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

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Just one, if she gets help from the WHOLE FORUM that is

It was brought to my attention tonight that one of my rear brake lights is kaputs. I bought the bulb on my way home but have one question:

How do I access the bulb:

1- unscrew lense? or
2- access it from inside trunk...

If the answer is #1 then I have another question: My lenses seem to be FUSED to my body . Not even a screwdriver seem to be able to lift them off the rubber mounts. I briefly considered trying a dynamite stick.... But it could be a bit messy so... is there a trick? or should I destory my rubber mount and chrome lense caps?

Thanks you guys!

Sweet dreams

Hiboy Girl (drying off nicely)

If the lenses seem fused to the rest of the light, there should be an access panel to the back of the lights in the trunk. Once you get to where you can see the back of the light, follow the wires to where they enter the light body. There should be a plug-like deal there. Turn it counter-clockwise, and it should come out with the bulb attached.

I have a better question. Is the light out on your daily driver or your roadster??? got picture would make it easier.

Sounds like someone has used gasket goo to keep moisture out. Maybe you could post a picture? They could be frenched! Doesn't sound like it, with chrome and screws and all, but they shouldn't be that hard to pop off.

Okay, went to your website and found pics. '39 Ford teardrop taillights, not frenched. The chrome ring holds the lens on. If they are repro's, maybe the socket can be removed from inside the trunk, originals can't be.

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....

C9, that was a great post, thank for taking the time to explain everything in details. So maybe if I push up and I pull the ring off, it will help, I will try tonight. I believe I might have original sockets, I can touch the bulb from the inside but inmpossible to unscrew it, so I concur things will have to be done from the outside. OK I will try the white gloss trick. As far as lense, I currently have devil heads as lenses. the car came with them and I wanted to put back the original lenses that the owner also gave me. But since they chrome ring was fused, well, the rest is history. Meawhile everybody keeps commenting and complimenting on my devilhead tail lights. Go figure.


Since the carpenter from Nazareth is my life's guide and teacher, the devil shaped tail lights at first caused a bit of a dilemma for me. I wanted them off my car. But they seemed "fused" to it. Now I look at them as my "daredevil" tail lights and no longer pay any attention to them. The devil is definitely NOT popular with me. So maybe I should try the other tail lights anyways, for a more traditional look. However the devil lenses do put out very good light.

The devil tail lights are just a reminder that the devil is all around us, and we just need to be careful of him and his temptations.

Originally Posted by HiboyGal

However the devil lenses do put out very good light.

I'm not surprised that the devil lights put out a pretty good light.

What you don't have with them is the internal diamond faceted cut to the lenses that make them reflect light back at an oncoming car - when your lights are off at night, parked etc. - as well as disperse the light a little better than a plain red glass lense as are the devil lights.

Do a little comparing between lenses.
Replace the burned out bulb, determine if both sides are about equal in brightness.
Then, replace one taillight lense with a standard 39 lense.

If Mr. Highboy is in the garage nose-in, wait till dusk, leave the garage lights off, turn on the parking lights and take note of any differences in taillight light intensity.

View the taillights from both left and right angles, 45 degrees or so.

Save the devil light lenses, they'll make good trading material somewhere down the line.

Now I'll shut up for a while....