Reproduction taillight chrome surround pieces

[Rebellion]

This posting is meant to be informative, not judgmental. It is correct as of late 2021...

This last year, I made an effort to purchase replacement chrome taillight surround pieces for my '66. Mine are beyond shot (as is much of my car...long way to go, unfortunately!). This ended up being a somewhat confusing endeavor. Due to returns and misinformation, extra time and money was spent to get what I was looking for. Hopefully this post will help others.

The surround pieces that I bought originally, were made by OER (Classic Industries). Most OER pieces are quite nice and are handled by many of the supply houses - Van's, Jegs etc.
The surround pieces are no exception, but this time around there is one noticeable issue - the detail finish applied after the chroming. Following, are two reproduction 'C' chrome taillight pieces (left sides) for our cars, one by OER and the other by - and purchased through - PG Classic, out of Canada.

Top piece: OER
Bottom piece: PG Classic

OER:

PG Classic:

The top piece in the pics above is OER, the bottom, PG Classic. Note that the whole cavity area - including the step - is finished in black on the OER piece, while the PG piece has the correct two-tone finish. This applies to the other pieces in this set as well.
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Other differences:

Reverse markings
OER:

PG Classic:

Gaskets
The OER pieces in this set do include gaskets. The PG pieces do not.

Once again, both pieces are nice and the choice is yours, but I thought this might help some others.
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The following Charger was at Carlisle. It was spectacular! The taillight surround area, however, did catch my eye.

Cheers all!

 

[yella71]

Thats some good info right there

 

[Jerry Hall]

@Rebellion ,which one is correct in your opinion?

 

[Rebellion]

Using original pieces for reference, the PG pieces are much closer in finish.

.

 

[Loulang]

Wish I would have seen this 6 months ago lol I made this very mistake. I’m just gonna paint the 2 long middle pieces to match. I can’t send back bought them and just glanced at them till I had time to install and that’s when I noticed. O well ya win some ya lose some

 

[Dean Prevolos]

I have tried to remove my assembly and am afraid of breaking the lense. I removed the bolts on all of the studs inside the trunk but the panel wasn't loose to remove. Any advise on where to apply pressure to remove? I think I bought the OER, I'll check my reciept. Thanks for the information between the two different vendors.

 

[Rebellion]

Hi Dean,

I haven't found it necessary to do that, so any suggestion I would have is conjecture. Would any of the plastic trim tools help to gently work it?

Tom

 

[Rebellion]

Just came back from Carlisle. Layson's 'C' moldings are incorrect as well.

I wonder if this information should be a sticky for us?

 

[toolmanmike]

Just came back from Carlisle. Layson's 'C' moldings are incorrect as well.

I wonder if this information should be a sticky for us?

Done!

 

[440 4 speed]

I have tried to remove my assembly and am afraid of breaking the lense. I removed the bolts on all of the studs indise the runk but the panel wasn't loose to remove. Any advise on where to apply pressure to remove? I think I bought the OER, I'll check my reciept. Thanks for the information between the two different vendors.

Did you get the nuts off the very ends of the housing? How many nuts have you removed, there are 20. I have GENTLY tapped each stud little by little going back and forth. Sometimes have someone pulling on the housing.

 

[RemCharger]

Wish I would have seen this 6 months ago lol I made this very mistake. I’m just gonna paint the 2 long middle pieces to match. I can’t send back bought them and just glanced at them till I had time to install and that’s when I noticed. O well ya win some ya lose some

Don't go backwards!! If you're cracking out the paint and tape anyways... make the outer pieces match original!!
Details matter!

 

[Rebellion]

I agree with RemCharger. I am very much a detail guy. To me, the all black look seems clumsy and basic in comparison to the original finish. That is just my opinion however, everyone has one and they're just as valid.

 

[Rebellion]

Done!

Thank you

 

[Loulang]

I’m better off painting the black wider on my long inner pieces because I can see the copper color in the chrome. If I paint to match the thickness I won’t have that copper color bleeding through. Unfortunately I made the mistake of not looking them over real good. Just something I will have to live with for now.

 

[northeastmoparnet]

I did the same thing. I had to buy them again as I too like the detail. That is what makes these cars special in my opinion. The smaller black panel looks so much better. Oh well. Like I always tell people. Nothing that is made in China is designed to be returned.

 

[67 Mopar]

I just started looking at this issue myself. All of my shiny new trim pieces were purchased from Van's, but they are not the same. As you can see in the top two attached images, the paint on the outer "C" pieces is different than the other two inner pieces. I think the easiest thing for me to do here, would be to mask everything off, and surround that inner Black section with Argent Silver, as seen in the 3rd image.

On a side note here... I also made a set of models & molds to reproduced the gaskets for these pieces. As mentioned above, some of the "C" kits come with gaskets, but if you only need the gaskets themselves, you're pretty much out of luck. There are no gaskets available for the long top and bottom pieces either to my knowledge, so.... Since I'll be mounting my lens assembly on my recently restored Charger here pretty quick, I needed to make molds for them.

Original Gaskets are highlighted in Purple in the image below

 

[67 Mopar]

Okay... I'm pretty happy with the end result here. Masking everything off was about as much fun as getting a tooth extracted, but it didn't take all that long, maybe an hour. It's just painstakingly tedious in a case like this, which is not something that I enjoy.
It turned out looking pretty good though in my opinion, so I guess it was time well spent. It's pretty easy to see the new silvery paint in the pic's, but under normal lighting conditions it's actually fairly difficult to tell where the Chrome ends and the Silver starts.
Either way... the assembly is finally ready to get bolted onto the Charger now, utilizing the new gasket kit I made up.
P.S.: Should anyone need a set of these gaskets in the future... you know who to contact.

 

[RedBeard]

Okay... I'm pretty happy with the end result here. Masking everything off was about as much fun as getting a tooth extracted, but it didn't take all that long, maybe an hour. It's just painstakingly tedious in a case like this, which is not something that I enjoy.
It turned out looking pretty good though in my opinion, so I guess it was time well spent. It's pretty easy to see the new silvery paint in the pic's, but under normal lighting conditions it's actually fairly difficult to tell where the Chrome ends and the Silver starts.
Either way... the assembly is finally ready to get bolted onto the Charger now, utilizing the new gasket kit I made up.
P.S.: Should anyone need a set of these gaskets in the future... you know who to contact.

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That turned out awesome!!!

 

[Dean Prevolos]

That looks great! I will pm you for the gaskets and the cost when I get ready. I'm slowly getting there, one weekend at a time.

 

[RemCharger]

67 Mopar,

Being a detail oriented guy myself, I really appreciate the work! I'm especially glad that you are molding the gaskets. Thank you.

Personally, however, I've worked on a few original-finish trunk lids (working on one now) for these cars and I have never run into a lid gasket (or remnants) on any of them. I realize that it's in the parts catalog diagram and frankly, should be there, but I have not run into one. Not saying that there weren't any...just my experience. I'm glad you are producing one, regardless.

Cheers! Tom

The gasket is for the top long piece of the taillight assembly, not the trunk lid.