i'm probably going to score some mint condition taillights off my girlfriend'* friend, awesome find.

but my question is will it go? did pontiac keep the mounts the same? i would just take off the lense but i don't want to go through tthe trouble of changing the weather stripping and sealing it back up. i'm just going to do a complete swap, it'* much easier. the '90 is an SSE also.

answers always appreciated

- JUSTIN

88-91 should swap.

I believe my taillight came off an '88 SSE. Yer, it'll swap.

thanks a lot guys. i'll be picking them up sometime this weekend hopefully. finally, no more ugly looking tails.

Haha!! I know the feeling. Also, you may want to separate your new ones, and clean the red/amber/clear plastic that goes behind the exterior plastic. I cleaned mine, and it made a world of difference. You may want to get some plastic polish to keep them looking good for a while. I hear mothers' plastic polish is good.


-justin

how would you go about doing that? would i have to take off the lenses? and the clear plastic on these ones look foggy, sort of oxidized, is there anyway to get rid of that?

Well, there are two things you can do. The first [which is what I did, to clean the coloured plastic] is to bend up the clips which go all around the taillight, and eventually separate the top platic and SSE grille. You then can remove the the coloured plastic for cleaning.

The other thing you can do, which is very risky, is to separate the top plastic from the SSE grille. I have never attempted this, however I know it is possible. You will need a hair drier, a flat scraping tool perhaps used for paint, and a lot of time. You then take the hair drier, and warm up the top plastic [the area where you can see the top of the tailight from the trunk, when installed], and take the scraper and SLOWLY keep prying at it. I don't think the taillight is glued anywhere other than there, and at the bottom, however it is possible that it is glued also on the SSE grille fins. You will have to complete the first step before you can do this.. or at least it makes things much easier.

Like I said before, this takes a LOT of time and patience.

If anyone has done this, please chime in, I am afraid I did not give enough information.

Once you get the plastic removed, it'* all a matter of cleaning it up. If all else fails, you will probably need a small buffing tool, with some plastic polish, or car paint polish that won't harm the plastic [chances are, that is all of the products available].

Hope that helps!


-justin

thanks a lot man, i'll give that a try!