Shadowing Muh Tails, Horay!

Jesse_Hunter

Hey guys, I am working the night shift this week, so before work today I removed my tail lights. It wasn't near as frustrating as I imagined it being, just alot of things to remove. I brought my tail lights with me to work.

I masked off the clear part of tail lights so that it will not be tinted. Masking was the most tedious of the steps, I assumed this before hand. It was just hard for me to judge exactly where the line between the clear and red actually was. After a little while, I think I masked it well enough.

The second coat of nightshade is drying as we speak. Schrute's brake lights still shine through really well for two coats, so I think I'll go ahead and do 3 to get them nice and dark. (the can recommends not exceeding 3 coats)

As soon as the nightshade is how I want it, I'll remove the masking tape and apply 2 coats of "clear #1". Stay tuned for pictures.

Since I had the taillights off, I went ahead and replaced egg yolk bulbs with the chrome ones.

BTW: I'm really counting on these funes leaving the room in the next 10 1/2 hours.

Jesse_Hunter

Ok so I ended up doing 4 coats of nightshade, ha ha. I read the clear coat would lighten it up a bit, I may have gotten carried away. Oh well, "just do it" -Nike

Now just going to wait an hour and apply clear coat, funes are strong.....

Jesse_Hunter

Heres the finished result:



I was kind of upset with Clear coat at first, I used "clear #1" found it on amazon when I bought nightshade. I un-masked clear section of light and applied the clear coat. It made the clear part a little hazy/milky. I was confused as to why "CLEAR COAT" would do that. After failed attemps to remove the clear coat off clear section I just surrendered, and applied another coat. It really doesn't look bad, its just not as "shiny/flashy". I'm thinking maybe I got some kind of clear coat that isn't gloss? My lights don't feel really slick, they have a little bit of texture to them.

Anyways, I'm happy with them unless a different type of clear coat will give them a more glassy feel, I'll re-install them tomorrow and post final pics.

fairladyZ34

clear coat takes about 24hrs for the milky-ness to clear then your should prob use a gloss polish compound to shine em up

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From Z to G to BMW and back to a G! Nismo for life

schrute

Looks good man. After letting them dry a couple days rub the clear with a little bit of rubbing compound and it will smooth them out a bit.

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Jesse_Hunter

thanks for the feedback guys!

good stuff to know, I'll see how they look when I wake up later.

ZCarMan

Looking forward to the finished results, they look great so far!

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Jon

Boost_lee

Im in for final pics also. Masking job looks to be good from the pics.

How did the lights look with 1 coat? I want a very slight tint to my tails, but I'm afraid 1 coat will look too uneven...

NewYorkJon34

Dang, those lights are dark as fukk, I hope people will still be able to see you braking and not hit your car. Plus I hope a cop doesn't pull you over. I plan on doing the same thing but with tint, I'll have pics up this tuesday.

flashburn

Yeah, I'd be pretty afraid about driving at night along with braking in general. They do look cool though. I only had a slight tint done to mine, and I'm happy with it, think it goes well with PG.

Jesse_Hunter

Ok so I ended up using some very fine steel wool and very lightly brushing across the lights. It really helped smooth them out. I then applyed two coats of a gloss clear coat. The appearance is alot more shiny now, and I'm happy with the result. here are two pictures of them on the car. Keep in mine on the first picture the clear section isn't deformed, it's just an illusion from the sunlight on picture. Also My car is really dirty, I have no shade/carport/garage at my parents.





They are pretty dark, I did 4 coats of nightshade. I wanted them to really blend with my body color and not just be a tinted red color. Keep in mind they aren't quite as black as they appear in pictures, but they are pretty black especially from a distance. I checked the running lights when i reinstalled them and I could see them quite well even in broad daylight. I didn't have a chance to check brightness of brake lights because I was alone at time.

Sorry I am doing this day by day with minimal free time before work. I will post pictures soon of the running light and brake light brightness (4 coats) so you guys thinking about doing it will have a good idea of how dark you want to go.

To the question about 1 coat: It is noticably tinted, but still quite red. you would probably lean towards adding another coat once you saw it, but it really depends on how you want it to look. Check out Member "schrute"'s journal he has a picture of what one coat applyed looks like.

Boost_lee

Thanks for the info!

I think the 4coat blends well with a black car Lookin good

Jesse_Hunter

I'm debating about the 3rd brake light on top.

I could go have the dealer remove it, drive home, paint it, go back to dealer or........

I could just mask a large area around it and paint it while it's still on my car. I know that is kind of half-***, but Its not a large area to cover. Also, it would be way easier on me, and at the same time I think it would probably turn out just as good. What do you guys think?

Boost_lee

I vote yes on the 3rd brake light, especially on a black car. It will flow better and will be pretty much hidden

As far as the method goes, I'll let you decide

Jesse_Hunter

Oh yeah, I'm def going to paint it. I'll inspect it when I get home and see what I think about painting it while on car. I may do it tomorrow.