By luck, I was doing a search on eBay for some fog lights for my 96 GXE and came across someone selling them with a cracked lense at a buy-it-now price of $100 with clear bumper lights AND 95/96 red/clear tails .

I got four different e-mails from people offering to 'take them off my hands' (scavengers ).

Anyway, they come in the mail today and I noticed the moron who I bought them from painted the OUTSIDE part that should be red with some really really ****ty red translucent paint. Its texture reminds me of those fruit by the foot candy things I used to eat when I was like 5. How the hell do I take this crap off without wrecking the plastic? The upper part of the lense is in great condition its just the bottom painted part I'd like to repaint with the Krylon stained glass paint I just bought at Sherwin-Williams. Can I just sand that red off? What grit sandpaper can I use that will not scratch the **** out of the lense?

 

try paint thinner

 

I did, and its not even leaving crap on the rag.

 

you lucky $(**%@&!(, i was looking at those and didn't even see the buy it now! damn, i emailed the guy and everything. maybe just try painting over them and matching your inners too? no other tips really, just wanted to say congrats for getting those!

 

The thinner should work if you use a lot of elbow grease. But use it sparingly as it will warp the plastic lens. Your last resort is to take some 0-grit sandpaper to it.

 

u can use super fine sand paper to sand it. i dont know the grit of top ofmy head. just try to only snd the paint nad not the real plastic. after u get most of it off then paint thinner should finish the job.

 

He did such a ****y job with them (red border is uneven, etc) I decided to just start them from scratch. I've been sanding them for a few hours, starting off with pretty heavy paper, and I'm now on 320. They look hazy compared to the trunk lights, but a few more levels of sandpaper + a clearcoat and I should be good to go...

 

when I first painted my red clears they came out ****ty, so i had to strip the paint off. You have to get the model paint stripper from a hobby shop. It is safe for the plastic and will not leave marks. And if that stuff doesn't work then he didn't use paint on them tails.