How to paint ur tail lights.

[eXi7w0unD]

1, Take out your tail lights from your car.

2, Place 1 in the oven at 100 degrees for 10-15mins.
this will ensure the silastic (sp) is pliable so you can remove the plastic cover

3, Repeat step 2 with other tail light. (be gentle and take your time. if it becomes hard just put it back into oven to heat it up again.

4, Let them cool


5, grab yourself some 3m blue tape. start taping up the reflectors and the outside of the tail light.






6, Buy some plastic adhesion primer or similar. spray 2 or 3 coats over the chrome. do not chip away or sand the chrome, this will alter the outcome and will look really bad.


7, After it has dried for about 30mins, have ready your colour coded paint from autobarn. my car is galaxy blue so i had the code "GY" mixed up and placed into an aerosol can.

7.1, Spray 4-5 coats (light coat on your first coat)


8, Topcoat or clear coat the tail light. this is optional i have chosen not to mainly because if u cant get a 2pac clear onto it, theirs not point. imho.

9, Carefully pop the reflectors out and untape the lot. best to give the paint 1 hour after last coat to be safe. then pop the reflectors back in.



10, Now thats its all painted, cured, place in the oven to heat the silastic and reapply the plastic cover. (im yet do do so, dad is cooking a roast )



costs:
1x primer $30
1x colour coded paint $30
1x 3m blue medium adhesion blue tape $10
1x oven at 100 degrees for 10-15 mins.
1x pair of chrome taillights of ebay $164 including postage.

i made a day of this little project, i took my time, plastic is brittle and will crack. i will edit this thread when i have placed the covers back on.

[STOK4L]

WOW, awesome write up, looks tough as, well done mate!

[eXi7w0unD]

no edit button :(

be sure to take out the white plugs behind the lights.

[v8falconsrule]

that looks hot! i've never really liked those particular lights, but with them painted they come up good.

[matt9889]

anyone does this with the meteorite colour? post some pics of different colours if anyones got any

[aye you]

been thinking about doing this with mine, but also painting that black stripe around the frame

[Mark One]

Body coded looks so much better than chrome.

[Riksta]

I wouldn't mind these lights for my car but could never decide whether the chrome or the black would look better with the red - I think I've just found a solution - paint them red to match!

Awesome work.

[walker]

hey just wondering what you are doing with the fairmont tail-lights that you took out?, PM me if they are 4 sale

[eXi7w0unD]

haha hmm their been siting in my shed for 2 years now. just incase id had a project liek this due.. il pm sumtime then

[eXi7w0unD]

i got the plastics on, perhaps i shoild of taken the silastic out and reglued it with new stuff, would of been a hell of a lot easyer.


pics on my car will come tomorow, cheers

[AU2PWR]

Looks Nice Dude , Might have to try it with the Burgundy ?

[GlennBA]

Looks good man ;)

[Mechan1k]

Nice work well done ... makes the average Altezza style light ... look pretty good actually.

[eXi7w0unD]

so im just posting some updated pics.




u really have to see the car in real life to see what it realy looks like

and here are soem extras i have done. note that i have also painted the weather vent thingys too.

[schuldiner]

tail lights look awesome mate personally i think you went a bit overboard painting all under the bonnet but thats just me oh well at least it looks better than lukes green engine bay:

[eXi7w0unD]

yeah i know what ur saying but soon after xmas ill be airbrushing them, not sure what yet flames, skulls, etc. maybe a butterfly?

[Mark One]

Why not do the headlights now?

[TwistedEL]

Are the Altezzas ADR compliant? It looks really good I'm just wondering about the legalities of it

[Mark One]

They are ADR compliant

[eXi7w0unD]

i will be doing the headlights. when i get a few days off.

[matt9889]

definatly take the black seal out of the tail lights and replace with silicon if u travel on dirt roads or use a pressure washer to clean your car. not sure about how u'd go getting the covers back off again thats all

[matt9889]

also has anyone come across a how to on installing led's in the tail lights, saw a ve commodore with them and they look tidy

[T-Pak Addict]

well done, might have to do that to mine when I respray the old girl

[Riksta]

Originally Posted by Mark One

They are ADR compliant

I believe only ones with reflectors are ADR compliant, plus they have to be visible from 200m or whatever it is.

That's beside the point though, I still reckon they look good custom painted like that Plus I don't mind the under-bonnet colour matching.