I'm restoring a pair of tail lights & need some hardware

[dwall]

I bought a pair of supposedly very good (no cracks or chips - Ha Ha!) complete taillight assemblies here on the board from a member in good standing.

1. Buyers Beware - do not puchase items without good pictures!
2. Ask lots of questions - about mounts, housings, bezels and fasteners etc.

The above steps ARE inconvenient for private sellers (they will cry, piss, moan, grumble, whine & ridicule your request) but there are lots of folks here willing to overstate, overlook problems, and oversell their supposedly fine spare parts. OK enough bellyaching... . One man's trash may or may not be another man's treasure.

Anyway I decided to restore these taillights. Degreaser, tooth brush, JB Weld, masking tape, tooth picks and me. There are a bunch of rusted little metal parts - screws, U-nuts, and SPRING CLIPS. I am looking for a source for these items. I found replacement screws at the local ACE but the selection of u-nuts is Xtremely limited and spring clips (if thats the term) are non-existent.

Any ideas? Mail order? Auveco? Henrys? Others? I could use a few U-nuts and need the pictured spring clips. I think I have just these two of ten remaining - LOL They appear to be the same size but slightly differnt shapes after 20+ years of rust.

One other question - I need to replace the black GM caulk also - I've seen seen 3M automotive caulk and Permatex sealants, Any recommendations there?

 

[turbo39151]

If you have lots of little parts you might look at having them blasted. However, if you can't do that, and can't find replacements, I would try some rust remover. I have some of this stuff and it works very well. Might be worth a shot. For great rust removal Safest Rust Remover

I usually take all the littel rusty parts and dump them in a bucket with some of this stuff. Then rinse, maybe hit them with a wire brush to loosen the bigger stuff and resoak. It really does work pretty good.

Good Luck.

 

[dwall]

Yea that's good stuff.

I think what I use is called Evaporust?? Does a good job but ....

Unfortunately most of the clips are completely rusted thru and not worth restoring except for the two I have pictured. I am talking cancer final stage. Maybe GM used these clips on lots of other taillights beside Regals??? While there are 5 mounts on each tail light, I probably don't need all the clips maybe 3 on each side would do.

Thanks for your response.... I'll keep looking.

 

[gculver]

Clips, and Taillight gaskets can be found here.Old Buick Parts - CARS. Inc.

Hope this helps, you owe me one!

GC

 

[dwall]

$9.75 each????????

Sheeeesh!!! Lets see 8 @9.75 thats $78 and mmm.mm & shipping included? Ahh NOPE!

Thanks for the tip but I can't pull the trigger. Still looking - may need to do some rural enginineering.

 

[gculver]

Yea, not cheap!.I don't think old cars were meant to be!

GC

 

[278cikiller]

Tail Lights.

I bought a pair of supposedly very good (no cracks or chips - Ha Ha!) complete taillight assemblies here on the board from a member in good standing.

1. Buyers Beware - do not puchase items without good pictures!
2. Ask lots of questions - about mounts, housings, bezels and fasteners etc.

The above steps ARE inconvenient for private sellers (they will cry, piss, moan, grumble, whine & ridicule your request) but there are lots of folks here willing to overstate, overlook problems, and oversell their supposedly fine spare parts. OK enough bellyaching... . One man's trash may or may not be another man's treasure.

Anyway I decided to restore these taillights. Degreaser, tooth brush, JB Weld, masking tape, tooth picks and me. There are a bunch of rusted little metal parts - screws, U-nuts, and SPRING CLIPS. I am looking for a source for these items. I found replacement screws at the local ACE but the selection of u-nuts is Xtremely limited and spring clips (if thats the term) are non-existent.

Any ideas? Mail order? Auveco? Henrys? Others? I could use a few U-nuts and need the pictured spring clips. I think I have just these two of ten remaining - LOL They appear to be the same size but slightly differnt shapes after 20+ years of rust.

One other question - I need to replace the black GM caulk also - I've seen seen 3M automotive caulk and Permatex sealants, Any recommendations there?

Its real real said that you bash a good friend of mine on here, thats had no Problem with selling things on here to any body on this site for years you have to remember this are 23 years old tail lights, If you whated BRAND NEW ONES you should have went to G-BODY PARTS, You whated tail lights and you got them whats the BIG DEAL.For $150.00 thats a deal If you ask me.If BRAND NEW ONES is what you wanted you should of ask,its a far cry from $400.00 plus.

 

[turbo39151]

Go check your local J/y's I recently found several sets of lights. Most in very good condition. Some with a few issues. Do you just need clips? I can take a lookk at the ones I have and see what I have...

 

[dwall]

Whoa BIG boy!!!!

Its real real said that you bash a good friend of mine on here, thats had no Problem with selling things on here to any body on this site for years you have to remember this are 23 years old tail lights, If you whated BRAND NEW ONES you should have went to G-BODY PARTS, You whated tail lights and you got them whats the BIG DEAL.For $150.00 thats a deal If you ask me.If BRAND NEW ONES is what you wanted you should of ask,its a far cry from $400.00 plus.

If I had set out to bash someone they would know! That was not the point. If I was out to make an issue - I would have posted it in problem vendor or complaint area or whatever its called. I would have NAMED the seller there!

I merely needed help locating some parts. JEEEZUZ - who's bashing who here?

If you READ you will notice I set out to mainly find some spring clips. Yep! There is a story and Yep! There is a lesson to be learned. AS a buyer, you need lots of pics and lots of questions and if the seller sounds anything like you do 'killer' - the deal is off ....... and as a buyer a person should go on looking - no harm no foul. Get my point?

What is sad (it's spelled SAD BTW) is that paranoid thin skinned keyboard cowboys read far too much into a lot of posts here on the board and then take entirely too much of the rest of our time by telling us things we knew long ago or getting up off their dead ends for some pointless rant!

Enuf said, I am sounding like you!!!

Move on Mister!

 

[dwall]

Thanks - you might have a couple?

Go check your local J/y's I recently found several sets of lights. Most in very good condition. Some with a few issues. Do you just need clips? I can take a lookk at the ones I have and see what I have...

I think there might be a broken taillight available - someone just emailed me - I will check and then get back to you.

Thanks again.

 

[chopped39]

Jeep holds their heater boxes together with clips similar to those and some new gm and ford lights have them also

 

[49-blues]

You can go to any junkyard with a regular regal to get the clips off of and soak them in vinegar and water and the rust should disapear.