CrazyHawaiian

Just a question I had in the 'Making Taillights' thread that never really got answered since SOME people decided to act like children again.

The question was: Is it possible to change the color of the reflectors inside the taillights assembly? I guess this would apply to any reflectors on our car (front turn signals, side markers, or taillights). The reflectors come from the factory a certain color, amber in the front turn signals, amber on the side markers, amber, red, and clear in the taillights. Anyone know how to make them clear if they were colored by the factory? I've already messed with painting and it didnt really have the results I wanted when the light was shining through. It becomes more of a color matching headache than actually changing the color of the lights through the reflector. I would like to know if anyone knows about reflectors, like perhaps if the color is a film on the outside or if the reflector plastic itself is colored all the way through.

And no dont worry I dont want clear taillights. So please keep the BS out of this thread. Nobody cares what you think about imports. I would just like to make my own clear side markers and front turn signals, and maybe a few mods to my taillights that dont involve painting the outside. I know you can buy some of this stuff but I'd like to make my own. Thanks!

Mathius

The other thread is back opened, Crazy. Check out what I put in there about alumilite. They carry various dyes, they may have what you're looking for if you wanna mold a new part.

Also, I know you're not looking for clear tail lights, but if you could get your hands on some, you could always paint them with vht metal tint or something? I don't know if a stock set could be polished out to clear and then sprayed or not, I haven't taken mine apart (yet).

Mathius

tpiroc

I'm not 100% sure on the process but I do know the plastic that makes up the red and amber in the tail lights was clear that had a dye added to it; therefore there's no way to remove the color from the existing plastic. The same for the front side markers, they're dyed (and fade over time) so there's no way to discolor the existing lens. The single exception are the triangular pieces, if you peer into them it almost looks like there is a red film that could possibly be removed. Not that this is all too helpful it's just a little FYI.

CrazyHawaiian

Thanks for the info! I eventually learned that on my own after I dropped a taillight (oops) and the reflector cracked in half. It kind of sucked but it did show me the color was in the reflector (I assumed it was dyed during the production process like you said) and not something I could remove or change. O well it was a fun idea while it lasted LOL!

I'll post some pics soon of the results from these threads. I'm not quite done with my taillights, but they did come out like I wanted them to. The reason I was so interested in this is because I wanted to make sequential turn signals for my taillights. And I wanted it to look a certain way too, so I had to change the way the taillights were layed out. I couldnt change what I had or make new ones, so I ended up disassembling 2 sets of 91-92 tails and I used the parts to make my sequential set. Thanks for all your help guys!!

tpiroc

Sounds funky & trick; any pics of what you've got cooking up so far?

CrazyHawaiian

Sorry its top secret!! Mwahahah!! Nah just joking. I'll snap some pics when I get my hands on a DigiCam again (keep barrowing DigiCams from people). As of right now the only part thats done is the taillight shell. I'm still working on the insides (light borders, LEDs, etc). The end result will be a stock looking taillight enclosure but a different configuration of lights. I dont really know how to explain it with words, but I consider the stock setup to be a vertical configuration while my new style will be horizontal. It will contain no amber colored reflectors, only red and clear. The sequential turnsignal lighting (3 clicks across) will be provided by yellow LED's behind the clear portion. Reverse lighting will also be relocated to match the rest of the light configuration. When everything is finally done I will also be wiring up a switch box with 2 switches (will mount them in the 4th gen center console), one switch will allow me to turn the taillights completely off at will (run from the cops), the other switch will make the taillights light up in a loop pattern (call people out to race). Yes I'm obsessed with lighting!! heheh!!