twinky Bargman porch light replace/repair

[rabbit]

I have a cheap Bargman porch light (well cheap at seven bucks at Tweety's and as much as 24$ on eBay) to which I have devoted more thinking and tinkering than it deserves. When I got the trailer, the PO had allowed the socket and bulb to get into close proximity to the lens and melted a big "inny" in the middle. I flattened this navel by immersion in hot water and reshaping. I then noticed that it had condensation inside after heavy rains and added a water diverter made of bike innertube rubber over the top of the lens. This appeared to avoid the worst of the water entry but certainly isn't like a complete gasket around the lens. I don't believe there ever was a gasket but not certain. Yesterday evening we had a thunderstorm cum frog strangler. Afterwards I noticed that some of the SMDs on the LED bulb were glowing dimly. The bulb is OK this morning and lights to full intensity. I assume rainwater entering bridged the switch and produced a poor quality closed circuit.

I almost hesitate to ask if any of you type A fussers and fiddlers have managed to make this lens watertight short of the silicone dauber fix. I've thought about making a gasket from milk bottle or thin rubber but he upper and lower tabs on the lens mean that there's really no way to make it continuous around the entire perimeter.

Bargman has a newer model of this same configuration (about 17$) with motion sensor. It appears from fotos that it would suffer the same water entry problem. In your experience, what exterior light would be superior as a replacement?

jack

[Raz]

I posted a similar question a while back only my concern was the marker lights lens. Here in the frozen north the water gets in and of course freezes and cracks the lens. One suggestion was to try a small ribbon of butyl tape on the edge of the lens, another, drainage holes. Perhaps your post will attract other ideas. Raz

[cpaharley2008]

I always drilled tiny holes on the underside of lights that had condensation and it took care of the issue.

[rabbit]

Yeh I think it could be caulked with a small "roll" of butyl tape around the perimeter and still be removable for "bulb" replacement. Thanks Raz. And freeing holes underneath in the fixture might help altho I have never actually found the thing "holding" water.

jack