Every time it rains, the trunk in my Duster is soaking wet. I got tired of this since the trunk is virtually rust free, so I finally did something about it today. Now, this all may be old hat to some of you, but perhaps someone might be having the same problem.
I found out, using a water hose, that the leak was at the taillights. I mean, water was pouring in! yes, i checked higher up along the back window and no, there were no leaks anywhere except at the tail lights!
So I found some tail light gaskets online from a place called Tallzag. www.tallzag.com They had some other Mopar stuff that might be worth checking out! I imagine tail light gaskets might be available elsewhere, but I did not find any listed for a 76 Duster anywhere else (checked YearOne, Layson's, Steele, and maybe JC Whitney, I can't remember) It cost $20.00 for a set of 2 gaskets and shipping cost $5. They sent it Priority Mail, so I got it fast! The gaskets seemed to have originated at a place called Detroit Muscle Technologies.
The Tallzag website brags heavily about these gaskets in the item description. (disclaimer: I don't know much about this company other than what's on their website and the gaskets that I ordered. I don't mean this to be any kind of product endorsement, just passing along some info I hope is helpful!)
They were matched perfectly to the old ones, except the foam seemed a little more porous than the old ones. I don't know enough about such things, but the new ones seemed to me to be dense enough to repel water.
So I removed the old ones. They were glued on with weatherstrip adhesive, which I had to get off using a wire brush wheel on my drill. I then put a little RTV along the joint between the lenses and the housing. After that I applied the new gaskets with weatherstrip adhesive. Notice the difference in thickness in the pics.
There were no mounting problems. Everything seated pretty well, and it diminished the visible gap that was there before.
So it is supposed to rain tonight. If it does, I'll know if these new gaskets can do the job. Just a little info I thought I'd pass along to my Slanted buddies!
Billy Gro
