Taillight swap, will this fit???
 

I have an 81 GT. I have in my posession 84 GT tailights. they are slightly wider than the 81's. does anyone know if i can make them fit? there is a metal plate in the middle of the 81, almost like a delete plate, if i take this out to fit the newer tailights, is there a part available to fill the gap?

The '84 taillights should bolt on with no problem at all.

they aren't the same size. the 84 tailights are alot wider

all 79-93 lights should interchange..all the same body..you would prolly have to change everything down to the metal..the balck casings i would imagine the diffrent if the tailinghts are that big of a size diffrence...just have to unbolt them from the body from the inside

That's right. Go inside your trunk and look at all the bolts you will have to remove (about 6 on each side)-- simple job. Just remember when you do this taillight swap, you are not just doing the lenses, you are doing the whole back light area with goes from the back corner, all the way to the license plate which on your '81, includes the black plastic pieces that are on left and right sides of the license plate.

On '81, it goes (from left to right): taillight lense, black plastic piece, license plate, black plastic piece, taillight lense. The black plastic piece is actually part of the tailight lense.

On '84, it goes (from left to right): taillight lense (longer), license plate, taillight lense. There is no black plastic piece so the taillight lense is longer so it will fit from the corner of car to license plate.

ooooooohhhhhhh.... Yeah, i didn't even bother to look at that plastic piece in the middle. ok, cool. i like the 84 lights so much better that i had to have them. i figure if i am restoring a car, and rodding it at the same time, i might as well do everything that i want to do up front. thanks guys.

You're welcome.

When I first got my first '79 (I'm on my 3rd now), I wanted to change to the '84 style taillights too, but I saw too many people doing it and decided against it. Moreover, I just got used to it and started to see the beauty and originality, in it-- it wholes it's own character and I didn't want to take that away from the '79. Either way, you gotta do what pleases you when it comes to your car-- that's what's important.

I can see your point on the originality aspect. i would have to agree with you there. but imho, they are just plain ugly. different strokes for different folks, i guess. this car is receiviong a ground up restoration, it's going to take me probably two years and about $10k. i'm in the right group of friends, because one of my friends is a body guy, one is an engine builder, another is an all around kinda guy, and I am the same way. i can do a little of everything. we just finished my autobody friend's truck. built hyim an 86 f 250, extended cab long bed. we took 6 trucks, stripped all the good parts out. went from a 2wd, straight six, extended cab shortbed to a 4wd, 351 w powered extended cab longbed. big project. now we have my car, the 81GT, and one of my other friend's car, a 70 fastback. (mustang of course) we have his car down to the shell, and are starting to get rid of the piles upon piles of rust. bad car to restore, bhut we came this far...you know? anywho, thanks for all your help. i'll give updates on the cars as they happen. if i can figure out how to put pictures in the posts i would do that.

the new issue of 5.0 and fast fords magazine has an article on building a project stang. they mention the 79-81 having different tailights, they also mention what you have to do to swap them to the 83 and newer style. they say you have to cut the metal middle piece out and weld in the piece from a later car. this sucks. this might make me keep the older lights. hey, at least i can sell the 894 GT tailights for a little biut of money.

what about older to newer
 

What about putting a set of 85 taillights into an 89? Can I just swap out the bulbs or do I need to find a different bracket?

you can swpa the entire lense from an 85 into an 89. that is easy. just take out the six bolts on each side, and the bulb sockets fit the new tailights just fine.

sweet - I just picked-up a set off of E-bay that look almost brand new. Are the 85 taillights the same as the 93 cobras? They look the exact same to me.