Smoking or Redding BRZ/FR-S Tail Lights

[hanabie]

Originally Posted by smbstyle

@DarrenDriven and anyone else, help!

So I went to re-do my lights, as there was a defect in them (spot that I sanded down too much and took the clear/red paint off).

Lacquer thinner is NOT working to take the clear/paint combo off; it is on there good. Now it looks even worse after trying to remove the paint/clear off with the lacquer thinner.

Any advice? Can I just sand them down or something?

Hard to remove? Most likely ur clear coat cured. Yeah it was a pain in the ass. You could sand it down or use alot of acetone to clean them. Yes they will come off. The edge will be challenging to remove. You might need to sand the edges. The cloudy look will be gone as soon as u apply first red coat. It is just gone.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

[Yruyur]

To wet sand

Use tide powder in water. It is very slick. Pre soak all your sand paper.

I used the following grits then polish. Literally looks like glass now.

800
1000
1200
1500
1800

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1066004



Sent from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

[Yruyur]

Here is how bad mine were before the wet sand.



Sent from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

[smbstyle]

Originally Posted by hanabie

Hard to remove? Most likely ur clear coat cured. Yeah it was a pain in the ass. You could sand it down or use alot of acetone to clean them. Yes they will come off. The edge will be challenging to remove. You might need to sand the edges. The cloudy look will be gone as soon as u apply first red coat. It is just gone.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

Yep, I'm pretty sure the clear coat cured. I ended up sanding them down a bit to get a lot of the clear off, then using the lacquer thinner, and a TON of elbow grease. About 3 hours of constant scrubbing to get everything off. Back to square one! Tried to fix ONE little defect, and screwed the whole thing up, lol, just my luck.

[hanabie]

Hah.. when I was doing that, it was because I never handled rattle can. My nozzle was defective. I went to buy another can and solved the issue. But F! It was too late to figure that out. I did tons of elbow grease. Yeah sometimes I wished I just let that tiny imperfection go and live with it. I did not.. Anyway I learned my lesson. Check your nozzle before you take the rattle cans home. Spraymax 2k nozzle is excellent and high quality as you could tell the spray will suspend and might mess your lung..

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[smbstyle]

ugh, ok, so I ended up re-doing one of my tail lights after stripping it down and starting all over, and followed the same exact process/materials, etc., and it turned out great, almost too great, as now the one I just did is a bit more reddish than the older one.

My question is, am I able to spray another coat of the duplicolor metalcast red on top of this clear, and then re-clear on top of that, or do I need to start all over again? Is there any other way I can get a complete match or do another coat of red without stripping down the other light completely?

any input @hanabie, @Kiske, @retrosmiths ?

[retrosmiths]

Strip it.

[B-R-Z]

Clear coated mine yesterday with spraymax. They look awesome and are very glossy. I sprayed too heavy on my last two costs and have a few drops that I need to sand down...I may not even bother in fear of messing them up.

[smbstyle]

Just an update with some tips after re-doing both of my tail lights....

Anyone using Duplicolor Metalcast; I got my best results by spraying each coat within 15 minutes of each other which is actually recommended on the can (I think I did a total of 4 coats). The first time around I waited 30 minutes between coats and it was a bit too long. Also, wetsanding the basecoat after letting it dry overnight made a tremendous difference in the clarity.

I tired the Aerosol high-gloss clear from automotivetouchup, and actually liked the results I got with the Rustoleum 2x Gloss clear better. I did about 4-5 coats of clear, no wetsanding between coats, and let it cure for 5 days before wetsanding (2000 grit). The Rustoleum clear was still very soft, and had to use a very soft pad on my rotary with Meguiars 205 to get the wetsanding marks out and to get the clarity back.

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by smbstyle

Just an update with some tips after re-doing both of my tail lights....

Anyone using Duplicolor Metalcast; I got my best results by spraying each coat within 15 minutes of each other which is actually recommended on the can (I think I did a total of 4 coats). The first time around I waited 30 minutes between coats and it was a bit too long. Also, wetsanding the basecoat after letting it dry overnight made a tremendous difference in the clarity.

I tired the Aerosol high-gloss clear from automotivetouchup, and actually liked the results I got with the Rustoleum 2x Gloss clear better. I did about 4-5 coats of clear, no wetsanding between coats, and let it cure for 5 days before wetsanding (2000 grit). The Rustoleum clear was still very soft, and had to use a very soft pad on my rotary with Meguiars 205 to get the wetsanding marks out and to get the clarity back.

Lets see some pics

[smbstyle]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

Lets see some pics

sure thing, i'll post them up this weekend.

[tiz22]

Finally got around to doing this mod...Really love my spyder/sonar lights at night but found them to be too busy during the day (white tube, chrome turn signal, red reflector, black housing = too much)

So tinting red was my perfect solution. Read every page of this DIY and decided to give it a shot...So far have done everything on my car myself so didn't want to pay someone to do this one either.

Here was my process after taking all the advice:
1. Prep the tail lights by wet sanding with 2000 grit after you have cleaned the surface with water + dish soap
2. Continue sanding until you get an even hazy look to the lights (kinda freaky)
3. Rinse with water
4. Tape black plastic that shouldn't be painted
5. Spray 3 light coats of VHT red tint (keep paint can at room temp or leave in sun for best results) (leave 15 mins between each) with a couple passes with a heat gun
6. Spray 2 medium coats of VHT red (leave 20 mins between) with a couple passes with heat gun
7. Let the VHT red dry overnight
8. Clear coat 3 light coats (15 mins between each)
9. Clear coat 2 heavy coats for glossy effect (20-30 mins between each)
10. Put back on car to let this all dry for about a week

What i will do next:
11. Take back off, wet sand with 1000 grit
12. Wet sand with 2000 grit until nice even finish
13. Polish the hell out of it
13. Maybe wax?


RESULTS
Here's how they looked after just VHT red (was a pretty sick matte but colour output would be whack)



Here's how they look so far (not polished yet just VHT red and clear done)




Here's a few to show you the light output...It's the same brightness and you can actually still see the yellow of the turn signal which I was surprised...thought it would turn red (nice surprise!)

[cammaxon]

VHT Red is exactly what the stock tails need.

[Eightysexy]

Here's mine gonna put them on the frs in the morning.