I was looking to do the same thing but decided to try tinting them with vinyl first. If it doesn’t hold up I may eventually make the switch. From what I read it shouldn’t be more than possibly elongating a pin hole. Here is my truck, took the pics before tinting the 3rd brake lights.

 

How visible are your brake lights in sunlight ? That seems really dark. I'd be worried about people texting and driving right into the back of my truck with brakelights that dark !

 

here are 11 pages on the swap and there are more threads

2015 Colorado & Canyon tail light swap

So a brand new Canyon owner wasn't thrilled with the way the Canyon tail lights look. I think the Canyon lights look better. So he offered a straight swap, Colorado tails for Canyon tails. Done deal!!! So going forward, I'll keep a list updated of people who want to swap out their tail lights...

www.coloradofans.com

 

Yea, That was one of the threads I've read, but it's more of a locator thread of folks wanting to swap. Only one post mentioned elongating the mounting holes on a Colorado to accept a Canyon taillight housing. So perhaps the slot on the Canyon is a little larger that the mounting stud on the Colorado assembly. If that's the case should be no problem to build up that post a little.

Surprising that GM made a few subtle differences in the housings/mounts.

 

As you know there are numerous threads on it, but I made the swap and couldn’t be happier:

To confirm, the bottom mounting hole needs to be extended up a bit using a step drill bit. Once that was done, I applied some POR and installed. No modification needed for the top mounting holes. Looks so much better than the stock tails.

 

Do you have a pic or drawing of which mounting hole you are referring to be elongated??

 

Hey…. What’s wrong with my tail lights? I like them. Then again, I had a 2006 Dodge Ram with the head lights that looked like an aquarium.

 

If I remember correctly from when we did 19CanyonWT mod to Colorado taillights, the rubber locator peg on the Colorado lights is round and the rubber locator peg on the Canyon lights are kind of rectangular with rounded corners, so the body sheet metal hole has to be enleged.

 

I have the Colorado Tail lamps. Looking at the housing below there is a torx screw holding in the mounting stud. I actually took it off and put it back. Wondering if this is the same design on the Canyon and the studs are what can be swapped from one to the other.

It would make sense if GM used one mold and just used different studs for the mounting? I'll find out this weekend.

 

Try it, you are probably correct. I did not pay attention to the torx screw.

 

I recall when the Gen2 first came out, everyone with a Colorado wanted the Canyon tails, seems the tide has turned? James

 

Wrapping this up. The studs on the Collie and Canyon are the same so my theory of maybe you could swap them was wrong. The mounting studs on the Collie are exactly 8" apart, on the Canyon 8.25". The top hole is the alignment hold. Do not enlarge this one.

Putting a Colorado taillamp on Canyon, you just need to enlarge the top on the lower hold just a little. No more than 1/4". Going from the Caynon to a Colorado, it may be that you have to elongate the lower part of the bottom hole, but I did not make that mod so you'll just have to check.

Just align the top post/stud with the top hold and you'll see where the bottom one will touch. You could probably force it in without enlarging, but some here have said that could crack the taillight housing. Anyhow very simple. Here's a photo of those mounting holes. Note on the bottom hole I have piece of masking tape indicating the area to be enlarged.

 

The Colorado lights look very nice.