Smoking or Redding BRZ/FR-S Tail Lights

[Road Pirate]

Originally Posted by Jesse36m3

Looks perfect.


Did you swap out the yellow turn signal with a red one? If not, did it turn orange now? lol

Thanks! I had white LED's in there originally, because I was using the tail as turn module from diode dinamics, but that turned the reverse lights pink lol. I took the module out and put the OEM amber bulbs back in there and they're reddish orange when they light up now haha.

[Stealthy]

Originally Posted by Road Pirate

Did this to my car over the past couple weeks. I used VHT red, the only thing I didn't do that I wished I did was wetsand the plastic before I did any spraying. But all in all they came out great!

Looks amazing! From close up do you notice a bit of faded paint from wetsanding?

[zman]

I just painted mine using plasti dip smoke and the gloss dip. From far it looks pretty nice up close it's kinda weird. This is for the people that don't want to commit to real paint. I'm keeping this until I grow some balls and open them up and paint the inside.


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[Road Pirate]

Originally Posted by Stealthy

Looks amazing! From close up do you notice a bit of faded paint from wetsanding?

Barely, but I went excessive with the amount of clear coat layers so I didn't dig into the paint too much. The red is a little lighter after wet sanding but overall they came out pretty decent!

[stevesnj]

Originally Posted by Road Pirate

Did this to my car over the past couple weeks. I used VHT red

Did you use any clear coat on them? How many coats of the red?

I think these are the best so far.

[Road Pirate]

Originally Posted by stevesnj

Did you use any clear coat on them? How many coats of the red?

I think these are the best so far.

Thanks!

I did light coats of red until the tails were thoroughly covered, then a couple medium coats until I got the redness I wanted.

As far as clear, I did about 1-2 light coats, then 3-5 medium coats I think. A little excessive but I wanted them to shine

[stevesnj]

Originally Posted by Road Pirate

Thanks!

I did light coats of red until the tails were thoroughly covered, then a couple medium coats until I got the redness I wanted.

As far as clear, I did about 1-2 light coats, then 3-5 medium coats I think. A little excessive but I wanted them to shine

Awesome, what brand clear?

[Bobblehead]

These are mine:


I think they turned out pretty well. Not nearly perfect, but pretty nice.

I did 3-4 coats of VHT Red, then I think 2-3 coats of VHT Nite Shade.
I let that all dry for 24 hours then I wet sanded them down with 1000 and then 2000 grit sandpaper.
After that, I put a lot of HEAVY coats of Rustoleum 2X gloss clear on them. I let that dry for another 24 or so hours.
After that, I wet sanded down the fisheyes and other imperfections with the 2000 grit. Then I used some heavy cutting polish compound to get rid of the heavy marks, then used Meguire's Scratch Doctor to get the final shine. This was the longest step.
After that, I waxed them up and put them on the car!

Some more glory shots. I'll post more upon request, but they are easy to see at night and in the day. The reflectors in the center of the brake light circle are a good bit dimmer than the Ford Explorer's are at night.

[Road Pirate]

Those look like they came out great! The nite shade looks pretty cool

[Wilson15]

Super noob question, i haven't done stuff like this before. In between my coats when i wetsand when when neccessary with soapy water, how would i prep it for the next coat? Do you guys wipe off the soapy water with a microfiber cloth or let it dry naturally?

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Wilson15

Super noob question, i haven't done stuff like this before. In between my coats when i wetsand when when neccessary with soapy water, how would i prep it for the next coat? Do you guys wipe off the soapy water with a microfiber cloth or let it dry naturally?

I wiped everything off with a microfiber towel. I don't think you'd want any sanding byproduct left.

[tunami]

For the people who painted theirs red, how was the stock bulbs lighting affected? Can you still see the turn signals well during the day? Any need for lighting upgrade?

[Fender0122]

Originally Posted by tunami

For the people who painted theirs red, how was the stock bulbs lighting affected? Can you still see the turn signals well during the day? Any need for lighting upgrade?

Nope, didn't upgrade the bulbs. It lights up pretty bright still, just don't spray too many coats on it or it will be too dark.

[Target70]

This may be a dumb idea, but does anyone think it would work to get similar paint in bottle or small can, and use an eye dropper to drop the red or red/smoke mix through the reverse light hole, and just tilt the light till the paint runs over the inside of the clear lens? You would have to be careful to thin it out enough to make it a light coat, not overfill unless you can remove the excess with the eyedropper, and not tilt it so much that you get any on the reverse reflector, or anywhere else you don't want it to be. The benefits being that you won't need multiple coats, sanding, or clear and you will still be completely glossy on the outside, and the paint shouldn't weather, and there is no need to cut them open (unless you really screw up.