80 Aspen Tail light re glue or secure

GTX JOHN

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I race in Superstock the Former Paul Rossi 80 Aspen that
used to be the Hot Rod Mag. "Project Bracket Bird".

At the last race I noticed the one taillight and the Center Trim Panel
were loose and close to falling off. I duct taped them in place but
the Mopar National are next Week for us and I need to look at them!

How do I secure them?
I was thinking remove them and 3M Weather strip adhesive.o
I do want to screw anything up as this car only Show only 27 miles and
has never been driven on the street ever and is nice!

I also Race a 78 Aspen Wagon SE which has held several NHRA National Records
and has won Div 7 All Stars.

Goggle: John Irving Drag Racer
To see some of our strr!
 

BudW

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A few years ago, I drove my wagon with son to one of his soccer games. When I got back to the car, the drivers side plastic lens was laying on the ground. It was a hot day, so took the mostly undamaged lens and pushed it back in its housing. I couldn't get it removed so was thinking cool, and drove home.

A couple weeks later, I was at work and a co-worker said what happened to your taillight. Well, this time there was no lens (it grew legs and walked off).
I purchased a new lens on eBay. Cleaned the surface really well on both surfaces and used a bead of silicon sealer before pushing the two items on. Not a problem sense.

Now with that said, I got to thinking about the other size tail lamp lens. I then got some clear fishing line and circled around the top two screws then tightened the screws. You can't see it unless you know exactly what you are looking for - and there is no place for lens to go if I have another gasket failure.

Note: the gasket looks exactly like what was used on the B-body Cordoba's. Those cars had a notorious time keeping the taillight lens in place, even in the late '70's. You could go into a shopping mall on a hot summer day, and could just bump one of those taillight lens and it would fall off ( . . . or stolen).
Cordoba Taillamp.jpg

What I would do on those is cut up a beer can then screw those lens onto the housing using small screws (and pre-drilled plastic) and aluminum strips - but thinking about it, I think silicon sealer or super glue would be better. You can't do that wagon tail lamp lens, though.
BudW
 

Hayzoos

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My driver side taillight was filling with water. I pulled it and carefully separated the lens from the back. It was held with platic tabs on the lens side to slots on the back. It was sealed with butyl like substance. The lens is in a cuplike form and the back has a groove betwen the outer housing and the reflectors that the lens rim fits into and seals on the edge of thd rim. I cleaned all the butyl like sealer off the rim and out of the groove. I used clear silicone caulk to put it back together. My problem was one side had not been fully closed up so those tabs did not catch.

Silicone sealant/caulk works great as an adhesive. They use it to hold fish tanks together. I have used it to stick trim on the surface of my front door, amongst other things.
 

BudW

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the the lens on wagons and gasket (if you want to call it that) are similar on these cars, but the base or housing is different. on the wagons, it is a metal base which lens goes/slides into a good 1/2 to 1 inch.
 

Hayzoos

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The 5th Ave taillight lens seats about the same. I had to use a narrow long screwdriver to scrape the butyl out of some spots. Caulking tubes have a long enough and narrow enouh nozzle to get the silicone deep enough into the grove to do the trick. It also helps to use the clear silicone, iit doesn't need to be as neat.
 
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