One of the few things I haven't done to these cars over the years is remove the rear wing brake light.
With the wings getting rarer, and the plastic getting more and more brittle, I approached this with more caution than I'm used to.
I couldn't find any results for this on a search, and I didn't feel like trying to find/dig out the factory body manual I have floating around somewhere in storage.
Had to swap a light from one wing to another---wing 1 was a success, wing 2 I cracked the light.
Anyway...the first steps are straight forward. Remove wing from car, put it face down on a surface that won't scratch it. Remove the three phillip head screws that hold the center post to the wing, and gently pry off (there are seals at the three bolting points that make it stick). Pull wire through the center post and set aside.
Next, remove the three screws holding the light to the wing. Easy enough.
This is where it becomes slightly more tricky. The light would not pop out as easily as I thought it should. I wasn't sure if there were clips holding it, or double-sided body tape. It ended up being the latter. Mitsubishi used a thin strip of body tape along the (almost entire) trailing edge of the light. This, being stuck on there for 30 years was really holding it, and of course, 30 year old plastic isn't too pliable anymore.
I used plastic body/interior clip removal tools (widest I could find) and placed at three spots along the leading edge of the light. It took some slow, steady progress until the light launched itself off of the tape and out.
I used that same setup on the second wing/light, and even being careful, it cracked the light on that one. Heating the trailing edge of the light with a hairdryer or heat gun is probably something that I should have done as well.
Pretty basic, but I figured a quick write up may help someone not waste the time I did.
With the wings getting rarer, and the plastic getting more and more brittle, I approached this with more caution than I'm used to.
I couldn't find any results for this on a search, and I didn't feel like trying to find/dig out the factory body manual I have floating around somewhere in storage.
Had to swap a light from one wing to another---wing 1 was a success, wing 2 I cracked the light.
Anyway...the first steps are straight forward. Remove wing from car, put it face down on a surface that won't scratch it. Remove the three phillip head screws that hold the center post to the wing, and gently pry off (there are seals at the three bolting points that make it stick). Pull wire through the center post and set aside.
Next, remove the three screws holding the light to the wing. Easy enough.
This is where it becomes slightly more tricky. The light would not pop out as easily as I thought it should. I wasn't sure if there were clips holding it, or double-sided body tape. It ended up being the latter. Mitsubishi used a thin strip of body tape along the (almost entire) trailing edge of the light. This, being stuck on there for 30 years was really holding it, and of course, 30 year old plastic isn't too pliable anymore.
I used plastic body/interior clip removal tools (widest I could find) and placed at three spots along the leading edge of the light. It took some slow, steady progress until the light launched itself off of the tape and out.
I used that same setup on the second wing/light, and even being careful, it cracked the light on that one. Heating the trailing edge of the light with a hairdryer or heat gun is probably something that I should have done as well.
Pretty basic, but I figured a quick write up may help someone not waste the time I did.
