I am painting some IROC taillights with the Candy Apple Red paint. I put the first coat on tonight. It seems like that darn Enamal takes forever to dry. I saw some dust specs in the paint. I was wondering if anyone else had this problem when they did this??????

Is their a way to avoid the specs? I may lightly sand it when its fully dryed. It seems hard to avoid getting them in their though. ANY TIPS??

THANKS GUYS!

 

ttt

 

the only way NOT to get the dust specs is to be in a paint booth wich sucks. I dont think youll be able to see the dust specs cuz your paint the INSIDE of the lamps and not the outside.

 

no dude you paint the outside of the lights. Its impossible to paint the inside....

 

i just did this on Monday.....

You need to place some tupperware over the tailights to MINIMIZE the dust on there.....

Then put about 3 coats on it.......then a SLIGHT sand to get rid of all the back stuff and there ya go...

Mirror shine.....

I'll have pics up hopefully early next week.....

All red taillights are illegal also......

 

they are not illegal as long as you have white reverse lights... So you put tupperwear over the lights after you spray them????
What grid sandpaper you use?? I need pics :hail:

 

ttt

 

Try hanging them up and spraying them. If you lay them flat, the more chance of dirt getting on them. Also wipe them down with a tack cloth before you spray.

 

Well i saw SOLID red, so i thought reverse lights too....

I used just a FINE sandpaper, I forgot the grit......

 

So you put tupperwear over the lights after you spray them..
tell me more about this??

I am thinking about hanging the lights up and spraying next time around....

1. Also did you spray a clear coat on top?
2. What kind of clear is it?
3. how long did you wait to sand the red?

 

1. Just a normal clear coat.....I did AFTER the sanding of the top layer.....

2. just the normal clear for plasti-kote...

3. 2 days


I got a plastic storage bin to be more exact, paint them then placed the plastic container OVER the entire tailight to prevent stuff from falling on it......

 

did you sand between coats??

 

ttt

 

NOPE

Any more q's?

 

since I have little specs in their now you think I should sand
those out or just put all the coats on and then sand the stuff
out???

Sorry for all the questions :lala:

 

yeah i definatly wanna see what these r gonna look like, sound real nice

 

*I* sanded BEFORE the clear coat and then a light sanding at the end to finish them off.......very fine and very soft.....it will get rid of the dust particles......

 

Flyinlow, do you have any pictures of this it sounds sweet! :hail:

 

Flyin Low that Testors paint is a PITA to work with. I got 2 spots where it gives me the ripple effect in a small spot. I dunno if paint won't stick to it or what.... maybe I am spraying the coats on 2 thick.. I dunno... I don't understand how you sand out the specs and not see it through the clear coat.... I think once they are on the car though you can't notice much of any of the specs..... Its just frusterating

 

does anyone have it all red on a camaro and have pics... i dont know if i have ever seen that.

 

MateoZ28 had his like that but I haven't seen him around in a long time. It looked pretty cool though, his car was white with red stripes/accents.

 

not my car but heres an idea..

 

My lights have no yellow lenses in them like the pic posted above I thought you meant "ALL" red lights.

 

someone one told me that there friend took there taillights and cut out the amber part and cut out the red out of another pair of taillights and glued them into his......now that sounds like a cool idea

 

I'd think that way would be hard to do without looking like a hack job.

 

I painted mine from the inside.I taped everything off that didnt need to get painted.you have to do a lot of light coats or the paint will run.Also you have to use transparent paint nd make sure its pretty warm where you paint them so the paint dries quickly.Here a thread on it.
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=126873
Hope it helps

 

Crap. I painted the outside cause thats what everyone
said to do. I didn't think you can take the lights apart??

 

Yeah light coats

You can't paint it from the inside...........The outside will still look amber.... .......You can paint BOTH for a better look....BUT it is necessary to paint he outside.....

 

yeah, ok....that is what i was trying to figure out too......if it was painted on the inside it would not cover up the amber.......

 

 

I thought the same thing if you look at the thread i posted i asked the same question.the amber will go red After so many coats i just kept checking to make sure that all the red was the same darkness..you have to do a ton of VERY light coats and Make sure the inside of the tail lights are EXTREMELY Clean..

