A couple of weeks ago I bought a "lot" of 91 Formula parts for $5 plus shipping that included a complete taillight set and a dash map pocket like the one I replaced in my 91 SSA. As I was never really fond of the stock cupholders in the door panels, I began by mounting the 2, matching dash map pockets to cover the holes.














While I was at it I installed moisture barriers, replaced the pitted metal door panel trim on the driver's side with an extra passenger side piece (switching out the curved ends), painted the door panel birds silver and black to match the SS group A limited, numbered dash emblem and covered the orange birds on the dash (now door) map pockets with similar emblems. I then turned my attention to the taillights.
My first Firebird was a '69 that I put many gen 3 parts into. As the dash emblem is #169 (a combo of '69 and '91), I wanted to try making the taillights more like the stock '69 by painting the housings body color.
I decided to use the Formula lights as guinea pigs as they were not perfect, painting them last weekend (using spray paint from a can). This weekend I tried to apply a "clearcoat" (again, store-bought in a spray can) and three fourths of the paint turned to orange peel immediately. Fortunately I applied it to the center section first, not the taillights!)
I cleaned the center section and repainted it, installing all 3 pieces sans clear-coat.






Obviously this was a trial run using paint bought from Wallmart. If I decide I like this look, I will buy cans of original color from NAPA.

My question is this: Why the orange peel?
Do I need to clean the plastic better?
Primer it first?
Is there a special Clear-Coat needed?

Any advice from those of you with experience or information will be greatly appreciated.

 

Perhaps I can give you some helpful advice from my own experience with my headlight bezels and turn signal housings.

This is what I'm referring to (entries #90 and #94):
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post5770350

I wet sanded the plastic down with something around 230 grit, then 440, 600, 1500, 2500, then polished the surface up.
The most important part was to get the embossed numbers and letters off the clear area because all the dirt and grime of the past 25 years needed to go.
On the black part of the housing I used some adhesion promoter for plastics.

My first try included this promoter on the lense area, which turned out to give it a foggy look in the end, so I didn't use it on the second housing's lense.

Both lenses are holding up just fine, but all the black surfaces seem to have that kind of orange peel you're talking about and I haven't figured that out.
I guess you'll have to sand the paint down before clear coating it, but the paint layers are always quite thin, so I'm not sure how to approach that.

Btw: I use rattle can spray paints for all my parts.

 

Hi NCC-2569! Thank you for the link 2 your build. I am enjoying the read. I will investigate the plastic softener on some other spare turn signals i have. So far the paint is doing well and I am liking the nostalgic look (the 91-92 aero skirts add a bit of the 68-69 "Coke Bottle" look to the flanks of the car). BTW, my last name is Clausen which is German in origin. My Spanish mother's father (Feldhoff) was also German, Much of her family lives there. Great to see you enjoying the gen 3 in Deutschland!

 

Thanks to you too, Herr Clausen
If you ever come over to visit this branch of your family, let me know and we'll get together