Tony

Robert_H

Tony,

That's pretty neat... how'd that get made?

Rob

ew928

Tony,
Did ya sand down the rear light nubs per Jim's recommendation.
And how many coats of that PolyU paint.
Candy Apple Red, right?

Ernest (NYC)

Chuck Schreiber

Tony,

Looks awesome along with the rear wiper delete!!!

Tony

I was going to sand them down but i decided not to on the first one to see how it would turn out. The nice thing about the enamel paint is it comes off pretty easy with mineral spirits if you mess up. The paint didnt "darken up" near the raised letters like i thought it would so i kept all the marking on the lense intact, thus makes for a realy easy mod.
Clean, mask...paint.

I used testors translucent enamel in candy apple red. Appx 4 coats. I used the other lense to compare the red section as i painted. You will find the paint in any hobby store. I used electrical tape to mask the lense off as it curves and the flexability of the tape makes it easy to mask. When you mask the "white" reverse lense, eyeball it carefully as the orange color of the stock lense doesnt follow the demarcation line on the plastic. I wanted to be sure i didnt have any orange peeking through around the perimeter of the reverse lense.

The first lense came out ok. I got a bit more orange peel than i wanted as i was spraying in the hot dry heat out here. 3ft at 3mph it looks fine fine! The next one i held the can closer and applied a thicker coat on each application...it came out MUCH better!
If one could find a red tint and place it in a clear coat you could do the entire lense and have a much better and perhaps durable finish via a porfessional spray gun

I cant recall how long Jim has had this on his GTS so perhaps the jury is still out on durability. A baking hot summer here will be a good test. When it comes to washing im sure i will take a little precaution in not scrubbing the lense hard.
When i was standing behind Jims car at SITM i was admiring the silver GTS wing which im looking at doing next, while doing so i couldnt put my finger on what else looked different. All of a sudden it jumped out at me. No orange on his rear lights!!! The orange tail lamps really help date the car IMHO. Jim then explained what he did and it cost all but $2.50 for the paint!
I told him it was at the top of my list when i got home...now its done!
Thanks Jim!

Randy V

How difficult was the rear wiper delete mod?

Did you fill and paint the holes, or use colour-matched plugs? Looks real nice.

Tony

I just un bolted the darn thing and took it off. The studs are still there and i get reminded of that each time i drag the back of my hand across the top of them when cleaning under the wing. I should have stole the flip wing of my last car
A local guy, Michael, has had his welded up and painted. I havent seen it yet but i bet it makes for a clean look!

BTW..im going to find a clear paint next and do the side marker lights and front turn signals...

Nicole

Uh Oh I like it! I li' li' li' li' li' li' like it!!!! I admired a similar modification on Keith Widom's car at last year's Sharktoberfest. But if I remember correctly, Keith accomplished this effect by using red window tint foil.

Now, if they would invent a paint that could make the orange clear...

deliriousga

I did the same thing to mine and put valve stem caps on them. The cap fits the larger stud fine and I used a lot of that plumbers thread tape, folded in half so you can't see it, to build up the smaller stud so I could screw the cap on. Looks good and doesn't hurt when you bump it.

AO

Looks great Tony!
I'll have to see what it would look like on a OB. But me thinks... it would look good. I, too, also want to do the rear wiper delete. But since I don't have a spoiler, I'll have to come up with a plug solution.

BTW, (don't mean to hijack here) I got permission from the wife to head to the track tomorrow for some 1/4 mile runs! I will post results.

fabric

Looks great Tony! I think this will be a nicer look than clear turn lenses on the back, although not having seen that done, who can really say.

But I do think turn signals should flash amber. There's something in the back of my head that tells me there's a safety gain there.

Tony

Turn signals? What turn signals?
I find that when i signal to turn in this car, especially on the freeway, the A$$ho's in the other lane tend to speed up anyway. I now use the element of suprise...a look over the shoulder and a blip of the throttle.
Besides if i get pulled over for a red turn signal, im sure that one will be at the bottom of the officers list of my violations

If you really wanted to be picky i guess one could investigate adding a few AMBER LEDs next to the bulb in the "clear" reverse lense? Im not worried about it at all really.

Actually i havent really looked to see what color they flash. The wont be a true "brake light" red as the true color of the lense is amber. I was looking at the back of the car this morning when it was parked next to our 03 Expedition, the lights look identical! Ill snap a pic when my wife gets back later.

deliriousga

They look great Tony! I may have to try this with an airbrush and some auto paint to see how it looks.

So this isn't just a Georgia thing? Gotta love those folks who take it easy until you try to get around them.

I know my Intrepid has all red lights in back so I don't think it's an "offense". Same thing with the Jeep I just sold.

fabric

Yeah, I know. It's not the car Tony, it's the same deal around Chi-town in any car I drive. Did we miss the memo?

This is more of a philosophical opinion - I'm pretty sure there's no regulation on the color of rear turns, I've seen plenty of new cars with red turns (I don't think the Vette has ever had amber signals in the rear). I think only the fronts are required to be amber, for obvious reasons, but I think it's illegal to have them *blink* any other color than amber, so those rubes with the blue front turn bulbs I'm pretty sure aren't legal.

So no worries on the color Tony, I'm just picking nits based on a perhaps misguiding idea of safety.


So, they'll probably have a bit of a darkish orange color when the flash. That's acceptable. Really, I think it looks super sharp Tony, I just don't think I could get over it enough to do it on my car, even though I think it's a marked improvement. And you did a bang up job, I thought you somehow rebuilt them, not that they were painted, until you told us.

And I'll take a red turn light that get used any day over the unused amber version.

Robert_H

Tony,

Being a modeler, one of the things I know you can use is Future Floor Wax. Of course, it is an acrylic instead of an enamel. It can be airbrushed beautifully and is self-levelling (if you airbrush one spot a bit too much, it tries to even it self out). The nice thing about it is that it can be tinted using other acrylic colors and once it cures, it is rock hard.

Regarding the rear-wiper delete. If a person would take the motor (or mechanism, whatever) out back there and just have the holes left, you could use bumper plugs (cut down to make them fit) to create a clean look.

Just a thought.

Rob