 

I did this with one of my old taillights and ended up cracking the hell out of it... so I had to get a new one.... how the hell do you get it off w/o cracking

 

Actually, you can and should paint the amber from the back side. We prefer using red VHT Metal Tint...it dries quicker and has more of a true red color than the Testors stuff. If you put on enough coats, the amber goes red. If the light hits it just right you can see it a little, but its not something anyone would ever notice unless they were really looking for it. It still looks more professional than a lens painted on the outside.

 

I used VHT Metal paint it was a little tuff to work with.You have to be patient about it.

 

The problem I found with the testors was the fact that it dried a bit cloudy. It never became truely transparent like the VHT metal tint did. Duplicolor is making a metal tint as well. You might try theirs. In the pic LT1Guy posted above....the sun is shining directly at the light. So I am still getting a slight amber cast. I was really afraid to paint the outside though. I tried it on a test piece and it never came out right, plus with my lights already being painted body color. Taping off the camaro taillights should be much easier then the bird lights. You guys have straight lines to tape. Mine were curved and I was afraid I would really mess them up.

As far as sanding the testors paint. Its really testy (no pum intended) I painted a bunch of my engine accesories with that over a metallic silver, and finishing with duplicolor clear. Anytime I went back to fix something, say a part that did not get an even coverage, or got a chip, or scratched....it was a nightmare. I would sand it down, usually thru the clear to the candy. Then I would try to shoot over it again with the candy and the apint would crack really bad. I don't know why, but i would be very hesitant to sand the candy. I also found that if you paint a coat and wait to long before your second or thirs the same thing will happen.

Just totally follow the directions on the can. If they say apply the second coat w/in 15 min (not sure what it says) or wait 2 days before painting again, do it. Honestly I will probably switch over to the VHT and Duplicolor and leave the testors alone from now on. I don't think testors ever meant for it to be used on cars that are exposed to the elements. The paint chips very easy.

Anyway, as I ramble on. Page 19 on my site has more pics as I converted to all red, but here is a pic of them went he sun is not directly on them to show the difference

 

At night...

 

Before

 

How do you get the lens off w/o cracking the hell out of it

 

I had to go really, really slow. On Firebird lights...The bottom has clips, so does the top. The top clips are the bigger pain cause you can't see them to help you as you try to separate them. It is a bit confusing to explain and very nerve racking to do. I do not know if Camaro lights are the same as this.

I had to start by separating the bottom clips first. The tailight then pulls apart starting from the bottom. The sides are glued with some plyable sticky glue. It never hardens, just seals. Same suff they use on the deck lids to seal the glass to it.

You open the bottom slowly and piviot it out at the top clip. The trick to the upper clips was getting the light to open in a "V" (wide at the bottom... top still closed) The top clip should just rotate out when you get it just right, but time has warped these things and they never work that simply. The top has the clips that actually rotate out as the bottom gets further apart. There are 3 clips in the top, so loosing one was no big deal. I ended up breaking one of them on both lights. The middle one, but the lights went back together and are holding fine.

Honestly, I got a busted one from a yard for free and looked at how it was put together, so I would know what clips to separate and how. This is the best way. It's what I recommend. That way you can see how hard it is for yourself and decide if you want to risk it. I may get my camera and take some step by step picks and show what the clips look like. Though it will take forever for the phote place to develop it correctly....

I hope this helps!

 

Anyone remeber back in the Day when I was the first person to do this and post it here and everyone called me stupid.....

Hey, I remeber the old RS, wonder if I still have a picture of that?

 

thanks for the info redraif... i'm gonna go play with it right now as a matter of fact... and what did you use to re-seal the lens with btw?

 

Don't know if shes online or not right now, but I think she used automotive butyl tape...you can get it at most parts stores.

 

wh0rin up the boards

 

Actually I did nothing to reseal them. The stuff the factory sealed mine with was still plyable, so I left it alone and just put it back togther. I completed the painted and put everything back together in a day and a half, so I did not give it any time to dry out or get dirty. I was too worried it would not go back if I added more stuff. Not to mention the mess I could have made. I got lucky, it does not seem to leak at all.

Just be very gentle and be prepared for it not to easy. Good Luck!