I am now manufacturing ke series taillight gaskets from RUBBER

[maccat01]

Hello all.

I have recently purchased some new machines for my wifes home business and have decided another cash flow for us is old car parts.

I will be manufacturing tail light gaskets for ke series corolla for a start.

I have managed to find a ke30 sedan taillight gasket in my garage ( in very rough, 40 year old condition) but have scanned it and measured it to be "as new shape".

I would like ke30 coupe, ke25, ke10 and possible ke70 owners to to contact me if possible so I can measure the tail light gaskets on your cars so I can manufacture them for those models too.

I have not managed to find ke30 taillight gaskets anywhere, not even when i purchased new taillights from fleebay.

Depending on cost of the rubber sheets, a pair of gaskets will be anywhere from $50 -$100 a pair, made from 3-5mm thick black rubber.

If this is in the wrong section, i would appreciate it if the mods could move it :-)

Regards Mac

[altezzaclub]

What sort of rubber do you reckon?  These are a major source of rust in a KE70, they have all the water from the rear of the roof, the back window and the boot flooding over the top piece of the rubber and getting into the boot from there. We've rubbed Vaseline into the Beast's rubbers to stop water going in.

They can only be compressed with the torque of the 4mm bolts that are knurled into the plastic lenses, so it doesn't take a lot of grunt to pull the bolts out rather than compress the rubber seal. The steel is thin and flimsy, so very easy to vibrate and distort, and the welded seams move then crack the paint so they hold water and rust the joins.  All in all, an abysmal design!

Some modern soft siicon-based foam that is a sealed-cell would be nice, easy to compress but won't let water passed.  I wonder if we could use a tubular cross-section instead of an oblong, more pressure to crush it per Sqmm.  If they were cheap enough we could change them every 5 years.

[LittleRedSpirit]

Use soft rubber. its way too hard to compress a dense rubber as, AC said above.  I had a couple of gos to find the right density for different applications on the ae86 around the windows and the tails.  I ended up cutting the tail light gaskets from self adhesive closed cell foam rubber and it helps with adhesion against the smooth body of the car and seems to work well.

Edited December 30, 2017 by LittleRedSpirit

[rebuilder86]

i have zero experience with a leaking taillight, but me and dad drive around the city here in cebu, where all cars are absolutely destroyed amd always have broken taillights with practicalky fish in them, and we believe tail lights shouldnt be sealed at all, they should be designed to drain.

so if u can, id suggest try find a way to keep a section at the bottom open for drainage. less material and something to make ur product even better.

i know ur talking about the gasket between metal and plastic, but that should have the same thing, drainage towards the outside of the vehicle.

 

Edited December 31, 2017 by rebuilder86

[maccat01]

Cheers for the replies lads.

Going to the local clark rubber to see what the original stuff would be and get something far better. Probably some sort of butyl rubber. Its sort of sticky, flexible, thin, repels water and should easily squish and mould to the car body.

It is terrible at repelling petroleum based products however...

Doing some tests now. Will keep you posted :-D

[rebuilder86]

id say that the little bit of research uve done is already 8 times more what toyota did back in the day.

[parrot]

I don't think so. They used what was available (and cheap). 

My KE15 has 'conventional' what I would call hard rubber seals, whereas by the time they got to the KE25, they had evolved into the neoprene like stuff.

I've just resurrected a weight bench for my son, that I found on the side of the road.  New marine ply, foam rubber and vinyl and its good as new, and fine to leave sitting outside under the verandah at the beach house for our infrequent visits.  The foam was absolutely saturated, and the ply rotted and mouldy.  Instead I have used some high density foam mat that doesn't absorb any water, even after leaving outside for 15 years. It was initially a play mat I chucked on the floor wherever the kids were playing so they didn't lose balance and bash their head on the floorboards.

I doubt anything like that existed in 1969 - 74.  I wonder what they use these days, probably some sort of non hardening mastic?

[maccat01]

I know Nissan ans Narva use butyl rubber to glue their headlights together. 

They use a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices however.

Going to Clark rubber tomorrow to get some different types of rubber sheet and will get the first couple of sets of ke30 gaskets made for my two cars and use my extremely scientific leak testing proceedure ( being a hose aimed directly at rear light, spraying for a few minutes :-D) 

Regards Mac

[(Monk)]

Hi Mac,

Funny timing, I just fitted new tail lights to my KE20 yesterday. I cut new gaskets from a 6mm closed cell foam mat I bought at Bunnings. I have one knackered original gasket if you want it for a template?

Cheers

Stephen 

[maccat01]

Hey monk.

 

Sounds good. Where are you located? Ill send you the first ke20 ones to say thanks :-D.

 

Regards Mac

[(Monk)]

Sweet as, sounds good. I initially tried 10mm foam but it was too thick for the studs to reach through. 6mm works a charm but I haven’t leak tested yet. I’m in Cranbourne North, Victoria. If you want to PM me your details I will mail it to you when I get home from holiday? Cheers 

[maccat01]

Hey lads and ladettes, welcome to midnight!

So ive found some UV treaded neoprene rubber that I will be using to make the taillight gaskets from. It needs to be UV treated so the gaskets last the life of the cars, unlike the factory gaskets that only last a very short fortyish years bahahahaha :-D

I have traced my old gasket and transferred the very rough trace to my cad program. I cleaned up the trace and laser cut some plywood with the design.

I thought it best to cut the inital gasket shape from plywood, as i can perfect the fit to the taillight to the millimeter, as ply has very little flex, unlike rubber.

It does not quite fit as per pictures, but I have adjusted what needed to be adjusted and will cut another tomorrow to retest the fit.

Hopefully in the not too distant future, ke30 sedan owners everywhere will know what it feels like to have one less leaky spot in their boots :-D

Regards Mac.

[Big G]

That looks like the real deal. But if you make them last for ever you will be out of business in a week no repeat customers after the first buy. Hopefully there are a million caring rolla owners out there.Good luck with it all.

[maccat01]

This is true Big G.

This is only a side business to my wifes business. I thought that i need to make 6 gaskets for myself so the time designing is worth the effort as making gaskets from a cornflakes box and silicon is chinsey!

If i get 0 sales it wont matter but if i get some great :-D.

I wanna known the stuff i make will last a long time.

Regards Mac

[maccat01]

Hey all. Sorry for the long time between updates.

So i started cutting some gaskets from uv resistant neoprene. Did some research on what is used to produce neoprene and found out in contains chlorene, which of course when cut with heat produces chlorene gas. Not good for laser cutter mirrors and definately not good for human consumption! ( its previously been tested on people with bad results apparently :-O)

 Have now found uv resistant silicone sheet in 3mm thickness so will now be using this instead.

Updates to follow when I find a good supplier.

Regards Mac