Need to know method for installing the headlight, bezel to body, rubber gasket. How much rubber is exposed between the gasket and the bezel/body.
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Re: 57 Headlight gasket
Ed,
If the gasket that you are refering to is the v shaped rubber that is formed in a circle and attached with a staple. The rubber gasket goes between the bezel and the retainer for the headlight bulb.
Scott Sinclair #2379
56/7 Team Leader -
Re: 57 Headlight gasket
This is a job requiring great patience (I have no idea how the bezel supplier did it originally - they came to St. Louis as part of the bezel, which is why they don't show in the A.I.M.). Fit the seal around the inner edge of the bezel opening to determine the proper overall length, trim, and use a small staple (like a Swingline Tot-50 or similar) to hold the ends together. Clean the bezel and the mating seal surface throughly with alcohol, and apply either contact cement or weatherstrip cement to both parts, let it tack, and apply the seal. It helps to use a length of fine wire all the way around the seal to hold it in position, plus several pieces of masking tape - a helper is nice, as you will run out of hands and fingers to position and hold the seal until the cement sets up. Once the adhesive sets up, DON'T TOUCH them for 24 hours. When you install the bezels, spray Windex or something else slippery both on the seal and on the headlamp retaining ring so the seal can slide back over the retainer without "snagging" and pulling off the bezel. Hint - don't install the bezels until AFTER you have the headlights aimed - you do NOT want to have to remove and re-install them, as you risk pulling the seal off the bezel; adhesive doesn't stick to chrome worth a damn. That's why you never see a '56 or '57 that still has the seals (unless it's a judged car) - the first time the bezels were removed to change a burned-out headlight, the seal fell off, and stayed on the ground where it fell. When I did mine, my wife was a great help not only in helping me position and secure the seals to the bezels, but in moderating my behavior while doing so . Incredibly dumb design, but that's how it was done. Somewhere there was a room full of very patient ladies at the bezel supplier in 1956 and 1957 who managed to produce thirty pair of these every day without going crazy .Comment
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Re: 57 Headlight gasket
Thanks John, I will try your method and let you know how it comes out. Im attempting to have the 57 finished for the Western Regional in Nevada. I need all the help I can get. Now all I have to find is a late 57 gas cap and I will be ready to go.Comment
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