Jeep Tail Light Armor

Do you want to do something awesome to your jeep but you just don't have the money for a lift kit or a roof rack? You can awesomeify your jeep with some sweet caged in tail lights for a lot less and give your jeep more confidence in one fast tutorial. Lets do it.

These particular tail light guards are compatible with jeep wrangler CJ, YJ, TJ years 76-06.

Things you will be needing

1. Tail light guards

http://www.trailswestonline.com/smittybilt-8660-76...

2. Phillips head screw driver

3. knife or flat head screwdriver

4. 6 new bolts (the bolts that came with the guards did not fit my jeep. If they don't fit yours, try the m6-01 screws. They worked very well for me with my 98 jeep wrangler)

5. socket wrench with extension and bits

This step is pretty self explanitory. We are just unplugging the tail lights. What you do is reach up under where your tail light is. There will be a flimsy peice of plastic there that gives easily.

You can pull this plastic down and reach up into the jeep. There will be a few wires in there. One has a plug in the center of it which is two connecting plugs. You need to pull these apart by pushing down the release tab. Push that tab down and pull them apart. I found this part to be kind of difficult. The harder I tried pulling them apart, the more it seemed like they weren't going to go. But when I stopped trying, they came apart. Go figure.

The next step is to remove screws. Unscrew the 4 on the faceplate and use your knife or flathead screwdriver to pry the faceplate off. It should come off extremely easily.

You will then see that there is a metal plate in the center of the lights. Slide that out. It will be much easier to work inside the light casing now.

There are three bolts that are inside the tail light. Use your socket wrench to take those out being careful not to hit the lights. The last thing we need is to have to buy new bulbs too.

Once you've got out those bolts, the tail light should come right off attached to the wires that we unplugged earlier.

Go ahead and pull the wires through the hole.

Next you will be taking your guard and making sure that it is the correct one for each side. There is a bend in the metal that indicated which side it goes on. The hole will be on the bottom and the bend will be on the left for the left side.The hole will be on the bottom and a bend in the right side for the right side.

take your dismantled taillight and chord and feed the chord through the hole in the back of the guard, from the front, while slipping the taillight into the guard. Feed the taillight chord into the hole in the jeep.

Line up the holes for the bolts that will now attach from the taillight to the guard to the jeep. I started with one of the bottom holes because the top one didn't want to take a bolt right away.

Once you've got those bolts in, put the faceplate back on . Male sure it doesn't go on upside down. Put the screws back in.

Then....

Reconnect the two cords you unplugged earlier and bask in the awesomeness that is your Jeep. YAH!

Merica!