Well tonite i felt a little motivated, so i decided clear the ugly orange part of my tail lights, and by just using a hair drier and dremel tool i completed the job, i followed the step by step directions avaliable online, and i realized the hardest part is actually making a template so u can cut a peice out that will fit properly.

myself and stillnmax spent nearly 4 hours doing, for the entire process, the hardest part was cutting the floresent sheet, becuase no matter how exact i was, i had to make alterations to it, but i am very pleased with the job, and also i have a perfect template of what how the floresent light peace should be cut, which i will scan and upload, so if any of you decide to clear out your tails, you will be a couple steps ahead of then what i was.

 

sweet dude..

if you could post the pic of the template, and somehow get it to be the correct size, that'd be awesome!

 

where can you get the flourescent light piece?

 

Home depot or a similer home improvement store.

 

Was it harder to do with a hair dryer you think? Or just more time consuming? Also how much did the floresent sheet cost, a couple bucks?
Did you follow the directions on maxima driver.com or what? Thanks for the info, Im looking at doing this to my 97 this summer, but also dont have access to a heat gun.

 

All you have to do to make a template is carefully trace the amber and red pieces you removed onto some paper or thin carboard, then transfer this to the flourescent light cover, and cut with a Bandsaw.
Not brain surgery....sounds like you did brain surgery for no reason. Shouldn't have taken you more than an hour to do the entire job start to finish.

 

use an oven to open your tails up

225 degrees for about 8 min - melts the glue and you can just pull it apart like nothing after that

 

...for a 16 ounce halibut steak, 400 degrees for 45 minutes. A little oregano, paprika, dried or fresh dill, salt, pepper and olive oil...and BAM!

 

Of course, i am going to scan the template and upload it onto my site so all of you can access it. as for the hair drier which i used, it is time consuming to heat up the assembly, and patience is the key thing, a heat gun would work well but you would have to watch how fast you heat it up, you might over heat a side. but otherwise a hairdrier is fine, the only purchase i recommend making is a dremel, but make sure it has a steel bit rather then the sanding ones, i purchased a craftsman rotary tool for this project, and it came with sand circular disks used for cutting. also be careful not to use too much force when taking the assembly part after heating it up, becuase i kinda cracked a piece on my light assembly and super glued it together. but i am confident that the next set that i do will defintly come out better.

 

I have a template as well

I did another pair on sunday and it went well, but my brother knocked over the table i put the taillights on and cracked one on the side a little bit With this pair, i left the little red piece in the corner inside, by sanding it down on all sides so it falls deeper inside.... What I also reccomend to do is to paint the inside of the housing a reflective silver paint.. I used chrome aluminum.. because some of the housing may be faded and the reflection is poor.. so when you put in the flourescent light cover, it won't match well with the inside light... if you paint it, it will be nice and white

If anyone is interested in the red/clear tails, I can do them for you for 50$ + your stock tails... but you'll have to have your car out of comission for a few days until i get your tails in the mail and send back a cleared pair. Unless you are in the tri-state area and want to meet and just swap them on the spot which will take 10 minutes.

 

myself and stillnmax are also thinking about charging 50 to clear the tails out, if anyone is interested, private message me, i live in dutchess county

 

dam...i really want to clear my taillights. just don't have the motivation. it seems kinda complicated...and risky. i never see cleared out max's around this area. (miami). in fact, i never see any modded MAXs...besides mine. maybe a cleared out max would motivate me.

 

I am about to do the job tomorrow. I just bought that plastic panel. Wondering if that template is available somewhere online. Also, what is dremel? Can I use regular sharp razor? Which sides of panel did you make it go toward outside, smooth or rough side? Thanks in advance

 

the best is when the discs break apart and go flying around and hit you in the face .... make sure you have safety glasses on

 

yeah we broke around 8 sanding disks, i have to find the template, i am sure it is around somewehre, but even with a template u will need to sand down edges and make it smaller so it fits just right, as for teh side to use, i believe the smooth side should face inward, and the texture outwards

dremel tool, is a rotatry tool, u can try to use sissors and knives, but i think it works best with a some kind of hand held electric saw, i tried to use a tough pair of sissors, but it simple cracked as i cut my way through it, u need the dremel[rotarty tool] to sand it down as well, honestly this project can take a lil while, mine took awhile and i started at like 9pm, wiht food breaks and what not i finished around 1ish, but then again, i kept messing up cutting, some to small, some to big, some my friend cracked anyways ill look for the template, its gotat be somewhere

 

I just cleared mine tonight as well. I, as well used smooth side faced inward. I used a dremel and heat gun, total time took about 2 hours and that's it. What I did was traced the factory amber piece and made it longer to cover the red reflector piece that I took out. If it was too wide or too long, I used dremel to sand it down as well. I pretty much just reverse traced the piece I made for the other side and luckily my first piece (after some sanding) came out perfect so I only had to cut 2 pieces and that's it. The 2nd tail only took total of 1/2 hr to do. I did try scissors just to see what it does.... not good, cracked the light cover, so I wouldn't recommend it at all. Oh, I used a metal cutting disc so I didn't have to replace any cutting disc as well.

 

yeah thats how i traced mine out as well, i discovered the sanding tool after i cut out around 4 pieces which didnt fit,

 

i luv 'clearin' tails ' stories

 

Heavy duty kitchin scissors will work if you heat up the plastic first, but it is a pain in the a$$. To hot and the plastic deforms, not hot enough and it cracks when you cut it. That is how I did mine but I bought a dremel type tool and plan on redoing them with it. I have the smooth side facing out ad it looks prety good.

 

if you guys need a heat gun, simply get it from home depot, charge it on credit, and when ur done with the job just return it...i wouldve loved if i had a dremel cutting crap thingymajig when i did mine, wow i mustve tried cutting like 10 times b4 i got two that were GOOD ENOUGH...and u wanna know wut i used, a soldering iron melting and cutting with the heat from the iron along the trace, and then used the heat gun to heat up the template and that allowed me to make the new lense curve where the taillight curves, and i also used the heat gun to shrink the sides to get a perfet fit(instead of sanding)

 

Would Someone in the MA (Central preferably) area be willing to give up some of their time to an incompetent bastid like myself to get my rears cleared out?

 

boil enough water to fill your kitchen sink half way and soak your tails for like 2-5 mins the temperature of the water will still be safe enough not to ruin anything and it will be easier to pull the tails apart....do the same for the inner part of your tails where the reverse light is housed then they will match.....email me if you want pics

 

can you send me a picture at eibachmax@yahoo.com, thats a interesting way of doing it

 

 

what kind of springs do u have?