Red Alert! Tail light plating

[branded]

My wife and I are close to completing a full restoration of a number's matching 1973 Charger SE.  We sent our tail light housings to Fusion Metal Plating in Miami, Florida to have the exposed outer edge refinished.  Both pieces were in good solid condition.  All six of the bulb sockets checked out to be in good working order and the wiring was all in good condition.

Speaking to this man before shipping them out I informed him that the light sockets were molded into the housings and were not removable.  He assured me that the sockets and wires that are attached would not be a problem and he explained to me how it would be done to protect them.  We discussed this again after he had received them and again, he reassured me that the sockets and wires were safe.

It took him exactly one year to ship our parts back to us. I was patient enough to not call about these parts anymore then once every two months before I began calling more often.

When we finally received our tail light housings from Metal Fusion Plating, we found that all the wiring had been cut off short from the sockets.  The man had removed one of the sockets and destroyed it before going ahead with protecting the other five in the way he had described to me on the phone...twice!

Insult to injury is the fact that the quality of the plating finish is shameful.  We now have to find another place to have our tail light housings re-plated.

I would really appreciate anyone's suggestions about how to replace the bulb socket that Metal Fusion Plating destroyed.

My greatest motive for this review is to possibly prevent our fellow classic car guys from falling victim to Metal Fusion Plating.

[VegasCharger]

Man that sucks!!! Even the fact that you had communication with him about your concerns with the light bulb sockets. I hate idiots like this when you have to hope that they complete the work in a timely manner. A year turn around?? WTF!!! I would bash his business on many social media platforms.

Anyway what's done is done. I saved this eBay link of a light bulb socket that might work for your 73 Charger. I have not used these myself. You will have to do some fabbing by cutting out the original socket as careful as you can w/o cutting into the gray plastic housing. Concentrate on just damaging the socket itself when removing. This will allow to fab in the new socket. You might even have to remove some gray plastic (which would be good) to make it fit. If the new socket is too loose in the remaining hole size, you could use some epoxy to fill the void. These sockets also have tangs on them to fold over to secure them??

Here's the link:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chrysler-Park-Tail-Stop-Turn-Signal-Light-Lamp-Bulb-Wiring-Harness-Socket-D34/192821423463?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

This link is for a double filament socket. If you need a single filament socket (reverse lamp) search his eBay store to see if they sell them. Also bench test the new sockets before doing intensive work on your tail light housings. Another suggestion, maybe just buy one socket to start off and see if it's going to work instead buying the whole fleet and it ending up not working out.

Man I can't believe he cut the wires. What was the purpose of doing that??

Good luck  

[ACUDANUT]

 Sorry to hear that. On a plus side, there are plenty of 73 taillights left out there.

[DAY CLONA]

For what your going to spend in redoing your housings, might be better to cut to the chase and buy these currently on Ebay?

Mike

[Nacho-RT74]

Sorry to hear that. On a plus side, there are plenty of 73 taillights left out there.

Not so much now 

[branded]

Unfortunately, he's right.  They are not that easy to find.  I've been looking everywhere I can think of without any luck.  I will check out the Ebay post.  A few years ago I checked on one place for re-plating and they wanted $650 and I'm sure their prices have gone up by now.  Thanks for your input!   

[Nacho-RT74]

there is a member of the board selling one NOS and one use but NICE SE tail light assemblies. I think both are driver side, not sure. His nickname here I think issssssss... damn i cant recall LOL, but his name is Rob Olszansky and got them advertised on facebook... He is from Illinois I think


Aside that, there are couple of NOS tail lights harnesses on ebay too. $150 each or so

[Nacho-RT74]

Sorry to hear that. On a plus side, there are plenty of 73 taillights left out there.

Not so much now 

plus, hard to find them with nice Chrome.

[VegasCharger]

For what your going to spend in redoing your housings, might be better to cut to the chase and buy these currently on Ebay?

Mike

For $900+ (after shipping cost + sales tax) don't think so. This ratio spent on tail lights doesn't add up to the value of these 1973-74 Chargers.

I can see spending $400.00 on a very good set of tail light housings for 73-4 Chargers, but $900.00 no friggin' way, I'd fix my broken housings.

My 2¢

[ACUDANUT]

 I agree. 

[Nacho-RT74]

And that's why 73/74 parts aren't being sold fast neither reproduced, because the investment doesn't get justified at the end so owners aren't agree on spend that. Just like the $1000 needed to be spent on grills. Sometimes not even 72 owners, and maybe just afew 71 owners with really special cars.

I finally got a 73/74 left tail light assembly for free just because a member of the board had it laying around with no other use since he has a 71, but this was after couple of years of search ( true I wasn't to pay insane prices and I just needed the housing, didn't care lense or wiring ). It is SE but Chromed is waaaay faded, which I don't care because my car didn't get Chromed kind and will be painted.

$400 on a set of tail lights for SE no needing rechome? That will be really hard. Maybe for non SE worths the effort since just paint will refinish them, but needing to be Chromed? And most of them will get broken tabs and the tipical small chip on bottom center corner due the license plate bracket. Easy to fix true, but they are becoming harder to be found nowdays.

I also think $900 is too high, but maybe some into the $700 rate could be some more fair.

[DAY CLONA]

For what your going to spend in redoing your housings, might be better to cut to the chase and buy these currently on Ebay?

Mike

For $900+ (after shipping cost + sales tax) don't think so. This ratio spent on tail lights doesn't add up to the value of these 1973-74 Chargers.

I can see spending $400.00 on a very good set of tail light housings for 73-4 Chargers, but $900.00 no friggin' way, I'd fix my broken housings.

My 2¢

It's up to the OP to decide what he wants to do, regardless of the costs....as far as I'm concerned the only Chargers worth any investment are 1970 models, everything else is not worth the effort 


Mike

[Nacho-RT74]

LOL