gasket problems were as follows:> > 1. Use weather-strip rope > (1-strand) between housing and lens before screwing the lens down. This > brings the lens up off the housing about 1/8" (careful, the top screws barely > have enough to grab on), which gives you some extra thickness. With this > alone, the gasket almost touches all the way around when fitted to the panel, > but not quite.> 2. Contact cement the gasket all the way around the ends to > help keep the corner of the gasket from folding in.> 3. Use weather-strip > rope (3 or 4 strands) around the perimeter of the lens holes in the tail > panel. Now you have enough thickness so you are actually smashing the gasket > all the way around the permiter when you tighten it.> 4. Fit (I had to tuck > the corners of the gaskets from the outside of the car on two corners even > with the contact cement aid), tighten, and check with water hose.> > I got > one in this afternoon and it doesn't leak. Yeah! Piece of *&% gaskets! If the > Soft Seal ones don't have the stretch fit issue, these would be the way to > go, i.e. one less problem.> _________________________________________________________________ Connect to the next generation of MSN Messenger http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=en-us&source=wlmailtagline ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submissions to Firebird-L: <[email protected]> Unsubscribe from Firebird-L: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Help: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/firebird/Firebird-L.html> Classifieds: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/ubb/> Owner Pictures: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/show/> Donations: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/store/cart.mv?999999> FGF Merchandise: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/store>
