Beside the nuts is there a trick to getting them off? When I was stripping down the other Celica I coudlnt get them off, or find a way to before it was too late and she was towed away.
They should just have nuts on them, remove those, and yank pretty hard to get them off. What has happened, is your tail lights being plastic, have warped with the weather. They shrink and expand, then warp, so it is kind of hard to remove them... My BMW was like that... Try wiggling them off?
You should also have a bit of cauk kind of stuff serving as a water tight sealant between the tailights and the body... I took a small tack hammer and just tapped on the "studs" and it loosened the thing right up...
They are hard to remove because the bolts are poorly aligned to the holes, and there is usually sealant to keep the rain out. After 20 years that sealant is rock solid, and you're likely to break the light before it moves. Here is my sure-fire way. You need a heat gun or blow dryer to do it. It gets easier if you remove all of the plactic trim inside the hatch, but that is not really necessary, just have a friend hold it out of the way after undoing some of the screws. Take off the nuts, and the side maker lights. Now use the heat gun on the inside of the car, go around the metal that frames the light, heating it up slowly. The sealant is the rubber window sealer type (butyl tape), and it will get soft as it heats. After a while try pushing on the back of the light to see if it will come out. Repeat the heating and pushing until you can remove the light. And now you just have the sticky old sealant to clean up. Pull or cut away the big chunks, and clean the rest off with brake cleaner. Now if you are reinstalling the lights in the car be sure to put some new sealant all the way around or you will get water in the trunk. And if the holes don't line up with the bolts quite right, use a round file to enlarge the holes a bit.
The stuff is more like crazy glue I think. Actually I'm with Dman_23 on this one. A heat gun will work great. The stuff that is used to seal the light to the metal frame is alot like roofing tar. Once it gets heated up it will soften and you should be able to start pushing either the left or right side of the light out.
That is true, also... I forgot about that sealant crap... It isn't much, but a nuisance! I am going to go with st165, and dman, as they both are right. Enlarge your holes, and they should slide right back in, with less problems!
The sealent should still be rubbery....just get yourself a wedge, and slowly pry it out by inserting a wedge every couple inches..... Heating it up wouldn't hurt though! I did mine in the summer so it was fairly warm anyway out....
I think that sealant must have been rock solid. I tryed to pull them off the parts car but it was a winter day and they didnt have any intention of coming free. I used a hammer swinging full blow onto the studs but it didnt budge, well atleast I know for next time. Thanks Ya'll
Thought of something else, I do this to get rid of glue inside braces on door panels... Heat up a metal spatula with a blow torch, then slide it between the taillight and metal, voila, melted glue!
