Flareside Tail Lights

Only thing I see wrong is no side marker light in the housing.

I also will be needing lights for mine as my truck only had 1 light on the back and it was a small square one mounted up high.

Because I needed the brackets too my brother found a set of lights in the junk yard with brackets and sent them. Thing is 1 light was damaged so will need to come up with something.

I have also been looking at LEDs and may end up with a set.
Then again I have 2 sets of the cheap boat trailer lights I could make work just does not look right.

On any of the lights I don't care about the plate light as I may just paint it.
The plate gets mounted to the left side of the rear bed panel and has a light that fits the plate bracket.
You can not get this light from what I found but I am sure we can find something that will work.
I may go for the plate bolts that light up for the plate light?
Dave ----

If anybody is still looking for decent Flareside replacement tail lights, I thought I'd post an update on what I purchased. I ordered Grote part numbers 52802 and 52812 as shown in the link below:

https://www.grote.com/family/chevrolet-ford-jeep-stoptailturn-lamp-with-side-marker-lamp-molded-pigtail-termination/?prodcat=stop-tail-turn-lights

They are an almost perfect duplicate of the original Flareside lights, and they're inexpensive. I ordered them from a local heavy truck parts shop for $32 CDN each, and they took three days to come in. In the US, that would probably be overnight and more like $25 each.

First off...the main difference is that they have different connectors on them. I cut them off and will solder on the old pigtails from my stock tail lights. You also have to transfer over the grommet from the factory lights (where the wires pas through the 3/4" hole in the lower end of the rear stake pockets).

The new LH Grote tail light does have a clear lens in the bottom of the housing. I'm going to paint over mine with gloss black. If you mask it off nicely, nobody will ever see it. The RH light has a solid black housing the same as the original.





I mounted it on the bed just to test fit it. The bracket is still just in primer and I didn't push the grommet right into the hole. It's all just sitting there.

Good find!  Thanks for sharing that info.

Gary Lewis wrote

Good find!  Thanks for sharing that info.

X2.  

As much as I like the LED's from LMC, I think Grote may have them also?
at $80 ea is a little hard when you can get ones like you have for even half that.

I know the truck side will not have the right plug as I am using the 8' bed style side harness and I cant remember if the flare side light parts my brother sent have the plugs or even the rubber grommet.

Does look nice so when will you have it on the road for and out doors picture or 2?
Dave ----

Just a thought have you pulled the red lens off a light yet?
Wonder if the inside is black like the outside housing or a different color?
If black if you could put something in there to reflect the light back out better maybe like tin foil?

Just thinking out side the box and then with a 1157 LED bulb could be pretty bright I guess?

Over in your "ground wire" post I asked about the plate light what do you have?

Dave ----

FuzzFace2 wrote

Just a thought have you pulled the red lens off a light yet?

Yes sir I did. Here they are side by side. The originals had some white paint sprayed inside.

Thanks
It is funny they have a small bulb for the side marker light in the new light and none in the old one.
Also that the new one only reflects off the back and not the one side.

On my other project I plan on using  4ft ceiling light defuser what they call crushed glass between the bulb and the lens to help spread the light out and paint the rear of the housing to put all the light out I can with the 2 bulbs per side.

Looks like there is room of improvement in that light also LOL
Dave ----

Just wanted to follow-up on this quickly. I got the old connectors swapped over to the new Grote tail lights, and they work fantastic! They're much brighter than the old originals.

Not sure how well you can see it in this picture below, but I painted over the clear lens on the bottom of the LH tail light. The gloss black matched up perfectly, and well...it's on the bottom anyway, so nobody will ever really see it.



And, although I wasn't originally planning to run a dedicated ground wire, I ended up doing so. I tried to hide it as well as I could, but it's still visible for anybody that went poking around. I haven't decided yet where I'm going to connect the other end, but I'll get it sorted out this weekend when I get chance to work on it again.



Anyway, that's all. These are a cheap solution for anybody wanting or needing to replace the originals.

Well done, Cory!

On the brightness, I'm amazed at how much brighter properly done LED brake and tail lights are than regular bulbs.  However, the Styleside taillights don't work well with the LED's I've tried and aren't as bright as a regular bulb.

So I'm glad you found lights that were well done for a Flareside.  I hope we can find good ones for the Stylesides.

Use the silver foil duct tape.
The acrylic adhesive is tenacious!
It's opaque (aluminum) and will double as a reflector inside the housing.

1986F150Six wrote

All seem to be the same with clear plastic on the bottom. Instead of using black tape, as mentioned earlier, what about painting [either inside over the clear area or a uniform coating on the outside]?

Gary,

The lights I installed have the same old incandescent bulbs (1156/1157) as my original lights, but the big difference appears to be in the lenses. The 35 year old lenses do not let nearly as much light pass through...they're very dim/dull. The new lenses are glossy and bright.

In any case, these lights were a cheap solution that are as close to the originals as one can buy (Not that I care about that really...but if one did care...)

Cory - Thanks for the clarification.  My misunderstanding.

Just a question, I ordered the original looking FORD tail lights for my 62 F100 from LMC. They were LED lights as well. Just cause I was boared, I looked up the same lights for an 86 step side ( know I will be corrected ) and they looked the same as the ones for my 62. The ones you are showing are square. I am asking because I don't know. Besides, I always liked the look of the original ford stepside tail lights from the 50's and 60's as they were unique only to ford

Ya don't need the clear bottom lens if you go the "original" look
with a license plate bracket.

Couldn't you always "Paint it Black"?

I've used foil duct tape before as an absolutely opaque surface.
It has the added advantage of acting as a reflector?

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Couldn't you always "Paint it Black"?

If you scroll up the page a bit you'll see that I did exactly that. I bought Grote replacement lights that were almost identical to the originals. One thing I had to do was paint over that window on the driver's side.

Rembrant wrote

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Couldn't you always "Paint it Black"?

If you scroll up the page a bit you'll see that I did exactly that. I bought Grote replacement lights that were almost identical to the originals. One thing I had to do was paint over that window on the driver's side.

X2 on mine but I used foil tape on the inside to reflect the light back out.

I was thinking of the early Ford crest light but changed my mind.
Dave ----