Meet Bill the 89 Year Old Ghost Member

[retroren]

http://imgur.com/a/8NAyw

I met Bill via his daughter from an ebay purchase. I sold him the lug cover and hex cap to finish one wheel. He is quite amazing. I spoke with him yesterday and I can only hope I am can remember where to put the gas in a car if I reach his age. He bought it in '96 with 70,000 on it. Not sure how many it has on it now. Also, any body got a lead on where he can get a replacement left rear taillight? I never saw this type, my type that has a clear cover fused over an actual plastic grill that covers the colored lenses. This must have been a fix GM did to eliminate the delamination issue?

[RJolly87]

It sounds like you have base model tail lights, so they must have been replaced in their lifetime at some point. SSE's came with what he has. They are also very hard to come by these days, and depending on condition, can fetch in the neighborhood of $300, especially when delamination is not a problem.

Keep pounding ebay, and hit up local salvage yards is about all you can do. Maybe check craigslist regularly too.

[95naSTA]

That car is in killer shape aside from the light. Love that paint color.

[retroren]

http://imgur.com/a/fuWJv

RJolly87,

Hit the link above and scroll down to take a look at the photos of my tail lights. I have an SSE. I believe I have a light for the SSE not SE or SLE. This was also the same style of taillight that was on the '89 SSE I owned about ten years ago. You will notice that I have removed the severely clouded and delaminated "clear" cover and left the grill exposed. I like the look. I think GM made a change and both styles are valid for the SSE.

retroren

[TheJMFC]

That's a beautiful car. My '89 never looked that good. Same color, in theory, but mine had faded pink on all top surfaces.

[ga93sle]

Looks to me like you both have the same taillights, his just still has the clear lens on it...

[retroren]

ga93sle: Nope. I don't think they are the same. I spoke to Bill, the owner of the car, and he told me it's a decal applied to the inner side of the clear lens. I think GM started doing this as a cost saving measure. I was at the junk yard yesterday and saw tons of early '90 Bonnevilles ('92, '93 etc.) with decal striped taillights based on model type.

[retroren]

Now I am really curious. I just spoke to Bill and he will closely examine the cracked area to determine if it is a decal or an actual plastic grill behind the cover. I admit my theory doesn't make total sense and my eyes aren't what they used to be and like the Styx song from the '80s, I have waaayyyy to much time on my hands:)

[ga93sle]

Haha, no worries. In the pics of Bill's car it looks like his has some delam around where it is cracked so I would assume it has the plastic grille behind it. Admittedly, though, I'm no expert on that generation so I could be wrong...

[retroren]

No, my good sir, you are correct (and have much better eyes than I). Bill verified, with the help of a well placed flat-head screw driver, that there is the plastic grill behind the clear lens. Mystery solved!

[ga93sle]

Looks like a super nice car otherwise, too bad those are so hard to find in decent shape...