TECH: Easy 53-54 Chevy taillight swap.

I did this swap a few years ago on a 54 hardtop I had. It seemed every 53-54 Chevy had Lee bubble lenses, including mine. So in my quest for something different, this is what I came up with. 51 Ford lenses in the 54 chevy bezels.

You'll need a sheet of dark red transparent 1/8 in. plexiglass, a pair of plastic 51 ford taillight lenses, a pair of 54 chevy bezels & a 54 taillight reflector.

Start off by tracing the outline of the oval shaped reflector from the 54, onto the plexiglass.
Then cut cut the outline you just made on the plexi with a bandsaw. A jigsaw with a fine blade will work also but you don't have as much control, TAKE YOUR TIME.
Put aside the pieces you just cut.

Now the 51 Ford lenses, you'll notice that the mounting surface of the 51 lense is V'd & it wont sit flat on a flat surface. We need to remedy this so it will sit flat on the pieces of plexi that were cut earlier.
I used a belt sander to sand the lense till the mounting surface is completely flat. You need to take your time doing this & check to make sure the lense is held level & it's coming down evenly.

once the lense is flat, put it on the piece of plexi you cut earlier, center it & trace the outline of the 51 lense onto the plexi. Put the 51 lense aside. You now have a reference an oval shaped hole in the center of the plexi. I cut 2 small holes in oppisite ends with a hole saw & used a jigsaw to cut the center out.

Now peel the paper the off the plexi & super-glue the 51 lense on. I super glued the lenses on the one I did 4 years ago & they've never fallen off.

I've got a few photos to put up so please wait till I'm done to to comment or ask questions.

Thanks, Billy

Trace the outline of the 54 reflector onto the plexi.

 

The 51 ford lenses. top is stock lower has been flattend on belt sander.

 

Right to left, 54 reflecter, plexiglass all cut & ready for 51 lense, Completed lense.

 

This is a lousy pic of a picture i have of the lenses in my old 54 Chevy hardtop

DONE

 

Good tech post 72. Thanks.

 

OOhh OOhh another good tech.....
tech week = more work to get done to the car
got a better pic of the end result?

 

Sorry, Thats the only photo of the rear of the car that i have. I don't have a scanner.

The 54 reflecter is only used for tracing the outline & is no longer needed after completion.

I know it's not an earth shattering tech post but I know a few Hambers have these cars & though it may be of interest to some. Thanks for looking.

Billy

 

I want to thank you again for this post. I did this on my car and it's a mod that a lot of older customizers give me respect for doing and I honestly can't take credit P.S. I'll try to take some pictures of mine. They're not that good and need redone, but oh well

 

I need to redo them, but here's the set I put on my Chevy.

 

Ok, I'm still thinking about redoing these, but I want your fellers' thoughts on it... Should I go with another set of '51 Ford tail lights, don't see a whole lot of other guys with em, or should I try some of the devil faced ones with blue gems? I've got a pair of devil bobble heads in my back window and I think it'd match quite nicely