For the last couple of years, my rear turn signals and brake lights worked marginally well at night with the head lights on. Since I don't drive my "toy" that often, and usually drive it during the day, it didn't really pose a problem. Last weekend I was at a cruise night, and left after nightfall, well I had to stop, and my worst nightmare, I heard squealing tires behind me. Luckily, I did not get rear ended, but now something had to be done. I am quite sure there are many owners of these cars, who like I ignore the problem. Well wake up people, its not that bad of a repair job.
Yes, you have to remove the bumperettes and Bumper, undo the wiring plugs, and a bunch of screws and the panel is off, I did it by myself. My housings were in pitiful shape, the reflector surfaces hardly reflected, and there was major corrosion on the sockets, forgot to mention my Cal has 267,000 miles on her. I know you can paint the reflector surfaces with "chrome" paint, but thats not even worth the aggravation. Now replating is not in my budget right now, so this is what I did. I removed the sockets and wiring, and I made paper templates of the inside surfaces. I traced these templates on aluminum foil, cut them out, and glued them, shiny side out on to the reflector surfaces.
Now I cleaned all the sockets, but this ground system, just don't cut the mustard. I had assembled the sockets and ground wire and tested for continuity, it was pathetic. So I removed the sockets, rolled down the rubber boot, and sanded off the glue on the sockets. I soldered a wire to the outside of each socket, just ahead of the lip. then I slit the rubber, where the new wire was and rolled the rubber boot back over. I sealed it up with a little silicone, let it dry, and plugged the sockets back in. I then tucked my new ground harness for each light in with the standard harness, and installed the panel. I had left lots of extra wire to go through the body, and ran this wire with the original wire to the existing ground screw inside the trunk, which I cleaned up for a good connection.
The lights work EXCELLENT now, brighter than they ever were, even when they worked well back in the early 80's. From the outside, you can't tell that I used foil for the inside reflectors, and only a GT/CS expert could tell I have extra wires there. So for about $2.00 in wire and solder, and a weekend of labor, you can save that precious rear end on that RARE car you own.
Yes, you have to remove the bumperettes and Bumper, undo the wiring plugs, and a bunch of screws and the panel is off, I did it by myself. My housings were in pitiful shape, the reflector surfaces hardly reflected, and there was major corrosion on the sockets, forgot to mention my Cal has 267,000 miles on her. I know you can paint the reflector surfaces with "chrome" paint, but thats not even worth the aggravation. Now replating is not in my budget right now, so this is what I did. I removed the sockets and wiring, and I made paper templates of the inside surfaces. I traced these templates on aluminum foil, cut them out, and glued them, shiny side out on to the reflector surfaces.
Now I cleaned all the sockets, but this ground system, just don't cut the mustard. I had assembled the sockets and ground wire and tested for continuity, it was pathetic. So I removed the sockets, rolled down the rubber boot, and sanded off the glue on the sockets. I soldered a wire to the outside of each socket, just ahead of the lip. then I slit the rubber, where the new wire was and rolled the rubber boot back over. I sealed it up with a little silicone, let it dry, and plugged the sockets back in. I then tucked my new ground harness for each light in with the standard harness, and installed the panel. I had left lots of extra wire to go through the body, and ran this wire with the original wire to the existing ground screw inside the trunk, which I cleaned up for a good connection.
The lights work EXCELLENT now, brighter than they ever were, even when they worked well back in the early 80's. From the outside, you can't tell that I used foil for the inside reflectors, and only a GT/CS expert could tell I have extra wires there. So for about $2.00 in wire and solder, and a weekend of labor, you can save that precious rear end on that RARE car you own.