Modernizing some S4 Tails
 

Well I have done the tinting thing before, and the covering the orange with red... Nothing that ended up looking right... After modifying my first set of s5 tails via the ericseven method I started thinking of how to do the s4's considering the s4 members always complain or trade up to s5's. Well eventually the s5's are going to run out.. then what?

Well ordered some parts to modify the s4's to take the place. It is a little involved so someone may have to start charging to modify them if they feel froggy.

As far as I can tell there are two options, a standard bulb setup or an LED setup.
I am sure that this will not be "street legal" so lets not get into that.

I bought two sheets of 1/8th inch thick RED Lexan from an internet vendor the sheets were 24x12 and cost $6.87 each plus $5.00 each shipping. So $23.00 and they will arrive at my door.

While I wait for the lexan I will bake the lenses and seperate the front from the rear of the housing

I will then proceed to use my dremel to cut out the black "crosshair" section along with the colored lenses.

When the lexan arrives I will lay it over the lense and lightly heat it to shape the curve of the original lense. It will then be placed in the space where I have removed the original colored lenses and adhered to the housing.

I am probably going to use LED's on my example but have not decided yet.

SHould be cool, I will post up pics/how to on this thread, unless it gets cluttered with Flaming or crap..

look forward to this. this will be interesting.

Hopefully we can keep the negative opinions to ourselves on this thread guys.

Ill try to give some insight on wiring if you get stuck. Esp for correcting the fast blinker if you do decide to go LED.
Try searching from trucker accessory sites and get dimensions on rectangular shaped lights. Could work. Good luck!

Cool beans, dude!

Keep at it and post pictures along the way.

Should have kept my S4 tails...

I don't know, if it's gonna be like I think it's gonna be then I'm not sure it'll worth the trouble. Nice original project though.

doo red on top and clear on bottom.

hope this comes out nice i wanna do something to mine

Hey, this might 'inspire' me to do something to my old S4 tails. Right now, they're sitting in the shed behind the house in a box... Subscribed.

I have seen them like that before, but it requires that you keep the cross section which I want to remove.

im interested to see how you in home method of shapeing lexan will work.

I have done it several times more on a mold building level, but it is pretty easy to do if you understand how much heat is too much..lol.

Ok I set the oven to 250 degrees and let it preheat. I then put the lense on the a pan and closed the oven door. I let it sit for 9 minutes, it pulled easily apart with the assistance of a flat head scredriver.

Step 1 is complete. It appears that the colored lenses will for sure have to be cut out and then trim/grind the housing in order to make the lexan sit flush.. Unless anyone can think of a way to unbond epoxy..

Good work, i'm interested to see where you're going with this. I have a spare set of S4 tails I can dick with if your method turns out good :)

I think it could look extremely good if done right, and very original to say the least. I've seen some of the MK3 Supra guys do the same kind of thing, most of them were kind of hit or miss but the ones that took their time and did quality work were very pleased with their results and were even asked to make some kits so if you play your cards right you could make some cash hehe.

Not really into doing it for profit, I am more into trying it out, then showing how so others can benifit from my mistakes.

i've been thinking about mod'ing the s4s with an LED strip. like the one on the new cadillacs.

I am interested to see how this turns out.

Basically i am building these lights as a finished product... (thanks InitialD)

Where will your reverse lights go?

I haven't quite figured that out.. By law you don't have to have "white" reverse lights so I may just use super bright LEDs and hope that you can still see.. Bottom line is my old accord had "pink" reverse lights from the factory..

Ooooooh, interesting, never realized that.

Those would look slick bro!

If you look close at that pic of the model car, theres what looks like little white squares maybe you could do something like that and put the reverse lights there

Sounds interesting. I like the fact that s4 tails can be found for pretty cheap.

looking forward to the progress you make on this. good luck


-Brocke

Semen.:)

Yeah i have my s4's tinted and they look awesome. but i would like to upgrade them somehow someway after I re-paint the surrounding parts. i was thinking about those auto zone led's but from what I hear they suck, not even worth it.