Those Rocket Tail Lights

So let me kick this off with an older build for the car.

Growing up, aside from toy soldiers I was also fascinated with Cadillac tail lights, maybe you could blame Hot Wheels. At any rate as soon as I was old enough to create my own I set at it.

I first bought myself two pairs of Rocket lights from the States as well as an old pair of stock PT brake lights.

With some careful drilling I inserted PVC piping into the holes and reinforced the back with plenty of fiberglass.

The trick to this was drill a center guiding hole in the middle, you can just about see one in the middle of the masking tape (right). Then instead of a drill bit inside the hole cutter I inserted a metal rod, this just about ensured the hole cutter removed a centralised part of the brake light.

There was a lot of work to get to this stage alone, the existing brake light plastic shatters easily so had to be very careful.

Once the PVC piping was in place and cut down to size there was countless evenings sanding and adding filler to get them as smooth as possible.

I think it was about this stage I was loosing interest, it's sometimes hard to see it finished when it's still so raw.

One thing that I didn't take into account at the time was the wiring, I luckily managed to solve it by cutting out the old bayonet fixtures and relying on the cars existing clips.

This would pay dividends in the end, as I could very easily replace the bulbs instead of unscrewing the whole rocket light.

I also added drainage tubes at the base of the silos. I figured with the British weather, leaving pools of water under the rockets wasn't the greatest idea.

Fitting them early to ensure the drainage tubes dripped past the chassis.

The tubes themselves are more PVC piping held in place with even more fiberglass.

I applied lots of sealant to the differing parts of the actual rockets, in an attempt to keep moisture out. This has worked to some degree but I still get condensation on colder mornings.

Then with a few coats of primer, even more layers of Electric Blue and a final top coat the Rocket lights were complete and installed.

This was about 4 years ago, they currently have a few pinstripes just to brighten them up ;)

Photo late 2018