Pretty sure the light housing is part of the back deck cover. I tried to remove mine when I put on a wing with LED's but had no luck. There were screws on the bottom but they didn't do anything. I gave up, removed the bulb, and tinted the back window. Now you can't see the light lens at all. If you want to keep the 'brake lamp' warning light from coming on in your dash, you'll have to put a wire across the solder points for the sensor located in the right rear tail light assembly.

Funny, when I pulled my light bulb out the socket was starting to melt too. A few weeks ago, both harnessess for the tail lights started to short out. Appears the pins were heating up and melting into adjacent terminals. Didn't have any brake lights for a few days. Ahhh, the joys of owning an old car.