Can someone with an 88 GT answer a question for me...

Do your tail-lights have the year of production on them? I have a sneaking suspision the shop that had m fiero swapped my mint condition tail lights out for another set. The ones that came back with (with not on) the car say 86 on them....?

quote Originally posted by mptighe: Can someone with an 88 GT answer a question for me... Do your tail-lights have the year of production on them? I have a sneaking suspision the shop that had m fiero swapped my mint condition tail lights out for another set. The ones that came back with (with not on) the car say 86 on them....?

I have never checked but can if you tell me where the date is.....

It's in the embedded numbers on the outward facing side (the lense) I just couldn't sleep tonight and kept thinking that my tail lights didn't look right so I went out and got a closer look and saw the number 86 in the sequence. If it's an 88 I would think the number would have had an 88 in it, not an 86. If he swapped them out, his ass is going to jail.

[This message has been edited by mptighe (edited 07-23-2010).]

Wow. I would be pissed. I have an 85 but will check anyway tomorrow morning. Keep us posted.

just a thought to add to that - date stamps are usually numbered in a clock like circle with an arrow pointing outwards, to a number from 1 - 12 this is the month of manufacture and in the middle of the circle is the year i.e 88.

to just bear in mind, that on my 87gt most of my date stamps are with 86 in the middle, which means that particular part was manufactured in 1986.

because of mass production of parts cars that were manufactured and 1st registered may not have the same year date stamps on.

that said if yours is a 88 - the chances of having some parts with a date stamp of 87 I would say would be high anything below this i.e 84, 85, 86 would be very slim - unless pontiac had a lot of excess parts to use up - but very doubtful

hope this helps you
jon

I have no faith in mechanics i recently had a mechanic reverse everything he ever did on my bmw because he got the shits about 5k of parts swapped out for junk. Car is officially a pos and will be taking a huge loss as i wont be paying again for eveyrhing as it exceeds the value of the car. To top it off he sued me and i cant prove a thing.

quote Originally posted by mptighe: It's in the embedded numbers on the outward facing side (the lense) I just couldn't sleep tonight and kept thinking that my tail lights didn't look right so I went out and got a closer look and saw the number 86 in the sequence. If it's an 88 I would think the number would have had an 88 in it, not an 86. If he swapped them out, his ass is going to jail.

If it is the # torward the end then mine say 86 on my 88 GT also...So I am guessing it has nothing to do with the year but unsure....There was a set of GT tail lights on Craigslist some time back in the Houston area. I checked the number listed in the Ad and it was to TexasGT so I didn't even worry with trying to buy them...I wouldn't put it past TexasGT to do something like this.....

They all say "86" on them.

Years ago, it used to be a rule of thumb that you could tell the year of the car by the number on the taillights; then that all went out the window when they started using the same casting for more than one year. Being tooled for the 86GT, the taillights kept the "86" all the way until the end.

quote Originally posted by mptighe: It's in the embedded numbers on the outward facing side (the lense) I just couldn't sleep tonight and kept thinking that my tail lights didn't look right so I went out and got a closer look ...

Well, even more importantly... this sentence makes it read like you've got your car back! did you?

Everything seem to be ok?... (other than this taillight issue)

Car is back and completely unfinished. The engine is "on the cradle" which is "in the car" but nothing is hooked up. the engine is not sitting correctly, a bunch of stuff wasn't done or done incorrectly, and now I get to pretty much start over at the point where the other engine had been removed. Both of the partners from the shop are throwing each other under the bus, and both of them say the other one broke my tail lights and put his in as a replacement. I also found out they didn't do some work on my Acura I paid them to do. Oh and one of them told me the other one crushed my gas tank by jacking it up in the wrong spot. I haven't confirmed this yet. The shop I took it to advised me to send it to someone who knows more about these cars than they do, because it will be cost prohibitive to have them tear it back down and rebuild it.

They won't be doing this to anyone ever again. That I promise.

I'm pretty sure it has to do with year of DOT approval or something.. All notchie taillights that I've seen have '84 stamped on 'em, even my '88s.

Well, they did admit to breaking mine, which were completely mint and these are not. Any suggestions for finding a mint set?

Man that sucks... seems a lot of people lately are getting bum service on their fieros, what the hell? At least they were man enough to admit their fault in the matter. Good luck with getting it right and peace

Pete

My 88s have DOT (2) 1 (2) R (2) S (2) T 86 GUIDE 2P2 and they are original.

Fierostore is about your only option, the good news is the fierostore fastback lenses are made with the GM tools so they shouldnt suck any more then the GM originals. If they destroyed your tail lights then they should be buying your new set from there not trying to pawn off used ones on you.

^ ^ ^

ditto what fiend said... TFS has the original molds and tooling for GT lenses, and they are supposed to be of great quality.

dude... dude. I am really sorry to hear the car did not turn out right. Good luck in any recovery efforts... if successful, your method might can be the template that others should follow when dealing with unscrupulous vendors. At least you got your car back... there are so many that never do... or just keep going on faith that they will...

Now where is that thread that you and I went around (most respectfully) about this very issue?
(that's not a barb... more along the lines of prophecy fulfilled...)

quote Originally posted by blakeinspace: ^ ^ ^ ditto what fiend said... TFS has the original molds and tooling for GT lenses, and they are supposed to be of great quality. dude... dude. I am really sorry to hear the car did not turn out right. Good luck in any recovery efforts... if successful, your method might can be the template that others should follow when dealing with unscrupulous vendors. At least you got your car back... there are so many that never do... or just keep going on faith that they will... Now where is that thread that you and I went around (most respectfully) about this very issue? (that's not a barb... more along the lines of prophecy fulfilled...)

Yeah, I had already seen this coming, but wasn't going to admit it until it happened. Not that I'm looking forward to it, but small claims court, fraud claims, and some other nasty tricks up my sleeve will show what can be done for sure. If they don't have any money, they won't have any cars, electronics, or clothes by the time I'm done.

[This message has been edited by mptighe (edited 07-23-2010).]

I just read your other thread... sorry to have you bring that up in this thread too... my bad.

quote Originally posted by css9450: They all say "86" on them. Years ago, it used to be a rule of thumb that you could tell the year of the car by the number on the taillights; then that all went out the window when they started using the same casting for more than one year. Being tooled for the 86GT, the taillights kept the "86" all the way until the end.

This is correct. Usually the first year a lens is used is the year on it.

Years ago you could tell the year as they changed tail lights every year.

The coupe lights should also all have 84 on them.

Ya, I forget what year exactly they stopped doing that. That was always how you knew what year a car was.

Back when the gas cap was behind the license plate, if you bent down to read the year on someone's taillights, it would look like you were sniffin' gas or siphoning.

If there's no cracks, chips, or delamination, you can make them look like new by wet sanding them with extremely fine sandpaper (I use 800, then 1500, then 2000), and then using a good quality plastic polish, such as Meguiar's #17 Plastic Cleaner. I have an old set that I made look like new. I'm sorry to hear of your problems....thought I'd throw this out for you in case you're not able to get the shop to cough up for a new set.

I work for Sherwin Williams and this was demo'd by our 3M rep for us. It's freaking amazing, I would recommend all to do this if you have warned, blurred, oxidized etc etc etc front and rear lights. Just make sure they are sound no cracks or chips. Make sure they are securely mounted before you do it aswell..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WOESJY6qgQ