Taillights for early ford 151....lens question.

F Bill · Unread post by **F Bill** » March 22nd, 2008, 12:38 am

I stopped at Idaho Motor Pool and went thru a bunch of taillights Alex had there looking for a set for my 1960 Ford 151 basket case project.. I did find a pair of Auto- Lite and a bunch of industrial light company lights.. What confused me, is the color of the lenses for the upper light was clear ??.. THe upper lens has two bulbs behind it, and the oval glass lens had two built in lenses in it, one centered on each bulb... But why CLEAR?? (another light in the box had the same lens in purple, which I assume was the glass turning color after a long sun exposure. ) THe ICL light has a red glass lens in the same place.

THe auto lite right side light ( only two bulbs in that.... two wire leads... had plastic blackout llenses that had been damaged from solvent.. If I could get them out of the cover I could polish them back to new.. ANy tricks on removing them from the metal cover for the light that attaches with 6 screws?

k8icu · Unread post by **k8icu** » March 22nd, 2008, 10:49 am

The clear lenses would have been used on bigger trucks in the front. Like the M35 duce, the M37 and the M715. They were used as marker/parking lights. Though the M715 did use them as turn signals as did mid 60 M35s.

Undo the six screws and pull the cover off. You may need to take a hard plastic tool to pop the them open since they may have been sealed for 40-50 years and the rubber gasket might have "glued" it shut so to speak. That is how you change the bulbs when they go bad.

F Bill · Unread post by **F Bill** » March 22nd, 2008, 11:06 am

Ah... that's why the clear lenses...

I already got the lens covers off, but I would like to get the lens inserts themselves out of the covers.. They seem to be pressed in place and maybe the die cast metal is staked around the lens. Can the lens inserts actually be removed and then reglued instide the die cast part?

THanks for the reply!
Bill

cstaup · Unread post by **cstaup** » March 22nd, 2008, 1:22 pm

If you are careful, you can pry the lip back and service the lenses that way or simply silicon it all back together.

I've done it both ways...succesfully

F Bill · Unread post by **F Bill** » March 23rd, 2008, 4:52 pm

here's a picture of the taillights I got... Well actually, front turn signals from a big truck...lol.. click on it, it should take you to the original pic in webshots and the album with pics of dismantled lights.

Taillights for early ford 151....lens question.

Taillights for early ford 151....lens question.

Re: Taillights for early ford 151....lens question.