Taillight color change DIY

[Akingkhan]

Ok so I did my 1st set of taillights all red.

Today I started working on a set of taillights I picked up about a month ago. They had tint on them alredy so first I had to sand it off. Here was the process 80, 180, 400, 1000, 2000 all were wet sanded. With the lenses all cleaned I hit them with air compressor to blow off any debris, then a quick wipe down with a rag & some acetone.

The one on the left is after the sanding. The one on the right is with the old tint still on it.

All preped & ready to go.

First coat of transparent red & black applied. I waited 15 minutes between coats.

Second coat of transparent red & black.

To finish it off I gave it a coat of clear. To make it more of a satin finish I shot it faster & a little further away.

This is what the lenses turned out like compared to my old set

What they look like installed on my car.

It's still a tough choice both look good but I think ill rock the tinted ones for awhile.

 

[SSMNVCG3]

looks good man. hopefully ill be down soon and i can see it in person

 

[Russianred]

The tinted tails look great man, I'd rock em too. Next time save yourself some sandpaper and time, and use acetone off the bat to remove any laquer/tint from tail lights. Sanding that stuff off is tedious and can damage lenses, whereas acetone does wonders in just a few swipes of a few clean towels. Gets it ALL off and does not damage plastic .

 

[Akingkhan]

Shit I wish I knew that when before, I didn't even think about trying that.. Good call next time ill try the acetone 1st.

 

[cfox28]

i think it turned out pretty nice, I'm glad you didn't black them out completely. that said I think i might like them even better with just the first coat, idk though. this is probably an obvious answer, but what tinting products did you use?

 

[Brimstone Brown]

Looks fresh son. Nice write up too.

 

[Akingkhan]

i think it turned out pretty nice, I'm glad you didn't black them out completely. that said I think i might like them even better with just the first coat, idk though. this is probably an obvious answer, but what tinting products did you use?

I picked up some transparent red & black spray paint from a local hobby shop. It's made for painting the shells of those little gas powered cars & trucks. Ill go get some pics of the cans from the shop because I threw the ones I used away. They have pretty much every color you can think of.

 

[cfox28]

hmm thats cool, it'd be interesting to see what the other colors might look like over red tails..probably pretty bad, but who knows

I wonder how this paint will hold up against the elements, I think shooting a final clear was probably a good idea

I think VHT and duplicolor make tint sprays for tailights, but i know that vht gets dark quick

 

[Akingkhan]

This was the same stuff I used for my other set of tails that I did in all red & they turned out great & are still holding up.

The cool thing about this stuff is that they have pearls, metallic, & neon. Check out all the colors

 

[vananucho]

Like how much extra hp will I get after the paint?


jk tailights looking awesome!