Thread: How many hiboy girls does it take to screw on a light bulb?

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Stock or re-pro you can't access the bulb from the trunk.

There's a bit of a trick with the 39 taillights.


Unscrew and remove the slot head screw at the bottom of the chrome trim ring.

Push the chrome trim ring up while pulling gently out on the trim ring at the bottom.
Almost always you can do this by hand and no tools required.
Keep finger pressure on the glass lense or it will slide out when the trim ring is pushed up far enough
What happens here is the trim ring compresses the rubber gasket for a weather-tight seal and once it's slid up far eough it'll pop off.

Be careful you don't drop the glass lense when the trim ring pops loose.
(The trim ring has a tab at the top that hooks to the raised flat portion of the taillight housing proper.)

A couple of cautions:
Place a piece of carpet under your work area in case you do drop the lense.
(I use a high-low cut loop style carpet, but any carpet that's somewhat plush will do the trick.)
Fwiw, I keep several pieces of carpet in the garage to save the knees when kneeling as well as it's a cushioned insulator between me and the concrete garage floor.

Aside from the tab at the top, the trim ring is designed to hook around the raised edge of the taillight housing.


What you may want to do while you have the lense off is pull the other one, mask things off and spray the interior of the taillight bucket with white gloss rattle can paint.
I have silver paint in mine and you'd think it would be the best, but a friend of mine ran some light meter tests and found gloss white was best.
(Be sure you don't get paint in the bulb socket.)

You'll be surprised at how much brighter the taillights will be.

Along those same lines, you can replace the #1157 bulb with a Halogen bulb from Bob Drake.
It's a direct replacement and uses the same base as the #1157.
These draw more power so be sure your wiring and fuse are up to the task.
(I put a set in my 32 roadsters 39 taillights and no problems wiring-wise.)

Recently I heard that there is a #2057 bulb out there that's a direct and brighter replacement for the #1157.

It'll be interesting to see how they work.

The bright bulbs sold by some aftermarket wiring suppliers may be no more than a standard bulb for a lower voltage.
In other words, the #1157 bulb may be rated for 12-13 volts and the bright bulbs rated for 10-11 volts.
Problem here is, low voltage bulbs don't last all that long.

Anyway, I strongly encourage you to paint the inside of your taillight housings.
A brush and some good quality white enamel - One Shot? - will do the job if you don't want to do the mask and spray drill....