Editing 1940 Ford Pickup recessed tail lights

PREAMBLE

Installing recessed LED Stop/Tail/Turn lights in a 1940 Ford Pickup rear bed panel or similar vehicle.


LED STOP/TAIL/TURN LIGHTS

There are many different designs of tail lights available to fit all kinds of applications. I chose this type of light for a few reasons: one, it was flush mounted with a bezel around the LED light which offered easy and concealed mounting of the light and two, came ready to work right out of the package.

My first thought was to surface mount the light right on the pan with the four mounting screws that came with it and snap the bezel over the lens and I was done. When I taped the light in the place that I wanted it and installed the tail gate, the bezel rubbed the tail gate. Moving it downward made the tail light stick out from the contour of the lower pan and it just looked stuck on. If I was to recess the ens into the panel it would remove an inch of bezel and make a cleaner look to the back of the truck, and no rubbing on the tail gate.

The light that I chose had a 100,000 hour life, was compatible to most modern signal light systems, require no additional electrical modifications or doo-dads, just an easy plug and play installation.

INSTALLATION

Begin by removing the chrome bezel from the light assembly and take notice of the nice wide mounting flange that surrounds the red lens cover. The flange has four mounting points, you can use as many as you see fit for your installation.

Take the bezel and a couple of pieces of masking tape. Locate an appropriate place on the pan (in our case) or flat surface of a fender area and tape the bezel to the surface.