Hi All.

My car is going through some MAJOR re-painting and becoming very red and white...

A glaring bit of chrome on an otherwise smooth red boot is the chrome surround to the tail lights. Anybody opened these up before? I know the fronts have been attempted.

I dont just want to buy aftermarket clears, becasue the stock red tails look great with my paint. Would really appreciate some input before I screw something up!

Cheers!

Neil

 

I know if you smoke them the crome is really hard to see. but that might defeat your red and white color scheme.

 

I know at least one person has done it here. They tinted the inside of the light instead of the outside. I think their name is rallymini. And I think they used a dremel to cut it open, but I am not 100% sre on that.

 

EEk haha dremmel is scary and I'm a pretty creative guy! Thanks for the tint idea, we took a look at it buyt the dark really looks weird with all the red. The actual red lights look perfect.

 

I'm looking to do the exact same mod. Let me know if you come up with something.

 

Blah maybe I'll just have a go and accept that I might wreck them!

 

I will be painting ALL the chrome on my car as soon as I get back. As for the head/tail lights...you either have to bake em or dremmel them.

 

I spoke with someone at the dragon who dremeled theirs open. He gave me the how to. It really does not sound too bad.

 

http://www.motoringunderground.com/f...?t=3430&page=3

 

I was the first to crack it open that i know of...and its really not that bad. You dont even need the dremel if it really scares you...it just makes the job 100 times easier. And you dont even cut it all the way around with the dremel....just a teeny tiny bit to get a screw driver in there.

Check out the how-to right above this post....its exactly what you need

 

pics

Tinted lense with tamiya tint spray


Taillight open....you can then remove the chrome and lense separately and paint either one

 

So would baking them a bit make the prying-off-the-lens part easier?

 

It also might get you in trouble with Johnny Law.

 

Presumably...its not really necessary though. The dremel method takes no time at all. I bet you could even just leave it out on a really sunny day or take a heat-gun/hair dryer to it and not risk warping or anything.

 

Is it easy to seal them up again NEATLY? Thanks so much for the help. I have not read the instructions so I probably should, I just thought I'd ask!

EDIT: Great write up, thank you very much!!!

 

I havent re-sealed them....that pic was just a test fit. The other guy who did the write-up did reseal them though...so check it out

 

I've done this as well,

 

What did you do with the chrome? Paint it red? Can't really tell in that pic. Looks good and clean

 

Rubbed it off with metholated spirit and some cotton wool

 

And then what? Just left the plastic? What color is it?

 

The facelift lights are different to the pre facelift lights, as the chrome part of the facelift light is the same piece as the coloured lens, so its translusent red with the chrome removed, I did think about painting it body colour but it proved too difficult to mask it off..

 

pobsey,

what "grade/weight" steel wool did you use?

i assume that you had to "crack" the casing of the tail-light assembly in order to get to the chrome, and then re-assemble the halves.

 

The chrome is that fragile it comes off with just cotton wool and meths, I just used some cotton wool pads women use to remove make up
Your correct about popping open the light and resealing it, I used some black bodyshop glue - normally used to stick spoilers on, with it being black it also acts as a filler for the dremel cutting disc groove

 

WOAh, cool! So my 05 is going to have red translucent plastic under there?

If so, I'm going to Home Depot and buying a Dremmel tonight!

Are the actual lights a piece of cake to get out? The write up doesnt talk to much about it.

Thanks for getting the creative juices flowing guys!

N

 

Yep you will have translucent red under the chrome,

To get the lights out is just one nut, think its a 8 or 10mm, you'll need a ratchet to undo it but its easy,