TYC Colin jdm tails build thread
 

Ive come into possession of seemingly the hardest to obtain tail lights for the frs/brz. the TYC Colins. there are more expensive custom show lights out there, but you can buy those if you have the money. these, you cannot just buy even if you have the money. i feel like it is my responsibility to bring these back to life. when they are finally ready for use, i think it would be interesting to have a documented build thread for them.

The previous owner butchered these trying to take the lens off himself, and seemingly cut the lens off. they are mirror finish, and he opened one up and scratched the mirror finish off, leaving it trashed. I presume it will need 2 oem clear tail light lens's, and the housing to be heated and the residual glue be carefully removed

i have reached out to many companies specializing in lighting, as well as forum members here i know are retrofit guru's, inquiring about their interest in taking on a special project.

TYC is a company that makes OE replacement lights. if you search tyc frs tail lights, the oem tails will come up. but the colins are another story. their original quality is that of eom.

https://i.imgur.com/Z5FqXDS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Swp1P9D.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bsxHeMn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/N80GTKp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vYSgEdz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4aod77Q.jpg

Good find! best of luck bringing these back. If you don't have it already, look for Dremel attachments that have the conical buffing pad; it works super well for plastic corners.

I've restored OEM headlights, but I don't think I'd ever bother with taillights, I don't care how rare they are. Excited to see how much you are able to do for them!

Dang those are rough.


Maybe transfer the guts into an OEM and tint the inside to a mirror finish?

i didnt really mention this, but i am not going to be the one doing the work. this is way over my head. ill be sending it to the pros to do. ive already found out a little about them. apparently they are plactic welded lenses, so you do in fact have to cut the lens off, then plastic weld it back together.

Regardless, it's an impressive task to take on! All the OEM style taillight lenses are plasti welded; it's a really obnoxious affair to separate them. I'm sure they did it due to the amount of water and humidity the rear sees from the roof sipes.

Excited to see them all done!

all oem tails are plastic welded. it has something to do with the lack of serviceable parts inside.

i highly recommend you discuss with the pro's you're talking with to update the led's to lumiled superflux where ever possible. the 5mm led design these use has inherently poor thermal dissipation, which leads to an untimely death of the led's...

I have a pair of red TYCs that I may sell soon. Going back to OEM.

no lie, put them up soon bc you can get a premium for them, it may take a long time to find someone who realizes what they actually are, but those people are out there.

absolutely brutalized. the internals are fine, thankfully, and the passenger is great, but the driver side is ugh. so far there is company that says no prob we can do it.

it seems the options are: open both up and put clear lenses on both, or option 2: leave the passenger side alone then mirror an oe lens and put that on the busted one