Ed Scherer

Add one more convert. Did it about a week ago.

FWIW, I was dissatisfied with the results after a single coat of paint. Too much orange peel, and dammit, too much dust dropped in. See what I mean:



So, digging through the archives (I remembered seeing previous threads about this), I came across the Keith Widom's post #25 in Sterling's "did the clear turn signals and side markers this weekend...." thread and wound up doing some of the stuff that Keith suggested. Sanded with 2000 grit paper and then sprayed a second coat. Lightly sanded again with 2000 (looked pretty bad at that point, "what have I done?") and then used some compounds and finally 3M Imperial Hand Glaze and it shined up pretty much like the original plastic. Pretty cool! Thanks, guys, for all the recommendations.

Have red 3W Luxeon LEDs now for the turn signals and it all seems to work pretty well.

Final result. Maybe just still a little bit dull; I'll probably hit it with a little more Imperial Hand Glaze next time I polish the car.



The stuff I used (don't worry about that nasty Turtle Wax stuff; it's never hit my 928 before; it has only been used on my parent's old beater Audi 90s):



Mounted back on the car:



A few observations:

• I think turn signal brightness suffers just a little bit. And to be honest, I actually like amber turn signals (when viewing them lighting up) better than red. But reducing colors to a minimum just looks so much better. I actually really like Tom M.'s stealthy black look, but I was just a little too worried that safety would be compromised.
• After seeing that with my original clear incandescent bulbs that the red paint definitely "wins" over the amber underneath, I decided to go with red LEDs for the turn signals rather than amber ones; it seems to work pretty well.
• IMHO, this mod isn't nearly as important on a black car like mine as a white car. Eliminating the amber (both here and on the front and side markers) on a white car, again IMHO, is just a stunning improvement. On a black car, not as much (even though I just replaced the amber stuff on the front of mine with Nicole's clear replacements).

rmr25

One more comment:
I followed most of the posts in this thread in painting my tailights. I masked everything except the amber colored area. After one coat, however, the sheen on the newly-painted area was higher than on the unpainted part. I removed the masking tape (except for the back-up segment) and put one more coat over the whole surface. The lustre was now uniform. Even though there are two coats over the amber area, the light output is completely satisfactory.
Incidentally, the aftermarket roof antenna is an Italian copy of the Fuba I found on eBay for $20.

rmr25

Oops! Something happened with my picutre. Here it is.

Nicole

I should probably add to this tail light modification thread that I have clear replacements available for the amber turn signal segements on the 78-86.5 cars.

Just in case someone wants to go clear, or acheive any other custom look without making the lens too opaque.

PM me for info, if interested.

RichS 1986928

Has anyone done the entire tail-light of a pre-s4 with Red? Pics?

928ntslow

Your best bet is to just mask off and paint the turn signal red. Unless of course you want red reverse lights...which isn't really legal or helpful to other drivers as they have no idea you are actually trying to back up....looks like another brake light or something. Painting over the whole thing may make it look weird if it is red since you will be painting over the black frame/trim lines. They will still be darker...this is you are trying to achieve a solid red across the lens look.

Best I can recommend ...or just black them out completely like on my car below.

RichS 1986928

What I actually meant was painting the reverse lights RED, tape them off and
paint them RED just like the Amber light. I'm guessing that since the paint is so
thin and translucent it will still look white in reverse so still legal.

hacker-pschorr

If they cannot tell a 3,300lb car is coming towards them, in reverse. Two small white lights isn't going to help any