My method of tail light redout is pretty much the same as the one in the tech forum, but with 2 crucial changes.

First, the tail light housing is painted black on the inside. This gives it a nice dark red hue, especially in the shade.

Second, the candy red paint is applied to the inside of the tail lens. This ensures two things: a perfectly smooth finish and greatly improved weather resistance.

Without further ado, here are some pictures. Please excuse the haggard pinstriping job, I need to redo it.



Check the finish (note the reflection of my hand):



In the shade:



In the sun:



Edit for directions:

Materials Needed:

2 Containers of Testor's Black Model Paint (brush on)
2 Cans of Testor's Candy Red Spray Paint
An Oven
2 Stock Tails
2 Flathead Screwdrivers for opening your tails
Leather Gloves for handling your hot tails
Masking Tape
10mm Socket Wrench and Extension
Glue

First you're going to want to take your tails off. There are 2 10mm bolts behind the removable panels in the trunk. The top one is hard to get off.

Once the tails are off you're going to want to take all the bulbs out, pull up the white plastic strip (gently; this thing can tear), and pull the foam off. You should have your tail light housing by itself.

Now you're going to want to heat up your tail light to soften the plastic up so it doesn't crack when you pry the lens off. Throw it in the oven lens up for 5 minutes at 250 degrees. Be careful not to overheat it; the lens can get all wavy and ruined.

Now that your plastic's nice and hot, you need to pull the lens off. Gently pull up the outer edge of the lens until it pops up. It shouldn't take too much pressure. After that, use your screwdrivers and work the tabs on the bottom loose. Once those are good, work from the bottom of the inside, going one tab at a time. The top one is tricky, but doable.

Now that your tail light is apart, remove the reflector and the red cap over the brake light. Be careful, you'll be gluing the reflector back in. Paint the area behind the reflector, the turn signal, and the brake light black. You can also do the outer edge. Remember to glue your reflector back in so your lights stay legal.

While that's drying, mask off whatever you don't want red on the inside of the tail lens. After you've got that covered, paint the lens with light even coats to ensure uniform coverage. When that's dry, just snap the tail light back together.

Because the light is sealed with a foam strip, you won't need to worry about resealing the tail light with glue or anything like that. Reinstall the tail on your car and roll in style.

 

hey max is that your car or your brothers?? did you get rid of that black rim housing thingamagig?? Looks very nice i must admit, i'd have you do it but mine are already red

 

How did you get to the inside of the lights? I mean how did you take off the cover?

 

Directions added.

 

That's my car, you can see my brother's in the reflection off my car.

 

Those look great man... you keep doing the same mods I want to do first

 

Nice! I'll do it the Max2k way when I red-out my tails!!

 

I have some stock ones going cheap on ebay if anyone wants to experiment, or cooks them too long.:D
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMESE%3AIT

 

You know what? I've got an extra set.. I'll try this tonight. This is exactly the look I want to try.

FrankenScion, if I screw up, I need your tails! ;-)

 

They go off in a 27 hours, you better hurry...lol

 

This is the way that I have been wanting to do my tails. I just didn't want to ruin my only set. I'll have to see if I can get an extra set of tails.

 

ok, I did one.. but I didn't black out the reflecting surfaces. I just painted the inside of my lens. Turned out pretty good too. Looks factory shinny and what not. 2 things: 1) DO heat up the light ot your lens WILL break 2) make sure the tape is down all the way because there's a lot of ridges etc on the backside of the lens.. so you'll get some bleed through if you don't get all the nooks and crannies..

 

I'll do the other one tomorrow (it's hard to get anything done with a job and a three year old). I'm serious... when you paint the inside it looks factory. I'll take some pics too.

Thanks for givin me the testicular fortitude, Max2K!

 

I don't know about other people, but I think this is also a lot less stressful than the exterior paint/clearcoat method. It's easier to just take the lens off than it is to spend 2 hours obsessively clearcoating and wetsanding and waxing.

 

I've been testing the Testors paint on some clear plastic to practice and noticed that it dries cloudier than I would like. It doesn't seem to dry completely transparent.

I'm thinking of trying a metal tint instead. In my experience, those dry completely transparent, making metal look anodized.

I will be trying VHT's Red metal tint. I will post results later when I buy some stock tails and try Max2k's technique. I wanna keep my stockers!

 

Nice Job

 

I finally got around to tinting my tails red. Thanks to Max2K for giving me the guts.

Here's before and after tail lights and how I masked them:


Here's before and after on the car:


kinda a close up, notice the color of the reflector and the light match.

 

Not really dude. Reflector is lighter than the actual paint

 

that is really hot

 

Oh, I'm talking about the side marker/reflector and the painted part of the tail.