Imagine this situation. You walk up to your car in the driveway ready to leave for work and then you notice it – one of the tail lights is cracked. Or worse – shattered. You have no recollection of an accident and it doesn’t seem like someone has rear-ended you. So what has happened?
The thing is that for a lot of vehicles the tail lights, and sometimes the headlights, are quite vulnerable. As far as auto body parts go, these are fairly breakable. The sad thing is that you may not even notice you have done something.
Today we are not going to dive into the reasons why these parts break and who is to blame, but we will rather show you how you can protect them. Ready? Let’s go!
Light Protection Done Right
If you fail to protect your tail lights you may end up paying quite a lot to repair them. However, there are also insufficient ways of protection. For example, some people prefer the DIY route, where you can drill holes and add metal pieces that supposedly fortify the light. This doesn’t work, because you have already ruined its integrity. The metal is stronger than the plastic and it will chip away at some point.
The only real way to protect your vehicle’s lights is by using specially designed guards. They are made of steel and are installed to protect your lights from all sides. Thus they can withstand you going through rough terrain with your off-road vehicle, so you won’t have to worry much about that.
The good thing about these guards is that you do not have to ruin the integrity of the light. No drilling will be necessary, as good guards utilize the mounting points of the light itself. That way you are essentially installing them to the frame of your vehicle, which is much sturdier.
Which Guards Are Good?
When you decide on the specific protection, you will have to take into account what materials are used to make it. Cheaper alternatives may be made of iron, which is not stainless. It can catch rust, especially if you scrape the coating.
Your best bet is to go with good quality stainless steel guards. These will last quite a while (virtually forever), and you will not have to worry about your tail lights at all. Actually, you can find full light protection guard kits online and protect all the lighting around your vehicle. This is especially handy for off-road machines that may take some beating on rough terrain.
Also make sure to get guards that are designed for your vehicle. There are no “one size fits all” solutions – at least not good ones. But here is a little bit of a trick – if you find good solutions online, you can take images to a welder and ask them if they can do something similar for you. The price may be cheaper this way.