Just seeing if anyone has any gt tail lights laying around or knows where to get them. I wouldn't mind getting the pair but I really just need the passenger side "tiac" one, any help will be much appreciated!
[This message has been edited by Jacksonator (edited 02-17-2014).]
Might want to throw a want to buy in the Mall section. The problem with GT taillights is that they are not just parts that lay around. They are one of the more valuable exterior parts on the car...
Be prepared to spend $200+ for a good one. The Fiero Store made a GT reproduction lens from the original tooling for a while but the tooling has been lost and those parts they have left, if any, have slight imperfections. Good examples of original equipment are getting quite hard to find and there are no other reproduction units available anywhere.
Dr. W.
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Be patient, keep an eye on ebay (there was one recently for $60), craigslist, and junkyards. You may get lucky too, I needed the TIAC GT tail light as well, and one day I decided to open the trunk of a rear-collision GT in they junkyard, and there it was. Waiting to be rescued. I got that, and many other hard to find parts like 120 gauge cluster, mint center console trim, mint floor mats and the GT front bumper for $100.
I do have an extra pair of tail lights, but the lenses are busted. I'm holding on to those just in case.
Yeah that's what happened to mine, my left one is fine but my right side is busted.... Have yet to find a junk yard in Florida that has a single fiero :/
Yeah that's what happened to mine, my left one is fine but my right side is busted.... Have yet to find a junk yard in Florida that has a single fiero :/
LKQ in Daytona has them from time to time. There's another yard somewhere by MCO that gets them too.
Wait, The Fiero Store "lost" the tooling? Waa, WHAT!? How did that happen!?
Most of the time the manufacturer of the part will simply keep the molds when they go out of business or close up shop. For me, the mold is the property of who pays for it. If I make a mold and use it to manufacture parts for someone, I send them the mold along with the part.....unless I am mass producing items for them. Then the mold stays with me for as long as they want parts made. Then I send them the mold when the job is complete.
If the Fiero Store paid the manufacturer to make the mold, then the Fiero Store should have gotten the molds sent to them when the person closed his business. In this case, I believe the manufacturer simply walked off with the molds which is COMPLETELY wrong.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 02-18-2014).]
Most of the time the manufacturer of the part will simply keep the molds when they go out of business or close up shop. For me, the mold is the property of who pays for it. If I make a mold and use it to manufacture parts for someone, I send them the mold along with the part.....unless I am mass producing items for them. Then the mold stays with me for as long as they want parts made. Then I send them the mold when the job is complete.
If the Fiero Store paid the manufacturer to make the mold, then the Fiero Store should have gotten the molds sent to them when the person closed his business. In this case, I believe the manufacturer simply walked off with the molds which is COMPLETELY wrong.
From the story that I was told, the Fiero Store found the manufacturer that had the original GM molds and contracted with them to make the lenses. As far as I know, the Fiero Store never commissioned the making of a mold for the GT lenses.
From the story that I was told, the Fiero Store found the manufacturer that had the original GM molds and contracted with them to make the lenses. As far as I know, the Fiero Store never commissioned the making of a mold for the GT lenses.
I wonder was the name of that company .... real bummer !!!
OK so the real question is why hasn't anyone one made molds out of a set of gt lights? There's almost zero after market parts for them other than changing them over to Euro style lights and I'm not sure I like those any better than the stock ones
The original steel tool for that tail light was for injection molding of polycarbonate. It easily cost $100,000.00 (each side). The surfaces have to be extremely smooth for the part to look any good at all. Other methods of molding and casting will look inferior, or the part will have a lot of hand labor added to make it look good. Either way, the end result is just too expensive.
OK so the real question is why hasn't anyone one made molds out of a set of gt lights? There's almost zero after market parts for them other than changing them over to Euro style lights and I'm not sure I like those any better than the stock ones
Demand. There's a segment of the Fiero community that likes the Ferrari/Corvette look, and then there are those that like the stock look. What percentage of a fairly small market wants another specific design?
The Fiero GT lenses are not simple plastic vacuum formed molds. You have the clear outer shell and a black plastic inner layer that is bonded to it and all the clip tangs etc that surround the perimeter. Hence delamination of the originals, and exactly where the Fiero Store reruns are headed in a couple of decades because they were made with the original tooling. They were just new, not improved in any appreciable way.
It's funny because people raised hell about the imperfections in the first run the Fiero Store sold. My 88 GT lenses, orginal from the Fiero plant, had some of the exact same imperfections as the ones I bought from TFS, but of course they would, due to what I stated before.
