Abstract:
The inventive concept is directed to the tail end lights of automobiles. The present automobile tail light is being removed and replace by a new panel extension including a tail light that represents an early model tail light. This conversion takes into account the existing wiring and the new and the replacing panel extension includes wiring and plugs that are merely plugged into the existing wiring of the automobile.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The inventive concept relates to automobile panel extensions especially at the rear ends and more particularly the tail lights. It involves an automobile extension capable of enhancing the automobile rear end by converting the present appearance of the rear end, especially, the light assembly from one appearance to another, for example, an earlier version of a well known car automobile. 
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    According to one embodiment of the inventive concept, an automobile panel extension including a different light assembly is attached to the rear end of the vehicle, especially, the lights in the end of the rear fender. The different light assembly exhibits a different appearance of the vehicle rear end. The conversion takes advantage of the existing light sockets and wires and/or cables but the framing of the new panel extension and the light lenses is different in appearance once the conversion is complete. According to one embodiment of the invention the extension can be attached to the rear end of a Chevrolet 2006-2009 to thereby restyle the rear tail assembly as a retrofit to take on the appearance or the look of a 1955 Chevrolet. This is quite a novel approach to restyling existing vehicles to take on an older look. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         [0003]      FIG. 1  is a complete parts assembly breakdown; 
           [0004]      FIG. 2  is a tail amp and backup lamp wire schematic; 
           [0005]      FIG. 3  illustrates the mounting hardware to the vehicle body; 
           [0006]      FIG. 4  illustrates the back-up lamp plug; 
           [0007]      FIG. 5  is a side view of plug shown in  FIG. 4   
           [0008]      FIG. 6  illustrates the tail lamp and back-up light plugs; 
           [0009]      FIG. 7  is the tail lamp plug. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]      FIG. 1  illustrates the complete parts assembly in a breakdown. There is an interior access door or opening  1  which can gain access to the interior of the rear fender. In addition there are existing tail lamp openings  2  and at  3  there is shown the existing body line of the vehicle. There are two plug connections  4  to which new cables or wires may be attached. There is a grommet  5  that is used to insulate existing wires against chafing or abrading against metal edges. The conversion includes a tail lamp extension  6  including the lamp harness  7  and ground connection  8  to the lamp housing. The housing  11  is attached to the tail lamp extension  6  by way of the screws  9 . In between the lamp housing  11  and the extension  6  there is provided a gasket  11  and additionally a lens gasket  12  which is provided between the back-up lens  16  and the red light lens  14 . Four screws  13  fasten the housing  11  to the tail lamp extension  6 . The tie band  15  is fastened to the lamp housing  11  with two screws (not numbered) including a back-up lens mounting clip  17  with its attending screw. The bracket  18  mounts the back-up lens to the lamp housing  11  by way of the included screws. In  FIG. 1 , there also shown the existing rear light lamp  20  and the existing back-up lamp  21  which be explained further as the description continues. 
         [0011]      FIG. 2  illustrates the tail lamp and back-up lamp wire schematic.  14  and  16  represent the rear light lens and the back-up lens, respectively. The complete tail lamp assembly is shown at  21  while the corresponding plugs are shown schematically. There is a socket back-up  22  which is existing from the vehicle wiring harness and also the socket  23  of the tail lamp. The plug  24  with its proper color coding  33  will lead the electric power to the back-up lamp  26  and the plug  25  with its color coding  34  will furnish the electric power to the tail lamp. The hex screw  27  will receive the ground  32  (coded green) of the lamp body of the harness by way of the electric connection  28  and also the ground of the  32  (coded green) of the tail lamp socket  36 . The blue wire  30  leads to the turn signals and the black wire  35  represents the power wire. Then there is a purple wire  31  which leads to the tail lamp  36 . The existing vehicle wiring is identified by the color codes  34  as representing L/S yellow and R/S green. 
         [0012]      FIG. 3  illustrates the mounting hardware of the inventive panel extension to the existing body of the vehicle. As shown in  FIG. 2  as well as in this  FIG. 3  the tail lamp assembly is shown at  21  and the fiberglass extension is shown at  37  and the existing vehicle body line is shown at  38 . There are long studs (one is shown at  39  which will receive the washers  40  and the respective wing nuts  41  will complete the installation by using the rubber washers  42  under the wing nuts  41 . The wiring harness plug  44  will be attached to the existing lines of the vehicle which will further be explained below. 
         [0013]      FIG. 4  illustrates the tail lamp plug  44  which is considered the terminal or the end of the plug. The green wire  32  ( FIG. 2 ) is the ground and  45  are the soldered wire points to the plug  44  and  47  represents a color coding mark on the plug  44 . At  50  is shown the purple wire which connects to the tail lamp. The female plug  44  is a cap that is filled with fiberglass including the ¾ inch terminal that is heat shrunk around it. At  53  are shown 3 wires that are wrapped in a ¼ inch heat shrink. All of the wires leading into the female plug  44  are contained in common cladding shown at  54 . 
         [0014]      FIG. 5  shows the color coding on the female plug with A indicating a yellow left side with the green on the right side (not shown). 
         [0015]      FIG. 6  illustrates the tail lamp and back-up plugs, respectively. At  56  there is shown the female tail lamp plug with color coding (not shown). The male back-up plug is shown at  57  also with color coding (not shown).  58  and  59  represent the heat shrinking of the plugs at ⅜ of an inch  58  and ¾ of an inch  59 , respectively. The cladding for the wiring for the male plug  57  is shown at  60  and for both plugs the common cladding is shown at  63 . A grommet  62  is shown in the cladding  63  which is used to secure the wiring in a fixed position in the body of the vehicle. To illustrate the different color coding of the wiring harness, at  64  are the wires to the tail lamp as blue for the turn signal and brake, purple to the tail light and green for the ground. The colors cannot be shown in the drawings but are shown in reality when installing the replacement panel extension. 
         [0016]      FIG. 7  explains the construction of the male back-up lamp plug. At  66  there shown the two terminal ends of the plug  66  and again at  67  there is shown the appropriate color coding. The plug itself is shown at  68  and  69  shows the terminal cap. The colors cannot be shown in the drawings but in reality the wires are colored and that is  70  in black for the power of the system and  71  green again for the ground. The plug  68  is constructed by heat shrinking the plug to ⅜ of an inch shown at  72  and ¼ A of an inch at  73  for the casing wiring. The overall wires are contained in a cladding  74  which is standard in most automobiles. 
         [0017]    From all of the above it now be seen that it is very easy to convert the present existing tail light assembly of an automobile to another appearance to thereby represent early models rear ends on the present automobile. This is easily done by constructing a panel extension including the early model tail light and by removing the present tail light and then to install the new panel extension over the just removed tail light.