Make the Lights Work on the 4105 Caddy

The front of the 41 Cadillac still needed to be assembled and I started with the front fenders, gravel pans then the grill and bumper. The grill has parking /  turn signal lights in it and the fenders have head lights that need to be repaired then wired in to the 2005 wiring harness.

 The parking lights were not into bad of condition at least all the parts were there. They were put in the bead blaster to be cleaned up the housings were painted with the chrome and glass scrubbed clean. the gaskets are destroyed but I will worry about then later.

 The light sockets are usable with bead blasting, paint and heat shrink tubbing on the existing wire. The socket base spring loaded terminals were frozen and had to be soaked oil overnight to get them worked free. Then the wires were extended to be long enough to reach the 05 wire harness.

 The 05 wire harness wires were tagged for the hi/low beam,  parking light and turn light by turning them on at the dash switches and test with a test light.

 I did the same with the brake/ stop lights - cleaned up the housings, fixed the sockets and extending the wires to reach in to the trunk. When they were connected the run light worked but the stop would make both right and left turn flash at the same time. I tested the 05 tail lights and found that the stop & turn had 2 different sets of LED lights or 2 separate circuits. I decided to use the front fender side lights for the turn function and cut a slot in the bottom of the Buick housing.

 The side lights are small enough to fit flat in the bottom of the housing and the wires were extended in to the trunk.

 With both right & left side lights mounted they are the turn signal and the original lamp is the run / stop light.

 The head light buckets were in not to good of shape as the front fenders had taken some abuse and had to be straightened.

 The adjusting screws were rusted & frozen, wiring was falling apart but they could be saved. The adjusting screws were soaked in oil & I was able to get 2 of the 4 freed up & working. I found 2 aftermarket adjusting screws kit with springs on Amazon that would have to be modified to work.

After bead blasting they were painted and the wiring and lamp sockets refurbished with the wires extended.

This picture is how they look after bead blasting. I use aluminum oxide as the blasting material.

The driver side fender had been hit and I had to make cuts along the folded metal to straighten it then welded the cuts. The bent in areas were pounded out using a hammer & dolly with all the screw clips saved.

The headlight bucket has 2 adjusting screw brackets one of which had rusted off. I drilled the pop rivets out to remove the bracket, did the repair then pop riveted it back in place. Both brackets had to be modified to accept the aftermarket adjusting screws.

The bucket and lamp holder were fit with adjustments made to the fender opening.

This is the drivers side fender that was badly bent, it still needs the peak rebuilt but the headlight fits and is wired in.

I decided to use the front bumper as is to cover as much as possible of the 2005 components under the front gravel pan.

The bumper brackets were bead blasted & painted and the bolts that attaches them to the bumper were welded in place to make the bumper smooth (no bolt heads showing).

The grill, bumper front and back lights are all repaired & in place with all lights working, I will try to get the hood put back to gather and in place next.