How flush should taillight lenses be?

[1969911T]

Have always thought the tail light lenses stick out too far. My lenses are Bosch. The first photo is with a gasket and the lense sticks out about 0.34”. The second photo is without the gasket and sticks out about 0.17”. No memory of where I bought the gaskets, but they are a lot of this issue.

The lenses fit well to the curve, particularly without the gasket.

Has anyone found a way to make the lenses flush with the fender? The front lenses have a similar fit, but not as bad.
Thanks
Steve

[TheTorch]

I found that the order in which you final tighten the screws can change the curve, in addition to holding it in the position you want as you tighten. Easy to try.

[Scott A]

I think a good fitting car should have nothing sticking out.
And be perfectly flush.
You really have to get in there and move some metal around.
I find that to be the most cause of misalignments.

But like you are mentioning, remove some bits, and see what’s running into what first.

On super poor cars, previous , crashed race cars, I had to cut gasket, to make thinner.

[gled49]

Never seen a 911 with all 4 corners lenses flush with body work. Fronts are particularly difficult.

[1969911T]

Has anyone tried grinding off material on the backside of the lense housing where the three screws go? That should recess the housing
Steve

[Jay Laifman]

I found that the order in which you final tighten the screws can change the curve, in addition to holding it in the position you want as you tighten. Easy to try.

Agree. Tighten center one first. Otherwise it bows out.

[Haasman]

I have also noticed that the light housings vary a bit. The place where mount to the body can also vary bit. I found sometimes just "adjusting" the mounting place can make all the difference. Slow back and forth testing helps prevent the housing/light assembly from being too deep as well.

When they are right .... nice ....

Regarding tighten .... someone once told me that not much more than an egg shell force to help measure how hard to turn the allen screws. Too much will of course crack these expen$ive lenses.