Cutting open tail lights with a Solder iron!
 

Here's how to cut open and reseal your tail lights using a solder iron. This is my first mod ever let alone my first diy... so here it goes! sw20kosh recently posted a tutorial on how to do this with a dremel which can be found here

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12312

However, by using a sold iron with a hot tip, you do not have to cut the plastic covering which can be seen when opening the trunk.

This mod will take anywhere from 4-10 hours and could possibly take longer if you have to repair a bunch of errors. This is NOT an easy mod! i would rate this a 7 out of 10 with 10 being the most difficult.

Materials

1. paint - I used duplicolor shadow paint to get a black reflective chrome look
2. 3m window weld ribbon sealer
3. Solder iron with curved tip found at radio shack in the hobby solder iron kit.
4. 8mm socket/ wrench
5. Philips screwdriver
6. plastic cling wrap
7. painters tape
8. rubbing alcohol/ mineral spirits
9. Electrical tape

optional: spray handle for more control

Edit: I have received many messages in regards to which tip I used exactly and where it can be found. The radioshack that i went to had a hobby section fairly close to the solder iron section. This is the tip that i used to cut open my tail lights.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...lickid=prod_cs

if you are having trouble locating it, you could always purchase this hobby kit instead. Although it costs a little more, it comes with a variety of tips that could be useful for this project.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...uctId=4314833#

I know for a fact that the knife tip is not useful however. The tip does not get hot enough to cut through the plastic.


http://i.imgur.com/Wu62j.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qJTnI.jpg

Procedure

• Remove tail lights following darrendriven’s DIY found here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7826

• Place cling film ceran wrap on lens to prevent scratching of the lens

http://i.imgur.com/plpQp.jpg

• Remove bulb wiring harness to prevent damage

http://i.imgur.com/vMmEL.jpg

• remove 5 screws which hold bezels to the back of the housing

http://i.imgur.com/1Xyea.jpg

• Use hot knife to cut back side of housing close to the crease line on the back.
  • Do not cut too deep or else you will hit chrome bezel
  • Do not cut where black plastic and clear lens are connected
  • Clean up shavings/ melted plastic with razor blade
  • Be sure to keep your cut as one thin line. (I messed up and had to use a ton of window weld to seal later on:mad0260:)

http://i.imgur.com/O9ZX7.jpg

• Remove chrome reflector bezel and round led unit.

http://i.imgur.com/74Cui.jpg

• Degrease with alcohol and mask areas that you do not want painted.
  • Be careful not to scuff the chrome because it will be noticeable after paint application
  • Use a soft microfiber and rub very lightly because the chrome scratches extremely easily
  • The side reflector either glued on or im just extremely weak. I could not get it to budge so I just covered it with tape.

http://i.imgur.com/j5AJB.jpg

• Apply 3 coats of duplicolor black base or until desired effect. Safety first! Use a mask and spray in vented area.
  • The more coats you apply, the darker the effect BE CAREFUL to not overspray and end up with dark/black spots
  • Spray one very thin layer of base coat first and let dry, then go back and apply a thicker layer two more times.
  • allow at least 15 minutes between coats

http://i.imgur.com/v9oXN.jpg

• once dry apply clear coat for gloss and protection
  • one thin layer like before
  • Follow that up with 2 thicker coats.
• Remove the masking tape and reassemble the tail unit.
• Take the 3m window weld ribbon sealer and run it across the entire area you cut. Try to use as little as possible to seal it up and prevent condensation.
  • once it is laid along the cut, press down firmly onto it and squish it in.
  • I used 3m window weld because if you ever encounter issues with your tail lights, you can just heat it up to reopen your tail lights.
  • I used a Sh*t ton of window weld in the picture, dont use this much. I made a big mistake when cutting so i had to cover up the huge hole:bonk:
    • Tip: if you made a big hole i found it easier to lay some electrical tape down across the gap and lay the window weld on top of that. that way, if its visible though the lens, you will only see a flat layer of black instead of a big glob of sealant.:thumbup:

http://i.imgur.com/uxhGY.jpg

• Take a piece of electrical tape and place it directly on top of the window weld you just laid down
  • window weld is extremely sticky. By doing this, you will prevent it from getting everywhere when you replace your tail lights onto the car.
• Replace your tail lights on your car and enjoy. Go treat yourself to a massage. My back was killing me after this.

This is what mines looked like when i finished
http://i.imgur.com/qZfBh.jpg



Blinker close up
http://i.imgur.com/6eEpo.jpg

Before
http://i.imgur.com/DPEVj.jpg

after

http://i.imgur.com/7sApF.jpg

Painted vs regular on car
http://i.imgur.com/iJTPb.jpg
Trunk open to show plastic covering
http://i.imgur.com/FEqYz.jpg
My new avatar
http://i.imgur.com/Af7e9.jpg

Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck guys and happy modding!:happy0180:

As of this posting, all the pictures are dead FYI.

Fixed.. I hope lol

Clean work, I love the fact you posted a trunk open picture to show exactly how careful you were.
:thumbsup:

http://i.imgur.com/FEqYz.jpg

very nice!

I may reconsider using a dremel now. I do like being able to save the beauty covers for when the trunk is open. How easily did the soldering iron cut through the plastic? Did it take much force to move the tip across the cutting line? Did you have to wait for the tip to reheat before moving it? Were the plastic "boogers" manageable as you were cutting or did you have to stop and clean the tip off a bunch of times?

I guess I could try it under the beauty cover and if it's not working well I can switch to a dremel for the rest of the cuts around the back of the housing. If it's really as I'm imagining like a hot knife through butter then I think I'd have MUCH more control versus a dremel at making clean, precise cuts.

