70-72 Rear body panel trim
 

I'm looking for the length of an original taillight trim panel. I have an aftermarket (Goodmark) tail/body panel and with the taillight installed my trim panel will not fit between them. The taillights are outward as far as possible in the opening. My guess is the light openings are off. The panel I have measures 36 1/4" on the finished side, end to end, right in the middle. Can anyone give me a measurement on a factory original trim panel. Mine is a die cast one I bought through Trim Parts. Any help would be helpful.

Re: 70-72 Rear body panel trim
 

A friend of mine had the same problem. I hope you had the decklid installed when you installed the rear body panel. My friend didn't and had a hell of a time fitting it. Seems the good mark rear panel is shorter than oem. I believe he used a grinder on the trim panel to make it fit.

Re: 70-72 Rear body panel trim
 

Decklid was installed and fit pretty decent. Would like to see what an original trim panel measures. Thanks

Re: 70-72 Rear body panel trim
 

The taillights sometimes have some play in them I have found. You should be able to move them around a bit. I always ended up with about 3/16 inch clearance on each end.

Re: 70-72 Rear body panel trim
 

Yea, I tried that they are maxed outward as far as they will go. I'm debating on carefully grinding the ends of the panel. I just don't want to chip the chrome. It's a very nice panel from Trim Parts. They said it is made from original GM tooling so I assume its the correct length. They measured another one and it was the same size. This is a very high quality restoration and don't want it to look bad though. I wanted to the fender louvers and hood louvers but without the rear I don't think it would look correct. Any input on grinding the ends of the rear panel without chipping chrome?