Hey All,

I was reading posts on people having their tails smoked/candy redded out, so here's how ive been doing it:

-Remove your taillights from the car: In the xb, there's that little trapezoid grill panel towards the rear of the car with two tabs, remove it and you'll be able to partially see the taillamp housing. Take out the Wiring Harness; there's one in the middle of the housing. above and below it, there are 10mm nuts attached to the studs on the lamp housing. using a small adjustable/box wrench, is the easiest to get them off. then lift the light out.

-Clean them: a mild, non-detergent soap is the best clean with soft sponge or cleaning brush (careful not to get water in the housing, as it will fog up with heat)

-Masking: I used that premium grade blue 3m masking tape made for painting (low adhesion masking tape) which is good in all temperatures, and masked off the reverse section, and (optional) the blinker (in my opinon, i like amber blinkers; they get more attention/saftey, when turning). Also, mask off the rest of the housing so it stays grey (or so you paint it black later)

-- Painting:
-A dustless environment is best, but if you cant get something like that (btw paint outdoors, it'll stink up your house) strategically place some table fans to cycle air away from your workspace.
-shake the can of paint well, i personally like to hold the work in my hand, so i can turn it with the spray of the can, to get an even spray distance.
-when painting the lamphousing, make sure the spray nozzle is putting out an even coat of paint (test it on paper/newspaper) spray it from 6-8inches away, and dont try to make it red in one coat. go over the lamp in even, smooth strokes, like painting w/a paint brush.
-tip: if you feel like you messed up a stroke, ie too thin, not overlapping enough/too much; just KEEP GOING. if you comeback to it immidiately, you'll get paint runs. the TRICK is to make the coat light enough to dry quickly, it's BETTER to spray a few extra thin coats and take the time for it to evenly coat vs. a few heavy coats and ugly runs; let it tack up.
- Now that you've gotten a coat of paint (despite the fact that you still see white behind it) let it dry for about 3-4 minutes.
- coat it agian, wait 4-5 minutes on the second/third coat
- coat it agian, remember to use even coats, so the paint "flows" evenly over the surface, but not enough to 'run'
- continue to wait appx 5 or so minutes between coats (it's california temp here, so if it's colder where you are, wait longer, and i also suggest using flood lamps to keep the area warm, not heat lamps, they're usually too hot)
--HOW MANY COATS? i did about 6 or 8 coats, the result was about 1 mm thick paint. with candy red, that's pretty thick.

Let it dry for several hours, or overnight if you can (i left it overnight)

-Removing the Masking tape: peel the tape back at a sharp angle (from 15-30 degrees) so that it peels without the edge between painted/non-painted surface fraying and giving you a bad edge. also, if you pull back and away from the painted section, you may have better luck.

You're Done! Let it dry before exposing it to the elements (usu. 12~24 hrs if you can) but if your climate is dry, and the edge of the paint doesnt accept your fingerprint when you touch it, you should be okay to drive with it.

~if you plan to clearcoat over it, i went to walmart today and got 1500 grit sandpaper from the automotive asile, and a Polyurethane clear coat from the home spray paint asile (about 8 bucks total) .
~sand it very lightly (wet sand if you can) and "dull" the housing evenly. then come over it with 3-6 coats of clear, depending on how glossy you want it to be, and the drying time you have..

Post Pics! We all want to see (i promise i will when i'm done )

Good Luck and Happy Scionizing,

~hitesh

ps Questions?Comments? Dont hesitate to pm/email/post

and as always, with suggestional how to's, this is at your own risk, all skill levels aside, if you have the confidence to do it; you can.

 

Here's pix of my Box w/the tails; ill be doing some chrome garnish soon, and will post more

http://groups.msn.com/theshizznizz/myxb.msnw

~tesh

 

To me it looks almost orangish . Tesh you got exhaust now? man that was quick , lol .

 

Well put.
Came out nice. Mine next right?

 

not to hijack the thread, but what will happen if you paint the blinker part too, but leave the amber bulb? how bad will that look?

 

It doesnt look that bad , just get red bulbs. 1.99 or .99 I forget but buy em through www.autolumination.com

 

great how to! ready for tech section

 

I wouldn't run red bulbs with redout tails because they'll be really really dim. It's better to run a clear bulb (note that the stock tails use a clear bulb under a red plastic cover in the brake light).

 

Definately, run a clear bulb if you plan to paint over the blinker; and its actually pretty red, the camera flash thins the layer out.

and Sure 2tonedxB, ill help you out anytime

~hitesh

 

Actually theyre not very dim at all. I'm running red bulbs with smoked tails and light output is still very good .

 

Here's a pic of my cany red tails :

 

squareone- can you get more pics, of a rear 3/4 view and some with the 4-way flashers? PM or post 'em, that'd be great.

 

Here's more pics Sublimize23: Lights on, and off.


Hazards...

 

I painted mine too. I used Crylon's glass paint that comes in a spray can. I preffer to use one heavy coat, because that paint is very tricky to use. If you don't spary it perfectly even, the finish will be rough. So one heavy coat and leave it alone for a full day in a dust free environment. You definitely have to clear coat it if you use crylon. The paint will degrade over time, it happened to me before. I used two part automotive clear coat and one coat did it for me. Looks like the day i did it almost five months ago. First mod I did to my box.

 

still painting mine. its in the garage right now, but its looking dope! cant wait to clear coat it tomorrow!

 

thanks you guys. I was mainly looking to see if the signals showed clearly through the paint, and they do. this is my project for later this week.

 

they are done! i love em! (lets all just pretend my car isnt as dirty as it looks)

i even did the side markers. my ghetto-nish-invisible side markers. heh

 

Looks good peabe, what type of paint did you use? Looks like nightshades, being so dark.

 

i just used night shade and threw some testors gloss over it. i think im gonna night shade the rear side marker. but im not sure yet.

 

The darkness depends on how many coats you spray.