Today we got our tail light housings back from the body shop and installed them ourselves. A friend, who owns Malibu Collision/Malibu Customz auto body shop and specializes in custom car fiberglass and carbon fiber, bravely took on our badly crumbling and irreplaceable plastic tail light surrounds.
After several failed attempts at making a mold (“This is the most bizarre plastic I’ve ever worked with!” he said about our lights) we ended up with something that works and looks great! Originally he was trying to make them in carbon fiber, but the molds were too finicky for the stiffer material to lay well in it.
We’re going for a modern silver and black motif with our trailer exterior, so we opted for black, high-shine auto body paint on our new light surrounds, and added LED brake and reverse lights. The trailer previously only had brake lights with no reverse lights, so this was a huge safety improvement. The LED brake lights will be much more visible than the incandescents they replaced, and save on our battery usage as well.
What a difference in the appearance of the trailer too! Our ugly duckling has come a long way in 9 short months. It sure doesn’t look 50 years old in the same way that it did the day we brought her home!
