Painting Taillights

[kimokalihi]

90 legacy wagon

I just picked up a set of taillights from the junkyard. Mine are cracked and have some sort of silicone all over them from the previous owned attempting to seal them? Yet they still leak and they're nasty inside.

I saw a thread on here about removing the amber lens inside the lights. I'm going to do this but I also wanted to paint the clear part red to match the rest of the light and the strip on the hatch.

On that thread there used to be a link to pictures of a guy who painted his lights but it doesn't work anymore.

Anyone know if this is a good idea and what paint I should use?

[Manarius]

Vikash mentioned something about how removing the amber insert screws up the beam pattern of the signal. I was considering doing it to my sedan until he said that.

[kimokalihi]

Screw it up how? Does it really matter? As long as people can see the signal, right?

[kimokalihi]

Well, it's about time for an update.

I cleaned the lights and put them in the oven. My oven has a minimum of 200 degrees. I noticed while reading several "baking lights" threads on this board and others that the temp range suggested was anywhere from 150-250 degrees. If at all possible, I would suggest 150 degrees.

Disaster occured whilst I waited for the lights' seal to melt. The lenses themsevles warped pretty badly. Now, I don't know if it was because they were in there too long(15 mins?)or because I have such a small oven that maybe they were too close to the wall? The lights are only melted in identical places on both lights and that's on the bottom where the reverse lights are. That's what made me think it was because they were too close to the back wall.




Luckily all is not lost. I have taken my crappy cracked taillights and installed them on my other wagon that I don't drive and taken the nice lights off of it and I'm going to try again. My mom thinks I'm stupid for doing this lol but why should I just let my 30 bucks that I just spent on these things at the junkyard go to waste? They charge 15 bucks a piece for taillights and only 30 bucks for an entire door!

I'm not giving up just yet! Next I'm doing the corner lights up front! I've already sanded, acetoned and clear coated my headlights.

I'll update with more pics later today.

[Bheinen74]

i agree with your moms comment, she is the smart one here.

[kimokalihi]

Success! This time it turned out much better. No warpage at all. They're on the car and they look much better. I don't have pictures yet because I've been gone all night.

One thing though. Every once in a while a light in my gauge cluster pops on when I hit the brakes that says "stop lamp". But then it will stop doing it. When it did this I had my friend get out while I held the pedal in and the lights work fine. So I'm confused. What does that mean?

[dzx]

practice makes perfect

[thefultonhow]

One thing though. Every once in a while a light in my gauge cluster pops on when I hit the brakes that says "stop lamp". But then it will stop doing it. When it did this I had my friend get out while I held the pedal in and the lights work fine. So I'm confused. What does that mean?

Check your brake fluid level -- it's probably low.

[Hola]

Check your brake fluid level -- it's probably low.

Check your pads as well. As they wear down they allow the pistons to come out of the calipers more, causing the brake fluid level to drop.

[entirelyturbo]

I'm confused. How would the Stop Lamp light indicate a low brake fluid level?

If the brake fluid level is low (or the brake fluid is old, full of moisture and trips the sensor into thinking it's low) the BRAKE light, the one that comes on also when you pull your e-brake, will come on, not the Stop Lamp light.

If your Stop Lamp light comes on, and all your rear lights work, you might have a loose wire/short somewhere.

[Manarius]

I'm confused. How would the Stop Lamp light indicate a low brake fluid level?

If the brake fluid level is low (or the brake fluid is old, full of moisture and trips the sensor into thinking it's low) the BRAKE light, the one that comes on also when you pull your e-brake, will come on, not the Stop Lamp light.

If your Stop Lamp light comes on, and all your rear lights work, you might have a loose wire/short somewhere.

subyluvr is right. The BRAKE light should be illuminated if the fluid is low.

As for the STOP LAMP light - if you don't have a short somewhere, I'd be willing to bet that one of the bulbs you used makes for more resistance than the ECU sees as normal. Get some new bulbs and see if it does the same thing.