Forum member @chirmstream sent me a pair of his taillight gaskets and I thought I'd give my impressions of them since I finally got them installed.

This particular gasket is the one that fits around the taillight body and seals/prevents water from entering into the hatch through the opening (it is not the one on the edge of the taillight).

First impressions - the gaskets are very well made, thick, and looked like they would last a long time and do an excellent job of keeping water out. The gasket fit very well around the taillight and had notches and tabs that cleared the protrusion of the taillight body or filled in the gaps, just like the oem gasket. The fit and finish was spot on!

I installed one side on one day and the other side on the next day. I did this so I can remove the installed taillight so I can see how the gasket fit/lined up/seated around the taillight opening of the body. When I removed the taillight, you could see the "line" on the gasket showing where it sealed along the body opening where the taillight fits into. However, one area on the bottom was a little off and appeared to not seal to well and the gasket "sagged" a little around the center of the taillight. Knowing I needed to fix this on both sides before installing them, I had to come up with some way to keep the gasket in place on the taillight (at least the bottom area).

I considered a couple of options to solve this:
- spray one side of the gasket with adhesive like 3M 77 for upholstery
- apply contact cement to one side
- use super glue at certain points to keep it on
- use elmers school glue on one side of the gasket
- use silicome on one side of the gasket

Not trying to over think this, I went with using elmers school glue as it would be easy to clean up if it didn't work and allows me time to align the gasket around the taillight without drying fast. It worked great at keeping the gasket in place and did not produce a lot of mess as I only used a small bead around the taillight gasket. Remember, I'm just trying to keep the gasket in place so it seals correctly on the body opening when the taillight is installed.

ps - the glue was put on the side of the gasket that touches the back of the taillight, not the side that touches the car body.

pss - another area of small concern was that the gasket had a "gap" at the curved part of the taillight, however, this was due to the gasket being flat/straight but will fix itself when installed on the body or when I used the glue above.

I took a couple of pictures but only of the gasket placed on the back of the taillight. In hindsight, as I type this now, I should have taken some of the glue on the gasket to show how I did it, but it's not that hard to imagine

My only recommendation would be to produce the gasket with a sticky side so it sits flush when installed around back of the taillight. However, this is not a deal breaker and easily and cheaply remedied as described above.

Overall, I'm thankful that @chirmstream is producing this for us and hope everyone can benefit from it.

Thank you @chirmstream



small gap

small gap

 

Those do look good! Does he sell them on a store or something? Or just contact him directly?
Thanks for posting

 

Contact him directly if you need them.

 

I have a store but do not want to advertise it since I am not a vendor. I found using a dab of RTV to keep the gasket in place just like 1BAD did is the easiest way to install them. Once the gasket is in place it should close up that gap nicely. Feel free to send me a PM if you're interested in a set.