How-to tail lights painted for $6 :D
 

Hello everyone, last week i decided to re paint my tail lights since they were pretty scrached up. They turned out pretty nice, so i thought i would document the process here.

1)... The beginning. Begin by removing the lights by accesing it as if you were to take the spare tire out.

http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/tailbeginning.jpg


2)... once the lights are out, clean them with a damp towel. Make sure it isn't too wet because the water will go into the grooves and the tape wont stick in the corners specially. After you clean them, begin by masking the corner of the lights
http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/maskbeginning.jpg
I decided to mask the lights as opposed to taking the plastic off is because the factory glue used to stick both together was on super hard, and if i would have pull on it hard enough, then the plastic would have broken.

3)... mask the lenses thouroughly
http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/maskedfinish.jpg
I used the 371 brown scotch tape that i bought at 99c store.

4)... once both were well masked i got my good lil' bro to help me sand them out a bit. I did this because even though i'm using a "no-sanding required paint", i wanna even out the little cracks on the plastic. I used a 400 grit first, then 600 grit ($.79 a piece). Didn't go very hard, just enough so it is smooth to the touch.
http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/brothersanding.jpg

5) Before painting them, i decided to wrap the back side of the light with christmas gift wrap because i didn't want to get paint all over the back.


6)Went to OSH and got some Krylon for plastics ($4).
http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/krylon.jpg

I decided to pick it because if was both for plastics and the nice spray pattern.
http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/spraypattern.jpg

7) Apply a light coat of paint every 30 secs. or so. Peal the masking before it dries completely so the paint doesn't chip off the edges.
http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/dscf0088-small.jpg

8) ... Once you've done that to both lights, let them sit around for a few days before installation to let cure as much as possible. And the end.

http://home.pacbell.net/egonza/paintedfinal.jpg

- Carlos

wow, i'ma have to do that on all 3 of my 7's hehehe... gettin pretty crackly

Mine looks almost new *crosses fingers*. One of my biggest pet peives is dirty scratched tail lights. But good documentation.

knightkarr, Thats sweet

86gxl- Nevermind, I just looked at your pics on cardomain.com

someone already have you shit haha

"limitedslip7: YOU %&%@@!!! NOENS!? ON AN RX7!? JUST KILL YOURSELF!!"

I wouldent have put it like though... Im an ass.... but not that much of one.

*edited for flaming*

Nice job! IMO though, if I were to put the effort into repainting the tails, I would have painted them the same color as my car. I just think they look better that way, but, to each their own I guess :)

You need to apply clear coat over that to keep the paint from oxidizing.

paint the rest of your car now :)

"limitedslip7: YOU %$#@!!!! NOENS!? ON AN RX7!? JUST KILL YOURSELF!!"

lol I love how mean he is

*edited for flaming*

I'm should be getting my car today. I got a paintjob for xmas, but since they would only repaint, i decided to paint the tail lights

Looks good. I should also mention clear tint painting your tail lights as an option. One of the series IV guys changed his red sections to crystal/sparkel red and white sections to clear ... which looked good.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2512175

those are pretty sweet looking

yea im suprised cops dont pull him over for blank platets though...















ha

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2512175





wow that looks really good. how do you do that?

Hmm, Not bad but not exactly what I would do. I hang out with pro painters so I'm kinda picky.

I can see orange peel just from those pics.
To do it right you should have bought primer(can stuff still bad but better than all in one stuff) scuff the exterior so the paint grabs and then spray it on.

Sand it smooth and add another layer.

If it looks good and smooth then spray some clear coat over it and wetsand that to a good gloss.

I have a Black GTU and plan on going with blacked out tails. I'm going to do exterior cuz I'm still lazy and don't want to open up the tails. I'll mix some black paint with more parts clear coat and spray them. I hope it comes out well.

To me it's got that kind of "Krylon touch" that Rice boys and Hondas love but for $6 bux it's not a bad fix to aging tails.

i think you just take candy apple red in a spray can and some clear coat and you spray very light coats

i'm not a pro, it was an experiment. Not to shaby for 6 bucks, though.

Not bad but like he said you should spray some clear over it and wetsand it out. Then buff it afterwords to get the shine back. Alot of the tails dont even have to be repainted to get the black back out. I did one side by just sanding and then wetsanding and buffing and it was back to new. Any how good job.

How do you wet sand?

GO white vert GO !!
love that car
may be i'll make mine look like that too :D

go auto zone ask for wet sand paper, buy them and then get them wet, then start sanding
start with like 600, 800, then 1000, then 1200, then .. 2000

after that u good to go

Wetsanding is exactly like regular sanding but you do it with a wetted piece which helps keep it from being really harsh.

Usually you will do this with high grit sand paper after removing major imperfections with harsher sandpaper.

I might start with 800 instead of 600 but your tails seemed to have a bit of wavy-ness to them.