I have bought a can of Transparent Candy Apple Red paint to paint the amber part of my tail lights. I was wondering how many coats of paint I need to do or should I just judge on how it looks. How long do I need to wait between each coat? It says for transparent colors you need to spray an undercoat of silver, gold, or metallic copper; is this needed? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Mooney

 

fairly simple. I did 3 coats of paint on my tails. Take about 10minutes apart and let each coat dry. But also judge how they look and match...if you think you need alil more then do a slight coat again.

 

not to steal yr thread or anything, but where can you buy the spray paint from? I cant find it in any local hardware stores. ALso do you guys take it out the lights or tape all around it.?

 

hobby stores sells the "tamiya" candy apple red paint.

 

Walmart sells "testors" candy apple red, which is a good match. You don't need to spray an undercoat on tail lights. An undercoat will keep the light from shining through. The undercoat they talk about on the can is for models and things like that. I think I used 3 light coats on my red/clears, but it might be different for redding out amber. Just keep applying light coats until they match. The can should say how long you need to wait between coats. Good luck.

 

If you had red clears, unless u did a 97-99 conversion, why did you paint the clear red?


I am not sure rather to take the lights off and paint them or to just tape everything off and paint on the car. What has everyone done?

Mooney

 

I found a set of all clears, and painted the bottom part red to make red/clears. That's how all of the 95/96 red/clears are created. I would definately take the lights off the car before you paint them. It's not too hard to get them off.

 

That's a good idea!

 

I painted them today without taking them off because I couldn't find an 8mm socket(SP?) long enough or a wrench that size. It turned out good, about 6 coats but I think I need a few more coats: Here are some pics before they are dry. I will get some more pictures tomorrow. I just taped everything off with blue painters tape from Lowe's and newspaper, plenty of it. It is kind of rough, and I was wondering if there is anyway to make it smoothe? Tell me what you think, good or bad.

Mooney

 

I painted mine while they were still on as well. I used Six Coats and 2 coats of Krylon UV protactant.

 

Does it look even in person? The driver side looks more dull than the passenger side. I'm planning on doing this in a day or two (I'll see if the store is open on 4th of July) with Testors Candy Apple Red then I'm planning on tinting the top half later on. You can go to www.testors.com and look for local stores that sell them.

 

Yeah, i does look even. bad lighting.
See me WWW for more pics.

 

I think it looks better when you paint the insides of the lenses.

 

testors all the way.... but Vans is so much better. Buy it if you can find it. I painted the whole outer lens and half the inner.

 

you guys need to wet sand the lights. And add some wax and polish to bring out the gloss. The look kind of dull. Keep up the good work....I'm soon going to start my new project. I'm gonna take the Altezza plastic cover and put it on the OEM tail lights and paint them like clears....make my own. Shouldnt cost me more then $100.

 

What brand of polish did you use?

 

I first clayed it after one week. Then I buffed it down with some crazy car wax and polish. I dont remember the name but ill chk it out.