Quote:
Originally Posted by el_bole
Thanks for the info Mark, I look forward to seeing the write up about the caddy tail lights...
Roberto  |
Here is the original drawing my son used to fabricate the brackets. I wanted the profile of the bracket to emulate the shape of the rear fender top. There are some extra screw holes in the lower drawing that were changed during production. Once all the machine work was completed they were sent out for powder coating:
And here are photos of the removable portion of the light assemblies:
The lights slide into the bezel piece from the front, and the aluminum bar holds them in place. I don’t have any unassembled photos of the back portion that bolts to the truck, but it has a cavity for the aluminum plate, and a hole drilled through the end that goes under the truck bed. The wiring feeds into the hole, runs through the mounting bracket and is connected to the harness under the bed where it cannot be seen.
And here are a couple of photos showing the brackets and lights before the fenders went on. The back half on each side bolts to the stake pocket in the original holes. We added two additional mounting holes in the stake pocket and bracket. The finished assemblies are reasonably heavy and I wanted to make sure they wouldn't sag over time. The bezel with the tail lights attaches to the mounting bracket with an upper and lower screw between the lenses. These screw into threaded nutcerts permanently installed in the mounting bracket.
And here are a couple of shots after the fenders went on:
They look pretty cool at night.
I’m sure something far less complex could be whipped up. I just happened to have a full service machine shop and expert machinist available back when these were created. If I could have found a way to mount six of them, I would have added electronic sequencers like on the early Mercury Cougars. I just couldn’t come up with a way to mount six tail lights that didn’t look stupid.