Tail-Light Conversion Questions

[Chromemoly]

Hello All,
Last night I started to swap in the 89-92 tail-lights on to my 88-Supra. Man, that top middle bolt on the tail-lights is a "pain" to access, and those license plate clips that plug into the harness are a "pain" to release to boot. At any rate, the two tail-lights and the middle license plate panel have been removed from the car. Last night I was examining the new pieces and noticed that the lock assy. is different on the the 89+ center panel. There are two extra mounting studs near the lock assy. that protrude through the sheet metal which will require me to drill a couple of holes. It looks as if the cables that are mounted to the lock assy. are different also. Has anyone made this swap. Can anyone post some pic's of these components installed.

Thanks,
Chromemoly

[Chromemoly]

Well, I have been working on the New Style Tail Light conversion for the last couple of nights after work. Here is what I have learned:
1-The two rear hatch lock assemblies are different. The way they are mounted on the license plate panel is also different. They do not interchange.
2-To get the 89+ license plate panel to attach to an 86.5-88 rear panel will necessitate 4 holes drilled in order to support the lock assemblies, and to allow the panel studs to protrude fully resulting in flush fitment.
3-There are two cables that attach to the rear-hatch lock assemblies no matter what year, however the cable on the 89+ Supras is different. I used the 86.5-88 system which will utilize the same holes and gromets. Now the hatch release lever inside the car works, and the key works for the rear hatch lock. The only drawback is that this is a different key from all the other locks. When I first compared the two different lock assemblies it did not appear that I could swap out the old one to maintain the ability to use the old key. Still, it's a small price to pay for the new style tail-light.