So, it's not easy finding nice 62 Merc Monterey tail lights and when you do, you can't afford them. So, I made some 59 Caddy lights work. I know a lot of people use the caddy lights, but they are similar in size to what I already have. Here are the original lights. Faded and cracked So to make this work, I had to replicate the base of the original tail light so that the Caddy light could attach to it and then to the housing. i used 3/8 acrylic, traced the base of the original and cut it out. Made the necessary holes to attach the Caddy base to it. I painted one side of the acrylic with red metal flake clear coat from Home Depot. (Painted it before pictures) Anyway, I attached the Caddy light to the new base and set in to the housing and this is what I got.
That's probably the very best adaption of Caddy lights I've ever seen. Looks very good and is appropriate to the stock Merc bezel. Congratulations on your creativity, workmanship and good taste! Ray
I'll nitpick this a bit, mainly because you see this all the time and guys don't think about the safety factor... Nearly all state laws require that you have a red reflective lens on the rear of your vehicle; in this case, that is located on the flat base of the OEM lens. These are usually part of the lens (like here), but not always; some vehicles have them as separate items ('59 Caddy's had them in the bumper, my OT '13 Mustang has them in the lower rear fascia)). I believe these have been required on all cars starting in the 50s. These are generally required to be visible out to at least 300'. This is to ensure that even if the taillights aren't working, if light falls on the rear of the vehicle it will be seen. So if you're driving the vehicle and the taillights go out, somebody coming up behind you will hopefully see these reflectors and know you're there, or if the vehicle is parked. Given all the concern that has been expressed about rear visibility (people looking for brighter taillights), ignoring this is surprising. The 'fix' here is easy; pick up some red reflective tape and apply it to the 'adaptor', more or less duplicating the OEM reflective surface.
great plan and execution - agree with Crazy Steve - might consider an upgrade to Brite bulbs or LED bulbs.
Normally, I would say that the only thing a '59 caddy taillight looks good in is a '59 caddy. This is the exception to that rule. Nice work.
I'm not usually a fan of those lights at all but they look great on that car............even better than they do on a '59 Caddy.
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