Installing exterior lights-to seal or not to seal

[Belegedhel]

I am Installing the exterior lights on my '73 GT. When I pulled them off (pot-metal mounts for some of the clearance lights and the tail light housings), I found that no sealant was used in their original mounting, and that lots of water, dirt, debris, corrosion and ant colonies of developed behind them over the years.

I was considering gooping them up with vulkem before reinstalling--does anyone see any downside in doing this?

thanks!

[Farmer Dan]

When I resealed OEM lights after purchase of my trailers, I left a small gap on the bottom lowest spot of the housing to let any potential accumulating water escape. I used Vulkem and masking tape to make a neater appearance. It seems that I have read here on the forums that others have left a gap also.
Dan

[Splitrock]

I mounted mine on gaskets. No leaking in 3 years.

[Mixter]

Belegedhel- I'm about to re-attach my tail light assembly's.

Have you have tackled this yet? How did you re-attach the assembly? I assume yours is like mine, and was riveted from the inside, but the rivet holes on the assembly did not go completely through the tail light assembly (bezel?). What I mean is that the rivets are simply embedded in the aluminium casting.... I imagine the original rivets were 1/8 pop. Did you go up a size to 5/32? Did you just drill out the rivets further down into the casting and then pop new 5/32 into it from the inside?

I too, have the same idea of gooping up the back side of the assembly with vulkem, when I attach. They probably do more around the seams...

Thanks!
Mic

[Aerowood]

I went the extra mile and drilled and tapped my tail light bezels and then installed Helicoils, so I was able to use threaded fasteners to hold them on. Check out my thread below to see how I did it

[JimGolden]

I did the same thing Farmer Dan did. I sealed all around the top, the sides, and half the bottom. I left about 2" unsealed at the bottom. My thinking was that no matter what I do, some moisture will probably get in there, so I left a place for it to run out.

Best of luck,

[Mixter]

Aerowood- that's sweet! I'll have to think about that.... might be more than I want to attempt though....

Everyone else just riveting into the cast aluminum? I've never riveted into something without going all the way through it.... Works just fine?

[Belegedhel]

I ended up gooping liberally with vulkem, and then re-pop-riveting them with 1/8th rivets. I did add another couple of holes just for good measure. The rivets seemed to bite just fine in the casting with the hole not going all the way through. Word of caution if adding holes--it's easy to drill too deep or miss the casting.