Replacement rear drivers side amber tail light lens

[flux3d]

Hi all. I wonder if anyone can help. Getting the car out the other day my heart sank when i looked at the back of the car to find a smashed amber tail light lens on the left drivers side. To be fair the lens had been showing signs of cracks since i got the car a few years ago.

So my question is what to do. Asking round over here in thr UK it seems the left tail light is as rare as the proverbial rocking horse poo. So my next thought was to take a mold of the tail light and produce a resin replacement. But the glass lens seems well and truly bonded in.

So does anyone have any experience of opening up the rear tail light and getting the lens out? Obviously i don't want to damage the otherwise excellent condition tail light. Any experience would be very welcome indeed. Plus if it comes to it I'll document the process and results here if i end up being thr first to try. But surely i can't be the first person to have a smashed tail light.

Thanks guys for any help you can give.

Mark20180801_121008.jpg20180801_121002.jpg

[Michael]

I have a old pair that I was (and still will) make a desk lamp out of. The first thing was to seperate the halves which proved to be next to impossible without damaging the housing. IIRC the housing and lens brackets are plastic welded around the entire seam. I'm sure it's possible to do but you might be better off getting a new light, and then they will not match so you will need one for the other side.

[DMC5180]

Interesting, I see Out of Stock on the DMCH website. I kinda wondered how many years the NOS would last on these items.

The good news is they will likely get remanufactured at some point.


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[Rich]

Interesting, I see Out of Stock on the DMCH website. I kinda wondered how many years the NOS would last on these items.

The good news is they will likely get remanufactured at some point.

Yes, these have been NLA for a long time.

See this recent thread. Post #2 says DeLorean Europe is in the process of getting them remanufactured: http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?16683

[Ron]

You might consider replacing the broken section with one off of another that is beyond repair.
(...place an Wanted ad here for a broke one, from either side.)

[eight8toy]

How much different colored are the door light amber lenses to the taillights? Looks almost the same size/shape, just different reflector pattern.

[matt clark]

Asking round over here in thr UK it seems the left tail light is as rare as the proverbial rocking horse poo.

I'm having a similar issue. My car is just up the road from you in Ashbourne! I've got the set that came with the car and a set I had off an old car. My set has painted indicator lenses which I suspect are there to hide the fade to white. The old set has a *completely* melted rear housing, and I mean really melted - the centre reflector has liquefied into the bulb housing and the rear 'cups' have started to eat the circuit board. The indicator lenses, however, are actually fine. I was hoping to do a swap and have been cautiously poking at the housing, but...

The first thing was to seperate the halves which proved to be next to impossible without damaging the housing. IIRC the housing and lens brackets are plastic welded around the entire seam.

...confirms what I found. People have suggested a heat gun but tbh if this heat wasn't enough to separate them then nothing will be.

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Does anyone know what type of plastic the housings are? I could try plastic solvent.

[flux3d]

Maybe we can get together Matt and see what we can do. If we can get the lenes out of the plastic I'm fairly confident i can make a replica using silicone and coloured resin. As you say you're just up the road as well. Be nice to get together with a local D owner if nothing else.

A quick google search turned up a guy on here who used a dremel to cut out the lens. Does seem quite a destructive process.

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However i love the idea of LEDs for all the sections. It would make the most of the lights for sure.

As for delorean europe I've emailed Ed to see if he can help. We'll see what he says.

[matt clark]

Unfortunately not local - I live in London, just the car lives up there! Will give you a shout when I'm next up that way.

Will give plastic solvent a try soon - I'm guessing the housing is something like ABS so I miiight be able to get it apart.

[Ron]

I think Mark could get away with cutting out the damaged pane only w/o taking it apart... Never see it after trimming the black back in.