74 restoration

Am putting my 74 back together. Have the original taillights. Blasted, primed and painted. My question:
Does the exterior part of the bulb base (where the two prongs on the side of the bulb fit into the grooves
of the fixture) need to contact the fixture to complete the ground? The taillights were painted fully both inside and outside. Should I scrape the paint off of the grooves to make contact between the bulb and fixture?

 

Yes, the lights are grounded through the body, so you have three connections - the two base buttons and the bulb base via the base itself or the bayonet pins. Painting the socket was not a great idea... It's likely that inserting the bulb will scrape off the paint where the bayonets contact the socket, but you can scrap that if you want. If you have the original studs that will mount the lights, use a shakeproof (toothed) lockwasher between the body and the nut and that should be sufficient to ground the light bucket to the body.

 

Thank's Tim. Will definitely use the toothed washers.