Leg is doing great, but not far enough along to allow me to replace the cooling system on my '95 yet. Later in July...

The grounds are in the wells right next to the rear lamp circuit boards: easy to see with a flashlight. I would clean them off, apply some OxGard conductive grease, and see what happens. While the bulbs do get hot, they should not be hot enough to distort the plastic unless the plastic is made of old milkjugs or something similar. I would send them back to the vendor: sounds like poor quality control.