Missing tail light gasket /more on LEDs

["Walter" <Whalt@xxxx>]

My car seems to be missing both tail light gaskets that fit between the tail
light assemblies and the rear fascia. I never noticed this until I looked
in the parts manual wondering how hard it would be to convert to LED lamps.
The drawing of the gasket in the parts manual (part # 101489 SEAL, TAILLAMP
ASSY) looks very thick considering that my tail lights look just fine
without the gasket. Come to think about it, I repaired the tail light
boards on a friend's car, and it didn't have any gaskets there either. Are
these gaskets for real?

Don't think that only a few DeLorean owners are wanting to upgrade their
tail light assemblies to LEDs. There are plenty of teens at local car shows
that are finding ways to do it to their cars that probably have more
invested in chrome accessories than they do in the original purchase of the
car. I already saw a car that had blue LED film pin striping. It looked
really sharp and bright.
Soon I expect to see LED replacement bulbs on the shelf at auto parts stores
next to the old incandescent bulbs. I have had thoughts about hacking up my
OEM light assemblies to fit LED arrays, but in the long term this would
really be a waste. Any LED modifications that we could make to our cars now
(with perhaps the exception of retrofit bulbs) will be obsolete soon.

By the way, the extra bright halogen backup lights on my DeLorean are doing
just fine. There is no heat damage whatsoever. I even left my backup
lights on for a few minutes while holding my hand over the lens. It didn't
get hot at all.

Walt Tampa, FL the convex side mirror guy :)