taillights only work on rare occasiion

[Widows Son]

Russell, I'm humbled by your enthusiasm and commitment to follow through with your dream.

I wish the plastic sockets could be easily swapped for metal, but I had no luck finding a set. The sockets I used were fitted on a self-modified plastic socket. In other words l cut the original plastic socket and then inserted the new metal one inside. Cut the old wires and plug and re-soldered those to the new metal wires. Then just plug the new configuration into the car harness. It is a very inexpensive solution but the labor was free. For a garage to carry out the work, total cost is labor.

Although not a complete fix, replaced the incandescent bulbs with LED, as noted by others, is a low cost solution since this alternative eliminates heat and therefore plastic deformation and bulb retention. Just be sure your sockets are not already too deformed to retain the LED bulb or you will need to replace the plastic socket with a new plastic socket. The other reason I am skeptical as this being a sure fire solition is that I had LED bulbs in the front of the car and the plastic sockets still didn't retain the bulb well. Case by case I suppose. As others noted, soldering the LEDs directly is a fix but too "permanent" a solution for me should I ever have to replace the bulb/LED.

The dim light you experienced does indicated you need someone to troubleshoot the wiring.

Sorry I wasn't that much help.