So I took these crappy things out.


Then I spray painted the inside of the taillight housings gloss black, made my own light diffusers from the commercial flourescent light covers, smoked them, and got this...

Close up...

Signals...

Not bad for a few hours work. Would I do this again? Not by myself. The long piece on the trunk is a PITA to get apart with just a heatgun and screwdrivers.
I welcome all feedback.

 

Looks good except for the sticker

 

^^^If you mean the dealers badge, I'm looking for a new trunk lid. The dealer drilled and riveted that **** on there. I guess they never heard of double sided tape.

 

They probably did it so you cant take it off. The lights look good though. Is that the stock exhaust?

 

Yup. All stock. Only had the car 2 weeks. All Ive had the time to do was install all new audio and change the suspension.

 

Wow, thats a lot of work for two weeks. Good job.

 

nice i like

 

looks oem to the untrained eye and looks very clean i think it looks great. and cops will deff not bother you for that.

 

Looks great!!!

 

Very nice job, I think I like it better than the job I did to my lights....

 

Thanks guys. Yeah I thought about DTM'ing them but I dont like the bulb being visible.

95maxrider, got pics of yours?

 

great work!

 

Nice man.

 

This was before I polished them up with the Powerball. They're a little lighter and more shiny now.

 

^^I actually like the way you did yours, black on silver is always a good thing, best combination ever. Grey convertibles with black interiors make me wet myself.

Anyways, OP, looks killer, I just pulled mine out and didn't do the flourescant things, and it STILL looked better than having the ambers in there, but now after siing yours, yeah I need to switch it up. Looks real good.

 

Daaaaamn, I like that 95maxrider. Is that on the outside? I played around with set of tails before and tinted the lenses on the inside but for some reason when the lights were on it looked like it had those one way LED bulbs in them. And love the RPM2's as well. I shouldve held on to mine.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm thinking about getting a set of the 98-99 tails and doing the same thing plus LEDs. I havent seen anyone do that with the I30 tails yet, unless I missed it somewhere.

 

Yeah, they're cleared 96 tails with tint spray on the outside. Thanks for the compliments I think painting them on the inside looks better than what I did. And yeah, I love my RPM2s

 

thats pretty hott ! I like it

 

That's a dark emerald green color isn't it?

I got the same car. But you own the bad azz tails now. If that is a 97, I recommend contacting Sy Cefiro and getting a set of OEM Cefiro headlights.

How many miles?

 

Yeah its green, with tan leather (blah). Not my first color choice but its the only one I could find in the Dallas area that was a 5spd and in decent shape. I've owned 4 other 4th gens and wanted to stick with something familliar yet different. I'll be contacting SyCefiro for many parts.
The car had 134k on it when I bought it almost 3 weeks ago. It has 137k on it now...I drive it a lot

 

Cool! We have matching cars save for the tranny... I've got the auto...and 183K miles.
Agreed..the tan is blah.

If you have not already done this....do it.

Clean and grease the sunroof tracks. Both sides, anywhere that you see evidence of friction. If the cables have never been replaced, doing this may ensure that they never need to. If they break...God help you replacing them yourself and to "outsource" it takes a good 8 hrs in labor to fix a $.50 part. Ask me how I know.

If you haven't already, clean up the throttle body by removing it completely and cleaning it. PM me if you want a step-by-step.

Take care of the steering wheel. The leather begins to wear poorly and putting a cover on it now may help.

Be prepared for your hood struts to fail. They will leak fluid too and they will not support the hood. Repacing them is a no-brainer so I'm told. I have yet to get a new set...

If you have not already had this issue, you probably will...the Knock Sensor will die. No CEL code will appear, however there is some question as to the CEL appearing for certain or not. I thought mine did appear when it was scanned...but maybe there were other codes with it. Anyway people here who probably know more than I do have repeatedly told me that the KS wil not throw a code by itself. Anyway, if it does go, use the Motorvate site (http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/707) as a reference.

If the KS dies, fuel economy and performance will suffer due to a "safe" engine timing program. You'll **** away your extra cash to use high octane too when it dies. BTW: Always use the highest octane available at the usual gas stations. It really likes 93-94 if you can find it.

At 160K miles, you might need to replace the o2 sensors, might not, might be sooner, it also might be what the KS code shows up with, though the 2 issues are unrelated.

Having 4 4th gens already, you might already know that stuff and ....hell I can probably learn from you what's causing my long cranks to start when it's cold. (I've got some ideas already.)

BTW: the last digits on my VIN are 1192. Is yours close?

 

nice, I need to take those things out as well, i kinda copied 95maxrider(lol sry) with what he did but i didnt paint the reverse lights



lol boy what fun i had painting them thou

 

Double E...
I never gave much thought to checking my sunroof but now as these cars are getting older I might have to start with some preventative maintenance on it.
Thethrottle body appeared to be cleaned by the previous owner. (Not sure how thoroughly though.)
I slapped a steering wheel cover on the day I got it. Its still in "like new" condition so I'd like to keep it that way.
Hood struts...already failed. I need to get new ones.
I always run premium. Those few pennies more per gallon only add up to like $5 more per tank. No big deal.
The day I got the car a few weeks ago I was driving home that night and the CEL came on. I pulled the codes as soon as I got home and I got a front O2 sensor code. Reset the ecu and picked up a new sensor the next morning. Havent installed it yet, but then the CEL hasnt come back on either, and Ive put about 4k miles on the car since then.
The long starts on your car could be anything from dirty battery terminals to starter problems, debris on crank position sensor...anything.
And my last 4 VIN digits are 2568.

Crusher103....LOL, Youre brave doing it like that. I'd be afraid of overspray all over my paint, or dirt blowing on the lights while painting them.

 

quality work.

my homemade cleared tails look kinda ****ty.

 

yea, overspray wasnt bad at all once the whole rear end was covered, i tried removing the lights but i cut my hand so i was like f-it where is my painters tape and some trash bags, sprayed the ground with water all around where i was working so i was str8

 

Nice job, has a very OEM+ look to it. The diffusers are a nice touch.