Repairing tail light

jlusk99 · Post by **jlusk99** » 27 Jun 2016, 09:19

I recently had a 'freak accident' that damaged the passenger tail light on my 2007 S80. I was wheeling my garbage can back to the house the morning after the garbage men had come and as I was walking past the car, the can slipped out of my hand and the edge of the handle smacked into the tail light. It is one of those heavy cans with the attached lid and wheels so it crack some of the plastic off. The lights themselves are fine---it is the red plastic cover that was cracked. Some of the plastic cracked completely off. One of those things i couldn't duplicate if I tried 100 times.

Can I buy the covering itself or fix it somehow without having to replace the whole tail light?

Thanks in advance for any help.

ThommyKent · Post by **ThommyKent** » 28 Jun 2016, 01:37

The cover is not separate. A used one is around $80 a new one around $200.

Volvo S80 · Post by **Volvo S80** » 02 Jul 2016, 10:56

If the pieces are not too small and you have them and it is not in to visible place you can try to fix it, you have to remove the tail light from the car than use some super glue to glue the pieces but you have to be patience and to glue them as flat as possible than leave them to dry, after they have dried completely and the surface feels solid you have to take some sandpaper( P800, P1000, P1500,P2000) dry and(P3000 and P6000) wet and make it completely flat when you touch it with hand (if you have air or electric orbital sander use it on low speed without pressure it will make the job faster and better) after you finish these steeps take a marker with the same color as tail light and use it on cracked area so it will be lees visible, buy one headlight restore kit (3M I recommend) and use it on the whole tail light it will be as better as it can get without replacing it.

jlusk99 · Post by **jlusk99** » 05 Aug 2016, 12:42

Actually I was able to find the entire tail light assembly for $30 on eBay. Looks brand new.

So I've got the part, how to I replace it? I found a 3 page print out on the web somewhere the seems to be very vague. Haven't attempted it yet. Wondering if there are detailed instructions or even a youtube video somewhere that shows in step-by-step detail. Has anyone out there ever done this themselves? If so, how difficult was it?