Rear Lamp Gaskets

[John Morrison]

Starting to re-assemble pair of TR6 Rear Lights.

The 'New gaskets, that live between the lens and the bodies are somewhat deformed, likely from storage,

and I was wondering what might be the best way to hold them in place?

A few dabs of superglus?

Some mastic or other?

Something else?

John.

 

[Tim D.]

I think when they were originally fitted the use a mastik of some kind between the gasket and the body. 
regards

tim

[PodOne]

Just done the same job.

My gaskets were deformed from 3 years of storage and also seemed a poor fit. To help seal the lights from water ingress I used some 3M Windscreen Sealer, Black, 310 ml - 08509  (advised by Stuart) which also kept them in position. The corners on mine had the biggest gaps where the gaskets meet and I used a torch to see where the light and gaps were from the inside shining out if the makes sense which took a couple of goes to get right.

Put some gloves on its evil stuff to remove from your skin!

Andy

 

[mhossack]

Hi John.

I found these gaskets very hard to make water tight, first after fitting a new set, I found they leaked and ruined my back boot kit, and would go on to rust the car.

I suspect a lot of TR rear lights leak but the owners can’t see them leaking behind the boot kit, also a lot of cars do not get driven much in the rain.

My next attempt. I used a thin bead of Arbomast Autograde rubber sealant that does not set hard on one side of my gasket, this was better, but still leaked.

I got my gasket replaced for free as I was not happy with them.

My third attempt was to first put a good bead of Arbomast sealant on the light fitting and set the gasket in place, I did the same on the gasket.

Now to hold the light fitting in place I put a fair bit of pressure on the light fitting and did the nuts up finger tight, I was very worried it would be quite easy to snap of a stud, I then used a spanner to gently tighten the nuts, as the Arbomast sealant was squeezing out I repeated the process more than once, the excess sealant is easy to remove, I used a plastic scrapper to gently remove the excess, and I think I used white spirt to clean up any excess.

I think I may now be 98% water tight.

Mick.

Edited March 8, 2022 by mhossack
Spelling mistake

[Tim D.]

I have to say I used Polyurethane sealant on the seal where it touches the car body. Worked well.

Tim

[Andy Moltu]

I would go with windscreen sealant.

At some point you may need to remove the lights and the likes of super glue and polyeurethane sealant will be difficult to remove without scraping the paint or dmaging the gasket.

[John Morrison]

Thanks guys, can't help thinking it should not be this hard,

but it clearly is. Should have known really, because when I pulled them aprt there was hours of works cscraping and cleaning

some hard Black brittle stuff, finally got back to like knew with thinners and a Green scourer!

John.

[PodOne]

A few pics of how much goo was needed to seal the gaps. The same amount was put on the other side with a double seam in the corner for good measure.

Andy

[Andy1966]

I read some where that someone suggested two gasket sets to seal these to the body of the car to stop water and exhaust fumes.

 

Can any of you knowledgeable chaps confirm one way or another ?

 

 

Thanks all

 

Andy

[PodOne]

Hi Andy

I suppose it would depend how well the panels fit and how big the gap is that needs filling. If you think you need two I'd go for it. One and lots of sealer seemed to work well enough for me with two you might find fitting the nuts difficult and the light cluster standing off the body more.

Andy