hey if anyone has does the clean tail mod on teh maxima. and used that glass like material to make a lens behind the glass how did u cut the material and what material did u use.? is it the material they use on the florecent lamp covers. please let me know.. also how would i go about cutting it to make this shape.

what would i use to cut.. i want to make it liek that with a hole int eh center..

(REDOING my HID setup..)

 

alot of people have just used dremels and take some time thats all

 

i have a rather original one. most ppl laugh when they hear how i did it. now mind you i didnt have a dremel or access to one at the time. i bought a sheet of that plastic that covers flourecent lights and used the amber piece out of the tail and a sharpie to make a template. then i wrapped an old butter knife with a thick towel, heated it up over the stove till it was red hot and literally cut the piece out. kinda crazy i kno but worked for me. and i have to say got a lot of complements on them. actually did my roommates tails the same day after he saw mine.

 

I too, used fluorescent light panel from home depot. I think some people who have used dremels have cracked the acrylic. I found the easiest method to be a soldering iron. However, it takes a very long time. I think I spent 7-9 hours total for this mod between taking the tailights off, heating them up in the oven, tracing the lense, cutting the lense, closing the housings, reinstalling the tailights. You know how it is, goodluck though, it was worth $25 worth of materials instead of like $150 to buy them.

 

damn i just used some tin snips. they cut a lot straighter edge than u would think. probably could do a better edge, but by doin it myslef i wasnt really expecting a million dollar look, so why try. it looks damn good tho

bhmax16- if it took u 7-9 hrs and u spent $25 i feel bad for u son. it took me like 3 hrs tops and the plastic at HD costs like $3-6. that was all i had to buy.

 

Cost me $25 because I had to buy the soldering iron too (didn't own one before then). Cutting the panel using the soldering iron took FOREVER, but being forced to cut that slow allowed me to get everything exact and it looks like it came that way from the factory. Yes it was rather tedious, but at least the job got done. Oh yeah...the 7-9 hour time also includes arguing with my mom to let me use her oven. I must say...I got weird looks from the whole fam when they saw me putting tailights in the oven!!!

 

Im happy with the way mine came out used a dremel and heat gun and a hour and a half later I had sweet beautiful red/clears for $4.15

 

i used a dremel and a cardboard template. i also used the oven to heat the tails up. 150 degrees maybe if i remember right? it works great using the oven method as i remember. total time 2 hours?

 

I remember 225 degrees or so for mine, but i'm sure that's not set in stone. Better for the temp to me too low than too hot...don't wanna melt the damn things! The key is to just taking your time....which it appears it def did since it looks like I took 3 times as long as everybody else here!

 

Use a bandsaw with a fine-toothed blade on it. Cuts the flourescent cover like butter in a few seconds.

 

another question how is the material held onto the light housing?

 

if you are talking about the pieces that you make, you make them ever so slightly bigger so that they are held in by force. they wont go anywhere

 

Ok i thought you just hack out the yellow ****? What do you put in it's place?

 

Never done this actual conversion, but i know for sure that acrylic can only be cut with special drill tip. I used to have a friend who owns a pet shop. I tried to drill with regular drill, it cracks the damn thing. The spcial drill tip for acrylic is use for drilling, cutting and shaping purposes. Hope this will give an idea.

 

i used my dremel with the black carbon looking cutting bit. it worked great, and spun fast enough to not crack at all. it was painfully easy. the cutting bit also helps to shape the custom insert if y ou make any cutting mistakes.

 

O crap, I forgot to unscrew the red part out of mines when I did it, hahaha, But me and my dad cut them with a saw, then we used a sander to get rid of excess material.

 

There is actually a tool that is used to cut florescent lighting cover sold at home depot/lowes, when I went, they were out, but there is an actual tool, you just have to ask for it.

 

It's so not worth it IMO. I too did this mod. Now I have real clear tails and the difference is night and day. I feel stupid for also taking 5+ hours to do this mod. I would never do it again.

During those 5 hours, I could make roughly $100 at my current job. If you go on ebay, you can get real clear tails today for about $70 shipped. I bought mine one year ago for $80 shipped, brand new in box.

Unless you are very, very, very broke, I would NOT recommend this mod. It sucks. Buy some real clear tails. Maybe you will understand...one day.