Road Runner Nest

So in going over the car after taking delivery I noted that the tail lights needed some clean up, one is very dim. I've bought new bulbs for the back and noted that the lens' only had two screws a piece, is there a particular screw I can source easily from say Home Depot or something to fill the rest without cracking the lens?

Also the passenger side is the dimmer side, I can tell that the drivers side unit has been replaced at some point, both the lens and the unit. The passenger side must be original and has a bunch of pitting/missing paint. Can I simply shoot some silver from a rattle can in there to clean it up? Should this brighten as well?

Thoughts?

I don't think you'll find the lens screws at Home Depot, more likely you'll need to find them on a parts car... They are unique, long-winded bastards to say the least.

As for the "dimness", keep in mind the sockets ground to the housing. If that connection is dirty, grungy, rusted, etc, most likely you'll have a bad ground and dim tail lights. So be sure to clean up the hole the sockets fit in and the sockets themselves... There was some talk in another thread on here about adding a ground wire to the tail lamps to insure a solid ground connection. You might try that too.

The rattle can silver should be fine...

There are several problems with 72 tail lights. corrosion in the sockets is the biggest problem. This corrosion exists because of the seal between the lens and the lamp housing. I have found that all the aftermarket gaskets do not fit properly. My trick is to not use a gasket at all. Put vaseline on the lens that comes in contact with the housing. Use RTV on the housing were the lens come in contact. The reason for the vaseline is so that the lens itself does not stick to the RTV making it hard to remove later. The RTV will for a perfect gasket thus sealing out moister.

As for as the screws, you are screwed. Even if you locate NOS ore junk yard screws they may not work! Often people use whatever they can find to fasten the lenses, Enlarging the the holes in the housing to the point they are useless.

I have often thought of visiting a factory that makes fasteners for the automotive industry to see what it would cost to replicate these screws. I have delivered to two different places on here in my home stat of Kentucky.

i don't know about 72s, but i was able to find fasteners at the hardware store for lenses on my 71...#8X1.25" machine screws are what i needed with the bezels, 1" without