I bought some used TYC Taillights a while ago and the black border is faded on one side, well it looks more like the paint is separating from the outer lens. Does anyone know how to fix this other than taping it off and painting it, which would be extremely hard to do in my opinion.

 

Well, join the club. TYCs are well known for this problem., especially the passenger side. If you haven't sealed them yet do so soon before water leaks in. I recently purchased a new pair of TYCs and just after 2 days the border problem started appearing!

The TYCs just don't have the build quality of the OEM Tails.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=207466

 

Ok, thanks, they've been like that for 3 years now with no leaking, but i guess it won't hurt to go ahead and seal them up, I have some black rtv laying around anyways. But what are people doing about the appearance of the taillights?

 

I've seen posts with people painting the borders the color of the car and 3M Carbon Fiber DiNoc applied. I personally just keep them polished with PlastX and ignore the fading.

 

I've been hunting for days now for a post that has where someone explains or shows how they taped off the taillights to paint the border. I'm contemplating just tinting the whole taillight, I think I'm going to get some overlays to see if I like it first, then Nite Shade them if I do. I've been doing some photoshopping and I think I like the red tint.

 

searching on SL really sux. I bookmark anything that might be of interest now or later. I usually google something then it will link to the website(s)

Red TYC tails look sweet!! But you can't cover the reverse light by law I think. Look here for the CF border

Painted Border
Here
Google Search

 

i don't think there is a law like that, some cars out now hardly have reverse lights as it is.
even the tC2 only has the ONE TINY reverse light.

IMO the tycs only look good if you tint or red them out, leaving the bottom chrome brake and reverse clear as they are.

 

Minimum is 1 reverse light and the DOT specifications vary from state to state. White being the primary color permitted, So if he colored the entire light RED, someone would get a fixit ticket.

 

What do you guys think about this idea, smoking the taillights to match the 3rd brakelight and use the VHT Niteshade Red or a red overlay on the reflector and the turn signal area? It would be really easy to do since they make the overlays that just go over the reflectors and turn signal, I could just apply one smoke the whole thing and then remove the overlay and either put a red overlay down or tape it off and Niteshade it red. Photoshopped picture attached.

 

IMO both photochopped versions look good, but what about resolving the border fading? Maybe a red overlay or nightshades would hide to fading. IDK

 

That's exactly what I was hoping for, was the Niteshade hiding the faded area, and if it doesn't, I'm back to square one.

 

I don't know if the red would hide the fading, did you look at Bluebatmobile's overlays thread, there many options that would look nice with your TC color!! For me I'm going back to 09' OEM tails and calling it a day.