What's the top light have that the bottom doesn't?






Took me hours to get the lense separated from the housing with a drimel... (spell check?)

What would you use to separate the two?

My plans are to black the housings out, keeping the clear lense...


Sent via HTC EVO 4G

 

i wouldve baked the lights for like 10minz and then work from there

 

You can't "bake" the 5th gen tailights. They do not come apart like the 4th gen ones do.

 

The two plastic lense and housings are melted together...

 

About how many hours...

 

well these are spares...

 

Interested in your process. I have a set of spares I'd really like to cut open. Could you construct a DIY, as stupid as that question sounds? Also, any issues putting the lenses back and sealing them?

 

I hate our 5.5 clear lights, I need to hit up some salvage yards and find a set of black 5 gens.

GL with the project OP.

 

Lies lies lies! The hideous black 5th gen tail lights have NOTHING on the see-through 5.5 gens. It always makes me sad when people put on those hideous, unrefined lumps of cheap-looking plastic in place of their gorgeous, waaaaay more bespoke 5.5 gen variants.


*points at sig*

 

^ the cleared out look, it looks cheap, it wasn't done properly on the maxima. It takes some extreme skill to make a clear lens style light look high-class, and Nissan failed. They look like Ebay Altezzas


to the OP: I'm very interested in this, but I have to ask, why didn't you just install overlays??? I can see going through all of this to do some in depth modifications, but just to black them out? You don't have to remove it to get that effect.

 

again- the 5.5 tails are hideous (although they do look fine on the silver colors)

 

Truth but also ehhh, the 00-01 tails not being a complete deep black but rather a dark tint color does bother me.

 

I thought the clear tails looked great on the white maximas.

 

Overlays would solve that

I like the uniqueness of it, and the only time you even notice it's not black is when you're up close, at which point you just go, wow! that's so cool, the detail in the light is not something an OEM normally pulls off, especially without being flashy at all.

From an option perspective, 00-01 SE tails > 5.5 tails, and we have no good aftermarket tailights to choose from, so that's My .02 on it

 

i dont mind the 00-01 tails (SE or GLE) or the 02-03 tails...

i have been wanting to be creative and paint the chrome housing gloss black...
after all that is said and done, LED the *** out of the lights...

kinda thinking of a red LED strip acting as a ring for the parking lights and when you step on the brakes, the rest of the brake light lense is lit up with tons of LEDS...

not to sure how to start the LED process...
LED strips
LED boards
LED sockets??

it will have that "stockish" look still...

im not a fan of after market parts if people havent noticed...

 

It's so refreshing to see you trying this, good creativity.
My suggestion is to get high powered LED's, ensure that you get them from a very good reputable supplier, they will need heat sinks to keep them from burning anything. Then find reflector cups that can go around each LED. You'll obviously be using SMD's for this.

Do NOT use cheap LED strips, they will not give you the results you want. You need to be prepared to spend some decent cash on this. There is some good information in the 4th gen forum search LED tails. Kevlo911 did his as well as many others.

 

I would have just taken 10 minutes to swap in 00/01 SE tails, but props on being creative. Always good to see someone doing something new.

 

 

I'm trying to plan a LED fitment for my lights too with Luvlexus 101. Didn't know we couldn't separate the lens like with the headlight... seems to make this project even harder

 

As of the past few days, things have been going and down with the maxima... Pulled it out of the shop for the 2nd time...

And had a family member pass away in France...
Should see a big enough lump of change to buy my 2007-present LS that I have been wanting...
DD the maxima for awhile..

 

This is the main reason you don't see it done on the 5th gen. It's a much more common mod for the older models, with the 4th gen being the most popular to LED the tails, and they look spectacular in the 4th gen too. It would be a bit more tricky in the 5th to make it look good. I have plans, but I doubt I'll ever get to them.

 

5.5 Gen tails Bleh:



5th gen SE, yes.