The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Headlight rings

I have some new headlight rings that I put new rubber around with new clips . When I tried to put them on they don’t seem to fit around the headlight inner trim especially if you try to angle the trim to get the top clip to attach to the headlight bucket .I only fiddled with this for a little while but thought I would ask if there is a trick or what has been done by others thanks Kevin .

I put new rubber seals for my headlight rings (got it from Jim Carter) and didn't have any trouble installing them. IIRC, the rubber has a slot that goes around the edge of the ring. Not sure whether there's a forward or backward for that.

Yes, those things are a PITA. I don't think there is a trick; you just have to be patient. I use a plastic bondo spreader to help fit it around the headlight. Make sure your headlights are properly aimed before putting them on or you will have to do it all over!

The rubber can only go one way but I noticed the new trim rings are bent a touch different in that the edge by the headlight were the rubber slips on .(is not curled over as much) .I managed to fit them on using some wd40 on the rubber but the new clips were not lined up to fit the screw in the bottom and when I pulled the ring off to readjust the clip they all came off ,the aftermarket clips don’t seem to clip the rubber very well so I am going to use the origional clips after I give them a rust bath and shoot a bit of paint on them .One of those things that you think will take a half hour but is turning into about 4 hours .

Good idea I have to dig out a headlight tool I have

Still messing with the headlight rings ,the ones I have are aftermarket but the problem seems to be the headlight sticks out far from the bucket were the clip for the ring on top clips ,makes it hard to get the ring on ,I did get one on but the other the clips keep flying off .The origional rings are a little different were they are curled over on both sides .

Looks like something is wrong all right; headlight seems to stick out too far. The pix with the aiming tool looks OK. Maybe the headlight bucket is mismatched with the fender bucket?

The picture with the aiming tool is not my truck that is we’re I thought also something is a miss I did replace the buckets but as far as I can tell they are the same ,I have some different headlight cups that the headlight sits in to try as the cup the headlight sits in hits the bucket you can see that in the picture we’re the ring is off .Thanks for confirming that I will look things over again with the old buckets I have as well.

Figured it out ,the headlight buckets are different .

I looked a little closer and I think there is a difference between the Canadian models from the US models .I looked back and found that out of the buckets I have 3 were purchased off e bay and at the time my buckets were still on the truck .so now that I have them off you can see although they look the same the inner circle protrudes farther out .The black one in the picture is the US type and the green is from a Canadian truck.So what I did was I used the headlight holder and trim ring from the Canadian version and they are deeper and that is we’re it became a problem .i found that I only have one holder from the US bucket and they look like they will work .I guess if you need to replace your buckets on a Canadian truck you will need to get the bucket with the light holder as they don’t mix .the holders pictured are greyUS and black Canadian

One frustrating job ,I hope the bulbs are still good

What lamps are you using? Is it still a 6v system? I find the 6v Phillips Halogen lamps to be excellent. If it's 12v, the Sylvania Halogens are the best.

Using General Electric 6 volt

Glad you figured out the problem and resolved it. What, working on our trucks can sometimes be frustrating??? Yup, BUT it's great when we win the battle and figure stuff out! Even better when you share your knowledge to help other folks figure out stuff too.