tail light lenses, red

[pj]

These two photos were taken at Dan's place on Saturday 2019-08-24. I want to know if you think the red colour of the tail light lenses are identical on the two different cars and, if not, what the difference is. I won't prejudice your answers by telling you what I think. I tried to take the two photos under identical conditions, but I'm not sure I achieved that since the shade of Dan's giant oak tree provided dappled sunlight.

[66andBlue]

Hello Peter,
on my computer screen the two reds are  not identical, the top one is clearly darker than the bottom one.
However, that doesn't necessarily mean that one tail light lens is "original" and the other is an aftermarket, or a replacement.
I believe the top one became darker because of long time exposure to the exhaust gases. One can see this quite often when comparing same age left side and right side tail lights, the right side is usually darker.
Also note, it appears that the tail pipes on the lower car stick out more than the other causing less of the exhaust darkening.

[pj]

That's very interesting, Alfred. I'll have to give that some thought. Thank you! Although the photo doesn't show it, the left lenses on the two cars show the same difference. And every other Pagoda at Dan's event had tail light lenses that were "clearly darker" than those in the second photo here.

[badali]

The dark one is discolored from age.  The bright one was probably replaced more recently.  I have a NOS light still in the box that is brighter red...

[114015]

Yes....,

Brad is right,
New (old stock) original taillights are very bright red...;
so, much more like your second pic, rather than the first, Peter.

Since the original acrylic glass of the taillights hadly ages anyhow (if not mechanically damaged),
it for sure doesn' lose its original color and luster from 55 years ago.

If (original) taillights appear darker this has mainly two reasons:
1) dust and dirt from the inside of the lens - accumulated over 40 - 50 years.....
2) the reflector/mirror has more or less strongly faded and lost its silvering.
3) Exhaust fumes.

Especially the latter makes a huge difference! Old mirrors have almost completely lost their silvering layer. It makes a big difference whether these are good or decent or perfekt
- huge difference in the brightness of the red.
Luckily you can 'renovate' both!


You can renovate this all-new look by carefully opening your (all-red) taillights,
- remove the mirror/reflector,
- resilver/respray that one
and
- carefully polish the taillight lens from the inside (with car's/body polish).
New bulbs also help.

Reassemble everything ... and voilà!
Your taillights will look like brandnew again, at least from the color, shine and brightness.

And ah no. The exhaust fumes on the right side taillight darkens the lens, yes, but you can always polish this away - from the outside. The lens more or less does not age but withstand the lifetime long exhaust fumes without damages or unremovable darkening.

Good luck & enjoy!

Achim

Postscriptum.
And ah no ...,
you will never achieve the exact brighness of red like new again with the aftermarket lenses.
Very close match but never exactly like original.
The original plastic of the lenses was completely dyed with the taillight-red,
while the aftermarkets are clear acrylic and only sprayed red from behind.

The tiny little minor difference that will save you the 100% points during the car shows...
 

Good luck !


Achim
(onlyfactoryoriginalallredtaillightcollector)