I decided to cut my floresent light inserts before I remove my tails, so I borrowed the orange insests from somebody that already did it...

my question: how did you cut them without breaking the plastic? i'm looking for a variety of different methods to try out...

thanks

 

use a rotoZip tool

 

i'm kind of hoping that I won't have to buy any expensive tools, but thanks

 

blue... try using a soldering iron... melts right throught the plastic, and you don't have to worry about breaking it... it worked really well for me... plus even if you don't have one, you can pick one up at the store for under $10..

 

thats what i did.. and they came out great..

then i stepped up to the big boys.. i bought a dremmel .. great and handy little tool.. cuts them well..

if you are going to be doing them more than once.. get a dremmel.. if you are going to be doing them just once use the soldering iron.. because after a while the melted plastic and other crap messes up the soilderin iron.. it just looks nasty ..

Also don't cut from the orange piece.. do the whole tail bottom.. I did mine first like that and then i re did them.. IMO it looks a whole lot nicer..

look at BrianV's lights.. they look real nice with the full piece..



for this you are going to have to use Tracing paper and trace the whole outer part you want.. and then you will have to trim it down to size with a scissors.. please don't run with the scissors

 

I used a $5 utility knife. All I had to do was trace the outline once, take the orange piece off, then you keep tracing the lines over and over. Eventually it will break through cleanly, without shattering.

I cut it to the size of the orange piece (it needed some trimming afterward) because I like the look of OEM, just clear instead of amber. I left in the small red piece/relfector on the bottom, and also cut the clear piece so that it wasn't up against the outer lense. That way, it looks more like the amber, which also isn't against the outer lense. The end toward the inside of the trunk I cut large enough for it to sit snugly in the housing. The end touching the red reflector just required some PVC cement to keep it in place.

I should add that mine look like a$$butter because I was in a hurry (stupid stupid stupid!), and a.) the only PVC cement I had on hand dried WHITE (stupid stupid stupid!), and b.) the outline of the clear plastic inside doesn't run smooth along the top and the bottom of the place it sits in the housing. The reason it stays in is that one end fits snugly and the other has a line of ugly white cement at the red reflector (this is what allows it to contour in the housing without having to affix it to the inside of the lense). In retrospect I wish I'd used a piece of paper to get the right shape of the clear portion you need to cut. Just cut an approximation based on where you want to put the clear piece -- in the housing or up against the inside of the lense -- then trim and perfect it until it's the shape you want. Then use it to trace the outline of the clear plastic and go from there.

As long as you're careful and allow yourself time, you'll do fine. Now that I think about it, I think I'll take mine out and use my own advice (and sand out that ugly white cement so I can replace it with clear).

Long enough?