1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

[Richard M.]

Could someone do me a big favor and measure the thickness of a new (or used) Red Lens gasket? I have a lens, but no gasket, and need a overall thickness.

just doing a test.

Thanks,
Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Someone told me today they're about 1/8".

Sound right?

[Jerry B.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

I purchased a "NOS" tail light gaskets, it was a foam material not ciork. What is correct?

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Jerry,

I think cork is original, but not positive. I took a lens off of a original housing the other day at a friends house to borrow the lens.

I'm testing it in a original housing I have to check if the chrome shop I'm working with can fix the "shadow" problem I have on it. Where the bottom of the lens needs to cover the light chrome there. It's tough to get good coverage of chrome there in the sharp corners.

When I tool that original lens off, the gasket was so old it was deteriorated.

I had a new set of cork park light gaskets, those are cork, and also about 1/8" thick.

The lens is 1/8" thick at the contact point(circumference), plus about 1/8" gasket thickness(I think?), which yields about 1/4" overall thickness. If the "shadow" of light chrome in the housing is greater than 1/4", it will be seen.

Again, if anyone has a gasket measurement please reply.

Rich

[Michael A.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Hi Richard,
I am going to try posting a picture of the gasket in my NOS light assy. to be used in my 56. It appears to be a foamy cork approximately 1/8 " thick. I do not want to try removing from the light for fear of damage. The material has a green cast to it in natural light. Hope this is of some help to you. If my picture posting is not successful please send me an e-mail to fleagle14@embarqmail.com and I will send you pictures. Good luck, Mike

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Mike, The pics came out fine in your post.....perfect. I see where it protrudes and yes it looks like 1/8" or maybe a bit more. last night I used a 1/8" cork gasket sheet I found and I cut up a few pieces. I put one on top and one on bottom and tested the lens sticking out at the bottom. Total apx 1/4".

My chrome shop screwed up.....again. The shadow on my housing is almost 3/4" out at the bottom. The other one they did is about 1/4" and with my test pieces and lens is fine.

With my new info, thanks to you, I'm heading back there this morning to show them what they need to do to fix it. Taking my lens and pieces of gasket and your pictures to show them.

Thanks very much!

Rich

[Michael A.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Hi Richard,

Just glad to be able to help. Everyone helped me with my windshield assembly problems. That's what makes forums useful.
Later Mike

[Jerry B.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Would u b so kind to post a photo of the original mounting screws from your NOS assembly . THANKS

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Well, My favorite Chrome Shop failed......miserably.

I sent one of my housings for them to re-chrome to reduce the "lens" to "chrome" shadow, in the lower corner, to 1/4" or less. They did several for me before, with success. Not this time.

This one they just redid is now 3/4", and faint traces of copper showing. I'm not happy. I brought it back to get them to re-do it again this afternoon, got the runaround, and they now tell me they can't fix it. I'm done with them.

Does anyone know who can chrome 56-57 tail light housings .....Properly? I already have too much money tied up in these original housings, but I have a immediate need for them and need to get it fixed.

Rich

[Gary C.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Rich,

Paul's Chrome in Pa has done several 57 taillight sets for me and they were flawless.

Gary
....

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Thanks Gary, I'll give them a call.

[Steven B.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Rich, ditto Gary's endorsement of Paul's. They do excellent work. I have never seen a bad part from Paul's. As a side note I have an NOS set I bought in '65 and the shadow was really bad, 1/4" or more, across the lens to housing line on both pieces. Steve

Added: I have seen a couple of NOS in the box in the past few years. One set had about a 3/8 inch shadow, the other no shadow. My originals that came on the car had no shadow, they had complete chrome coverage. Surprising.

[John H.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Paul's did two '57 sets for me 18 years ago, and they were the only chrome shop at the time that went to the trouble of making special anodes shaped specifically for the '56-'57 taillamp housings - no "shadows", no issues - just first-class work.

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

What is difficult for me to understand about my latest "disappointment" with my chrome shop is this.....

I had these 2 originals re-chromed several years ago by THEM. One has a 1/4" shadow, the other over 1/2". I was going to use them on my '56 "recreation" of the '57 Super Sport show car and it uses a special Chromed vertical bar along the light housings as pictured below. I was going to live with the shadow on one housing.

57SS_Misc0022.jpg 57SS_0014.jpg 57SS_0015.jpg
BTW, you can see where the idea for the '58-'60 outer lens SS top trim piece came from.

So.......I bought a '56 project car that was a perfect candidate for the Super Sport recreation project.

P4290005.jpg

Things changed, I sold the project(the guy I bought it from had sellers remorse and wanted it back, so I sold it back to him), and now I had a bunch of parts left over. Recently I decided to sell these housings, and I wasn't happy with the one with the 1/2" shadow. I had someone interested but I tested it with a gasket & lens.......I didn't like it. The inquiry came from our own Classifieds here. Actually 2 inquiries, both parties want them. You can see pics in my listings. But chrome is hard to photograph(mirrors) so it's hard to see close up.

So I went back, paid my chrome shop an agreed $50 to re-do it, basically to fix their own mistake. They actually made it worse.They blew it off as ...."Oh, well, sorry, it can't be fixed, we have too much time in them and we are NOT going to fix it again. We can't do any better than that." Now I have to get it fixed elsewhere. I will call Paul's, but I already have over $675 now invested in these 2 housings. Yikes I must be crazy to spend another hundred or two for just one piece. I may just hang 'em on the wall as a reminder of my stupidity.

Another note, 3 years ago Tom Parsons had a '57 set he needed re-done and asked me to "hand carry" for him. I did. When I picked them up, both had too much shadow. They redid those again, and they came out perfect. So, out of 4 housings, they had to re-do 3, 2 of the 3 were good, the fourth, mine, is junk.....Figures!

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956 1957 Tail Light Lens Gasket

Here's the bad one, you can actually see the copper up close in person with reals eyes. Pics don't show it as bad as it really looks.

P2050001.jpg P2050006.jpg

here's the other one they "got lucky" with....

P2050002.jpg P2050003.jpg