54 Chevy Tail lights on 53 Chevy

A buddy of mine bought a 53 Chevy and wanted the 54 tail light Chrome bezels and bubble lens for it, We thought that they would be interchangeable but figured out they are not, the 54 has a single bulb while the 53 had double bulbs, so instead of spending more money on some double bulb sockets and buying the tail light backing plate from a 54, I modified the backing plate from the 53,

The 53 backing plate has the middle bulb (brake light) sticking out of it about 1/2 inch making it touch the bubble lens, and the top bulb (regular light) is sticking out to where it wont let the bubble lens lay flat on the backing plate

So all I did was cut the middle section out and welded it thru the back so it would be in 1/2 deep and for the top light all I did was extend it 1/2 with some exhaust pipe i found in the shop so that both of the light bulbs wouldn't touch the lens..

It was super easy and only took about an hour, just be carefull not to cut the springs on the tops where the bulbs sockets go into. Here are a few pics

 

Cool! looks good!!

 

Those look great! Nice
I'm trying to decide what I'm going to use on a 53 Chevy I'm doing right now...the ones in it are HIDIOUS....
We just took the body off frame yesterday and it's CRAZY work but the kids are diggin it!

 

good info thanks

 

Good idea! I was thinking they were the same too...

 

Good job. That is old school from back in my day !!!! LOl Tom (Tired OLd Man)

 

where did you get the lens

 

I got mine from Chev of the 40s...not sure who else carries em but pretty common, made to fit rite in the original bezels

 

nice work dr cheby..

 

Hmmmm.....don't remember what I did now, but I put a set of 54 tail
lights on a 53 back in the 1960s. Seems like they worked OK.