Hi guys. Believe it or not, I'm... ACTUALLY WORKING ON MY CAR for once rather than just collecting parts and planning on it. Well, truthfully.. the kids are doing most of it and I'm just "supervising" the progress due to still being heavily wrapped up in porting the motors heads. So, after pulling these grungy taillight housing apart and cleaning them up really nicely in preparation for paint, of course the gaskets have nearly disintegrated. Now I'm seriously in need fresh gaskets and can find only 2 sources so far. Autokrafters has only one of the required gaskets available, which I believe to be the one that goes between the lenses and housings, and another source on ebay called detroit motor technologies(DMT) which is a complete kit including inner and outer gaskets. Pricing seems decent enough, and not that those were really awesomely designed state of the art materials to begin with, but is it going to be even close to OEM quality? Any other sources for similar kit or experience with these? http://www.ebay.com/itm/DMT-FORD-71-77-Comet-70-71-Montego-Cyclone-Taillight-Gaskets-Gasket-Set-/290964062611?fits=Make:Mercury|Model:Comet&hash=item43becf4193&vxp=mtr Thanks for any leads or help on the matter.
wow.. good to hear. And coming from you that instills more than enough confidence to place an order for them right now. Shortest thread ever from me. Maybe even my shortest reply too!
No problem! I also bought the turn signals and market lights gaskets. Heres the turn signals going together: http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/my-73-comet-gt-restoration-thread.58349/page-15#post-1052982
I'll be sure to check it out when I have a few extra minutes tp pay closer attention. I just got a little more than half way through restoring my taillights and I have to say that your level of work effort is much more obvious than usual to me. LOTS of delicate brittle plastic and elbow grease involved in doing this stuff. Probably need to start thinking on rekindling my own build thread so I can actually post pictures of the progress. What do you use to polish your lenses? I love and use Maguires diamond cut 2.0 on just about everything and it starts slightly more aggressive then breaks down to ultrfine grit. From cutting scratches to finish buffing all in one shot. Cut polish paint, plastic, and even slightly decent on glass too.
I use Blue Magic Plexi/Plastic Polish. My dad uses it on his convertible top back window, so I gave it a shot on the lenses and they came out great.
Does it remove the deeper scratches too? Or just the medium to lighter hazing kinda stuff? Thanks for the info, always looking for a better product no matter the task. PS, I can also buff DVD/CD with the Maguiers stuff too. IMHO, every hardcore car guy should have a bottle of Diamond Cut 2.0 on their shelf simply because it works so well and takes the place of 3 other products to come out cheaper and less time consuming in the long run.
I would say just the light scratches and hazing. My turn signal lenses were NOS, so I was just looking for a light polish and protection. I also used it on my cluster lens, again with just slight hazing and small scratches. Also use it on sport steering wheel center emblems for protection. So far that is all I have used it on. I have not tackled my tail lenses yet. They may require something beefier like the Maguires product you use. If they do, I will give it shot!
I will take some pic's of mine later on after they're dry enough to handle. Aren't perfect at 1 foot.. but pretty damned close to perfection at 5 feet even if you're squinting to look for flaws. Mine were scratched more deeply and scuffed up pretty badly so I removed the chromed plastic lattices off the lenses to have full access with the buffer.
I just went to mock up the individual pieces I painted up yesterday to get a quick cell phone pic.. but I picked and painted the wrong side metal housing to mate it all up. lol The work got really delicate and seriously nitpicky so my kids bailed on me. I'll keep working at it to get some pic's late tonight or tomorrow. Or maybe just a quick shot of the individual components in the meanwhile.
I ordered my wiper post gaskets and some other odds and ends from Detroit. Very happy with the quality. Hopefully I never have to order Comet Taillight Gaskets... j/k