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Tag light housing/bezel replacement?


red03

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Well guys, johnny law recently informed me that i have a tag light out. Got home and had some spare 194 led bulbs that I had planned on sticking in eventually. Searched the forum on tips to remove them as I could not get my fingers in from the back side. So i followed the procedure I found posted. Pulled in from the side closest to the tag and nothing budged, eventually got one started. I couldn't get it any further, but could see the spring clip. So I took my flat head and wrapped it heavily in electrical tape and started prying gently. Eventually it popped free in pieces. Come to find out it had been glued in with some type of black epoxy. I had the bumper re-painted about this time last year. I guess they couldn't figure out how to get them out and just destroyed them in the process. The other side I can see from the inside of the bumper with a flashlight is epoxied in as well. The body shop is a reputable one in my area, not to name drop so to speak, but they painted Dominator and Monza's cars from Street Outlaws (I know that is in not correlated with how good they are at disassembly, but the paint looks flawless). I haven't contacted them yet to see what there thoughts on the matter are, but I get the feeling like there isn't a whole lot they can do as GM no longer produces that part and I haven't been able to locate any online. Will the black textured ones for a non SS bumper fit or are the SS ones specific to that model? Any help or opinions is greatly appreciated.

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The black textured ones will go right on there. If the painted covers on yours are still good, you can pop the "guts" out of a textured one, and put your painted covers on. If all else fails, you can sand the texture off and paint the textured one no problem. Not to excuse the body shop for gooping yours back on, but its a bastard to get them off the SS covers without breaking them.

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No doubt that they are a bitch to remove, that being said, one has to know what they are doing. Can't just go to jerking. I've had to pull a few off a long time ago when I worked at oreillys to change some. Quick google search remedied that.

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  • 1 month later...

Noticed that it doesn't appear the smooth finish tag lights are still available from GM, but LMC does have them. Used to not getting anything from those guys if I can help it because it's always overpriced, but they've got the correct tag lights at $9.95. Not too bad. I'm guessing from the description they are unpainted black plastic and would need to be painted to match. LMC part # 37-4391 LICENSE LAMP-BLACK-PAINTABLE (the other part listed says TEXTURED)

 

From what I can see these aren't available from all the other usual suspects. An eBay search turns up nothing but all the textured ones which are happy to claim in the compatibility chart they fit an SS. Yep, they do fit.

 

Richard

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Got my smooth plastic tag lights in from LMC. They're ching chong, not OEM, but they look pretty good.

 

For those that care, here's the compare: textured aftermarket vs. smooth aftermarket (not painted yet)

 

lmc_tag_lens.jpg

 

Richard

 

Thanks for the comparo photo. They do look OK. Do they fit tight in the bumper cover?

 

Is that flake in your paint? Looks good.

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No flake in the paint, it's just really dusty. :) 6 days a week it goes in/out of a gravel lot where I store my work truck so I don't get nastygrams from the HOA. Kinda makes one re-think having a vehicle that is any dark color, especially black. Or, maybe re-think living in an HOA..

 

Anyway haven't installed them yet, figure I'll get them painted first. I bought 4 so I could do 2 black, 2 silver birch, so I've got a set for either truck. Right now the ones in my bumper are aftermarket textured and fit fine, just the non-original appearance bugs me a little. I bought a repop bumper to go behind the cover; it's like the only non-OEM body part I used putting the truck back together.

 

Richard

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Got my smooth plastic tag lights in from LMC. They're ching chong, not OEM, but they look pretty good.

 

For those that care, here's the compare: textured aftermarket vs. smooth aftermarket (not painted yet)

 

lmc_tag_lens.jpg

 

Richard

 

lol Ching Chong..... I work on projects where we are sourcing parts from BCC (best cost countries) and I call anything from a Chinese supplier Wang Foo. It's funny everyone has their own name for Chinese parts.....

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No flake in the paint, it's just really dusty. :) 6 days a week it goes in/out of a gravel lot where I store my work truck so I don't get nastygrams from the HOA. Kinda makes one re-think having a vehicle that is any dark color, especially black. Or, maybe re-think living in an HOA..

 

Anyway haven't installed them yet, figure I'll get them painted first. I bought 4 so I could do 2 black, 2 silver birch, so I've got a set for either truck. Right now the ones in my bumper are aftermarket textured and fit fine, just the non-original appearance bugs me a little. I bought a repop bumper to go behind the cover; it's like the only non-OEM body part I used putting the truck back together.

 

Richard

 

LOL. I hear you on the dust. I live about 1/8th mile down a relatively busy dirt road. My truck stays looking real good about 2 hours after a wash, and that's if I get up real early and wash her before the sun comes up.

 

Got a laugh out of your "Ching Chong" and Matt's "Wang Foo". Never heard either of those but they are both real descriptive.

 

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: to both of you.

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I just wound up buying some oem textured black ones off amazon. Sanded the textreme off myself and had them painted. Came out really nice. Wasn't that bad to sand the texture off either.

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