Please follow up after your car gets in the rain or you wash it and see if there are any condensation issues. I plan on using a liberal amount of this stuff to seal mine back up: http://amzn.com/B000ALDYKW

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

the hot knife moves slowly but very easily through the plastic. the first head light took me about an hour but i was very conservative and scared. The second headlight took me 15 minutes. the tip is very small so it stayed hot long enough to continue cutting. your arm will probably get tired before the tip cools down. the picture i took of the solder iron above was taken after cutting both headlights. you shouldnt have a problem with melted residues on the solder tip. plastic boogers will come up, but they are very small and easy to clean up with sand paper and a razor blade. i took my car to the car wash directly after and sprayed the tail lights with the pressure hose for 5 minutes. i didnt see a drop of water inside the housing or condensation. i did use more window weld than was required however. i dont have personal experience with the black silicone, but the reason why i did use the window weld was so that if there did happpen to be condensation, you could just heat it up and remove it.hope this helps and good luck

jon

Added to the DIY Directory:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7365

Nice work. Now you might wanna consider replacing those orange blinker bulbs with silver damped ones, to get rid of the ugly orange glow. For example Philips Silvervision.

looks good!

Looks like a cleaner and more precise way of doing it vs. the Dremel. I'm still on the fence about taking this on though.

i dont know why but i like the orange bulb lol


although it is a very difficult mod to do, i believe that anyone can do it as long as your not a nazi! :bellyroll: (just kidding nazi's could probably do it too lol) If yall need help, just ask or shoot me a pm. i'll try and help ay way i can.

VERY NICE!!!! I like how you didn't paint the lens, just the chrome trim. This makes it look a lot more OEM. There was another member who blacked his out but he painted the lens and it looked too dark.

I too would prefer to use a soldering iron with a thin tip over a dremel since it's doesn't leave little plastic shredding everywhere.

Good job, it looks sick! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks for posting. Looks great!

Great work, I bet that would look dope with a red vinyl over it.

You inspired me to get mine done today. Thanks for the heads-up on the hooked soldering iron. Worked like a charm.

For those wanting to do this... have patience. It takes forever but it's worth it!

Attachment 11157

This looks pretty sick, @ATL BRZ, lemme know when you do this, I'll stop by to check it out.

Anyone else see Christopher Walken's character from Joe Dirt saying this thread title?

waiting to see these on a white car....

@JollyJON - Do you have pics from further back with the taillights on the car? I'd love to see how it looks on Asphalt / DGM.

LOL fail! i completely forgot to post a picture with both tails done.. oops. here ya go

edit: man this picture sucks. the right tail still looks chrome... probably cause i painted it black chrome. ill take a better picture tomorrow

“Oh, you’re talking to me all wrong! It’s the wrong tone. You do it again, I’ll cut open up you taillights with a soldering iron.”


To the OP -Nice-

I think that you did a great job. I have thought about doing them to my car when I get it, but the only difference is that I want to see what they would look like body color... but I want to photo shop it first to get an idea of if it will look like shit or not

They look great! I forsee another winter project in my future.

Looks good! I wanna see it on a lighter color car though.

I am going to do this mod today. I have a white fr-s will post pics post mod.

Awesome I've been dying to see this mod on a white fr-s. Can't wait to see the pics!

Attachment 11404
Attachment 11405
Attachment 11406

Here's a few more of both of mine. Thanks again to OP for taking the plunge!

Finished tonight... Go check my new post in lighting section !

Sunday I woke up with lots of ambition and ample time on my hands so I went ahead and did the taillight blackout. I left the turn reflectors chrome because word is, in TX a new rule for state inspections requires all exterior safety lights to output the same brightness as stock.

This is a TOUGH mod. Kudos to anybody who can do this with few imperfections. On mine the cut line can be seen all the way around, and the silicone I used got everywhere during a momentary lapse in attention during reassembly so I had to spend literally hours cleaning up the stray silicone. Be careful, and plan exactly how you will do each step. Luckily I feel like the cutting went well because I planned every angle and every inch of the cut.

Anyway, without further ado...here are my results (luckily the imperfections can not be seen in the pics :-P)

Daaaaang, sorry the pics are so big... I guess you can see the imperfections haha

Was waiting to see how this looked with my color, I will be doing both the headlights/tail lights tmro with pictures.

I will be doing the headlights soon when I have money for the HID projectors. Can't wait to see how they look. After that will be black roof and possibly deck lid.

I'm nervous about pulling my whole front bumper off, and will be throughly pissed at myself if I break something. Its going to look epic though!

I'm also considering the black roof to compliment my idea of flat black lip kit.

Can't wait to see your headlamp pics. If you ever do the roof/lip start a thread with pics. If I beat you to it ill do the same.

Update: a month after doing this diy, i still have no condensation after plenty of rain:thumbsup:

Did you use window weld to seal your tails? if so i would open them back up and sand down the black housing so its not so rough. If you have the time and materials you can do what i did. i promise you it will make the tail lights look way better.

1. sand down the rough edges of the black housing connected to the lense
2. use epoxy to make a smooth level surface.
3. paint the epoxy a gloss black. (I used an airbrush)
4.reseal the tails by placing a very thin amount of window weld on the cut, cover that with electrical tape, then place a larger amount of widow weld over the tape.
5. cover up any sticky residue with electrical tape.

hope this helps

Edit: just saw that you used silicone =/ im not sure if you can reopen your tails but if so, you should probably reseal with 3m window weld. it feels like the sticky tack that is used to put up posters and what not. It doesn't run and is very malleable.

How did you achieve that smoked look to the indicator reflectors? did you just apply a light coat of paint to it?

Yeah. I simply shot the entire reflective bit with the smoked paint. I hated how much chrome was in those babies and just wanted to get rid of it. :)