Thanks to previous threads and some advice I successfully cleared my tail lights on my 96 I30t. I am not going to lie it was a pain in the *** and took me forever. I am not the most handy of a peson. Sunday night I had my lights removed and in the oven to heat up the glue and chickend out. I was worried I'd mess it up, so I put everyting back and accepted a life of yellow tail lights.
Not being able to do this simple mod botherd me all day and when I got home form work I gave it another attempt. This time I just used a hair dryer and took my time and all went well. No cracks and it matches the stock clears. I first one took me 2.5 hours, no joke. Once I realized all the little things I did wrong the second one took 45 min.
Now I have shortend my stock shifter, made my owm hybrid intake, cleared my tail lights, and painted my calipers. All with directions from the these forums. Tommorrow I am going to tear into my corners to see what I can do about that amber.

 

PICTURES!

 

I'll have to wait till I see my brother, he has a digitial camera and a scanner. Soon.

 

sweet!

 

Would have taken you an hour tops for both if you used the oven...heh.

But good job!

Next thing you know you'll be installing all your own mods!

IanS

 

Congrats on clearing your tail signals. It is a pain in the @$$ isn't it? If anyone wants to see pics of what I30 tail signals look like when cleared and tinted, just visit my homepage.

 

Where'd you get that body kit for the I30!?!?

How much did it cost!

ebmorgan has been looking for a kit for his I30 for some time now.

IanS

 

I really want the red/clear look for my I30, will the cefiro tails work? or would I have to clear the lights out myself?

 

thats funny, my i30 came with the tails already cleared...

 

custom molded Stillen kit I believe, its a beautiful job

and A-Ron Max 95-96 Cefiro lights would fit, but the look exactly the same as the I30s thats my experience with Taiwanese Cefiros I'm not sure about Japanese ones

 

I30tMikeD,
Good job! When I do mine, I will hollar at ya for advice. I have 99 Headlights, corner lights (I have a cracked one) and turn signals coming in the mail. They were shipped yesterday. I didn't need the new corners, but I fugured a spare set would be perfect to experiment on while trying to clear them. Let us know how the corners go too. I am so stoked to get rid of the ugly foggy headlights!

Are you doing an amber bulb in the tails? I think I am going to do a red bulb in the rear turn signal, and maybe lightly paint it silver so you cant see it!

 

i think you should get Cefiro headlights...the one piecers are sweet! I have them on mine. I wish I could do that mod you just did though...congrats! Maybe I could get somebody to help me do it? Hrmmm...

 

I would try the one piecers, but they are $$$$. If someone bought my 99 Jewel type headlights I would consider it.

slc I30t didn't sound to me like he was too happy with the fit of the Cefiro healights.

 

It may look better to buy clears for the front or back but I don't think it looks $200+ better. I would do it your self unless $$ is not in issue.

 

Thanks, You know I did not think about putting a different colored bulb in the turn signal, good idea. Red defintatly. I wish I had the exta $$ to get rid of the foggy headlights but a Y-pipe and lowering springs go on first. When I first got my car I thought the head lights were just dirty or something, they are really foggy!! If you clear your tails let me know. It's not that hard, I just refuse to use the oven of a heat gun because I know I would warp the lens, so a hair dryer work good for me. It does take a while using that method though.

 

Once again. a heat gun and the oven both work great, you were just too scared to try.

MANY people (including myself and ebmorgan, who has a 1996 I30) have used the oven, and it worked excellent, and no warping whatsoever, even with the lense side facing down.

It's fine if you don't want to use the oven or a gun, but don't spread disinformation.

IanS

 

I don't think he is spreading missinformation at all. He doesn't trust himself is all. I think a blow dryer has less chance of warping a taillight than an oven does....

I don't know that I would trust an oven either.

 

I see your point and concede.

Just want to make sure everyone understands that the oven method does works the best, but if you don't trust yourself, then don't do it.

I have yet to hear of anyone burning or warping their tails in the oven. 200 degrees for 8 minutes, then try with old oven mits to pull it apart, then 2 minute increments until it comes apart like butta.

IanS

 

IanS,
I may contact you personally for details before I do mine, if that is okay. I would like to give the oven a shot, but I want DETAILS and good instructions before I do!

 

Fste96se is right. I was not trying to scare anyone from using the heat gun or oven I just did not want to. Your right I was scared. If I screw up and do mess up my tail light I am sure an Infiniti tail light is not cheap. Fst96se had the same concerns I did so I suggested the blow dryer wich I still think is safer but a huge pain. It took me forever with that damn thing. I do know people who have ruind their lights by putting them in the oven, I am sure they had bad directions though. Who is to say that the directions I had were good? You said 200 degrees for 8 min. I thread I was taking directions from you, IANSW,it said 250 for 11 min. See my point.

