What are these POINTS for

[DESTEC]

Does anyone know what these finger-pokers on the back of the GT Tail Light Housings are for? Are they heat related? Metal left over at the stamping press? Or do they serve a real, practical function. My feeling is that they are purposeful in design; ellusive in nature.

[soybean]

If I may hazard a guess, I always thought they were there to cut through the paint to help ensure a ground to the Chassis, in addition to the ground wires. I may be wrong, but that's the best I could think of when I first encountered them in '74 on my Rallye.
Jarrell

[MantAscona]

For grounding purposes. When the tail lamp housing is drawn into the car body by tightening the nuts they "dig" into the sheetmetal through the paint to ensure a good ground. They also use the serated spacer under one of the tail lamp mounting studs for the same purpose.

Duane

[DESTEC]

They do not even contact the aperture of the tail light opening. AND a separate ground wire goes to each housing. So it can't be GROUNing. And if they dug into the paint, Opel would have started a rust point there. Good point. I am still perplexed.

[markandson]

My guess would be that they were the original intended ground, but were never used, and then it would have been too expensive to change the die that made the part, so they just left it.

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by markandson My guess would be that they were the original intended ground, but were never used, and then it would have been too expensive to change the die that made the part, so they just left it.

Or could they have been used for another application and they also worked for this one as well?

Harold

[ronskydivepops]

Any chance you can post a larger picture of the whole light assembly? I think I know why they are there. I think they have something to do with removing them if your lenses get cracked. Remember something or other like that when I redid all my lights a few years back.

[2 Fast 4 U]

Maybe so that the housing can't turn???

[namba209]

Alrghty, you got my curiosity up, so I pulled the rear brake lite on Willit? to have a look. First off, they do touch the body, ever so slightly. They are adjacent to the lens mounting screws, in fact, on Willit? the screws go between the tips at their base. I'm guessing the idea for them to be grounding points is well taken. The use of gaskets underneath both the socket housing and lens does not allow them to make a good contact, which may be the reason for separate ground wires at each light assembly. HTH.

[baz]

what year are they off ?

[DESTEC]

Namba, et al,

I just checked the taillight housings in the GT body, and Ron, you are right they do just touch the frame that they mount in. SO I AM sure, you, and the Ground School of thought are right. I guess I just don't have an astute grasp of the obvious.

[namba209]

Baz, Willit? is a 72, so I'm gonna guess they are all the same except for the real late 73s. But then I've been known to be wrong before.

J. J. The real old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees", may apply here.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by namba209 J. J. The real old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees", may apply here.

Or maybe "Can't see the electron paths for the wires"

[Lindsay]

I always thought the sharp projectiles on tail light/ turn signal housings were intended for grounding, but there is a separate gnd connection.

Looking at extra housing sets in my parts box, wondered if prongs might have been used to locate metal bracket in Opel tooling during rivet to plastic housing?