Red tails....searched, but no luck

[PaulLehr]

I have an extra tail light of both the early and late style I will be experimenting with as soon as I can find the time. I am hoping t find a way to separate it and remove the color I will keep everyone updated on my progress as soon as I find the time to begin

[pole120]

I am hoping t find a way to separate it and remove the color I will keep everyone updated on my progress as soon as I find the time to begin

I was intending to do the same thing, just needed a set of tails....let me know how it works out Paul.....

~Josh

[Guest]

well.. darkening them wouldn't be an issue, but the amber and red lenses are made from red and amber plastic so making them clear with chemicals is out.. uv would seem to be the only way, but wouldn't that take like 5 years???

[pole120]

uv would seem to be the only way, but wouldn't that take like 5 years???

Well i plan to look into it....I just got a set of corner lights off of ebay, and i bought them for one reason, one is yellow, and in the other the color has fadded to *almost* clear. I intend to investigate and see if it's at all possible to make this happen in a controled environment.

~Josh

[YpsiBob]

who would guess that someone would set up a controlled UV exposure area, to try and turn ford festiva turn signals clear? i love this site!

[pole120]

I'm no scientist...just a fan of taking things apart and trying to make what i want.........

~Josh

[packrat427]

[quote="packrat427
I thought you could use a special UV light that removed the color from the lens also .
Help PU241 :lol:[/quote]

John and I had talked about this some time ago ^^
I will rattle his chain on this one , he specializes in plastics , it's his job

[Pu241]

quote="packrat427
I thought you could use a special UV light that removed the color from the lens also .
Help PU241
John and I had talked about this some time ago ^^
I will rattle his chain on this one , he specializes in plastics , it's his job

Yeah, sorry I didn't see this!

IIRC the lens assembly is made out of acrylic and such is pretty resistant to UV, however the pigments used for coloration are sometimes less than UV and or thermally stable. If some one has a set out I can accelerate the UV exposure via a Xenon arc weatherometer, however this could also em-brittle the acrylic, as some one said this is an experiment. I also have access to a UV light source used in TLC with a specific output in the 290um range that does not have a heat cycle associated with it, as the weatherometer does. So we have some choices.

As for removing the lens has anyone used a 50 or 70% Isopropyl Alcohol water solution (standard solutions at wally mart) and only soak the portion of the lens you want out as it will also weaken the adhesive all around. Of course you could then do whatever you wanted with all the lenses and use another adhesive and glue them back good as new!

[packrat427]

Thank you John aka "Blue flight leader"
:notworthy: :notworthy:

[project b6t]

i like my smoked black tail lights . I think it would look good if you made the turn signal red and the reverse light smoked

[geezerstiva]

how did you smoke the lights? and why didn't you do the whole lens?

[pole120]

Parking lights

Got the parking lights today when i got home from work:

Lets figure out how to make this happen!



[/img]

[B6T]

If I remember correctly Fred used a Krylon product to paint the taillights with some kind of transparent finish.

The success of any painting project is the preparation.... clean, clean then clean some more.

Yup. I used something called Stained Glass from Krylon, red obviously. You should put a clear coat over it after because the paint eventually comes off without it.

http://www.krylon.com/main/product_template.cfm?levelid=5&sub_levelid=8&productid=1797&content=product_details

[pole120]

So you just painted over the orange? Interesting.

~Josh

[project b6t]

spray paint does magic. I just used a thin layer of black plastic spray paint on my front turn signals, corner signals, and then the rear tail lights. I didnt do the whole thing because i like the black and red theme. Maybe after i paint my car black this winter ill smoke out the whole tail light.

-Ian