 

After you opened the taillights, how did the orange reflector come out? Did you have to cut it out? Is it something you could do with a dremel and needle nose pliers without opening the housing? That is how I was told to do my 96 Accord.

 

It just lays in there with a little glue. The same glue that was heated up when opening the light. That is the least concern. Trust me it just lays in there. Thats why its easy to make the clear replacement, it just lays in there and when you put the assembly together it holds it in place real secure.

 

ok, so that is something new to me....you have to replace the orange with clear? I thought the orange just came out. Remove the orange, and blamo, you are done.....but I must be wrong!

 

This is how I did it. I bought a clear flourecent plasic sheet. The kind that goes over flourecent light fixtures in schools and stuff. Came in a 2x4 sheet at Home Depot for $5. There was two different thicknesses, I got the thinner one because It will have to bend a little and was cheaper. I am sure either would work fine. Once I removed the orange piece I made a template with it on cardboard. I traced the template onto the flourecent sheet and used a box cutter. Score it w/ the box cutter many times and it cuts pretty easy. I cracked four before I just took my time scored it over and over. A dremel tool would work great but I don't have one. I had to sand and trim the newly made clear piece to get it the exact right shape. Then put the new clear piece in where the orange came from and seal the tail light back up. Heat up glue again before resealing.

A couple things: I Have probably a 1/10 of an inch space on the side of one of my new clears. (No one but me can see it) Don't be afraid to make it a little bigger than you think is perfect.You wont see the edges of the new clear.

Also mine did not follow the bend untill I put the tail back together, I was real worried about it not bending until I put the housing back together. It will bend once it is put back together.

Last I got a little spot of the black adhesive on the inside of my assembly I did not notice untill I had the light back in the car. Make sure the inside of the lense is clean. This black $hit gets every where is your not careful, like I said earlier the fist one took forever and was not abslutly perfect and the second one was a breeze.

I think thats it.

 

Ill answer for him and say, it is the 97 front lip but two of them cut and mold to the length of the I30 and molded to the car, as well as the rest of it, except the sides, that are also molded.

 

Ah, its good to see more I30's on this forum! I cleared both the rear and front turn signal lenses. I followed Iansw's instructions on the thread I started along time ago when I was curious if anyone had done it. The oven method worked for the fronts and rears, but I did check them like every 2 minutes to make sure they werent melting or something. If you are going to clear the fronts you have to be way more careful removing the amber piece inside because if you crack it or the plastic surrounding it would look really bad from the outside. I have since moved on to the one piece headlamps because they not only look better but light output from the Osram bulb that came with them is much better than the frosted oems.

T

 

How does the orange part come out on the corners? Its in there pretty good.

 

The amber piece is kind of molded into the corner housing itself. When you take them apart you'll see that the amber piece is surrounded on the outside by plastic. It is held in by some kind of adheasive. I got a small flat head screwdriver gently pryed around the edges until it came loose and then just popped it out all the way. Just don't break any of surround b/c that is what will hold the new flourescent(sp?) piece in place. It is a pain but well worth it.

T

 

I called ebmorgan to verify, and we DID use 250 degrees...8 minutes at first, then another 2 minutes, then 1 minute....so yes, 11 minutes total.

It just was not so fresh in my mind at this point...SC Install on the brain.

Besides, 10 minutes at 200 would work also, just more 2 minute intervals of checking it before it would work, so maybe 14-16 minutes total, I'm not sure.

I'm not trying to start a fight here. Just trying to make sure people are properly informed...I already conceded to your points.

I hate arguing on forums...it's silly.

IanS

 

Ok, i'm still a little unsure which will look better for my car. The cefiro red/clear tails or just trying to clear out my stock ones. I have the money for the cefiro ones, but will they match perfectly?

 

why not just get the rear corners from a 98-99 i30? it will fit perfect and will look much better than putting foggy translucent plastic as a replacement for the orange. also why not just find all the rear lights for the 98-99 i30s and update the whole car. try a junkyard of some thing.

 

1) 1997-up I30's are very rare in junk yards.

2) A portion of what is in junkyards has broken taillights.

3) This mod is essentially about $5.00, whereas the stock tails from even a junkyard will probably run you over $100.

IanS

 

Ok now I'm even more confused. So if the tails of a later model I30 would fit, why would people want cefiro tails? Money isn't as much of a concern to me compared just to having the rear of my car look good. Has anyone taken the tails of a 98-99 I30 and put them on an earlier model?

 

there was one guy i saw who just got the 98-99 tails and not the center light on his '96 i30 and it looked good. the thing is that the red part of the lights on the 98-99 is much nicer and brighter looking than the 96-97 and the clear part is more clear. basically IMO if you can find some for cheap it would be a good way to update your i30