Clear tails + indicators upgrade

[powerontap]

powerontap - I still prefer 4 white spots myself, but that looks pretty good. do the red outs just cover the orange indicator circle or the whole light surface?

your lucky the inside circles are both clear on your car. the inner circle on the right side is orange on Australian spec cars and the left side is clear , so we don't have the option you went with!

Only covers the orange section.

 

[ZED_NOT_ZEE]

powerontap - I still prefer 4 white spots myself, but that looks pretty good. do the red outs just cover the orange indicator circle or the whole light surface?

your lucky the inside circles are both clear on your car. the inner circle on the right side is orange on Australian spec cars and the left side is clear , so we don't have the option you went with!

Only covers the orange section.

I haven't seen those redouts on ebay in a while. Been looking for them myself. Did you get a filler for your trunk key hole too?

 

[tomTVR]

Double white spots only look the best

 

[Mangozac]

Double white spots only look the best

That's what I'm aiming for

Sorry I've been too busy lately to get this project finished. Hopefully I'll be able to get it done this coming weekend, then take pics!

 

[billygilly]

Think I agree

 

[Hotride]

I'm definitely a quad white spot man! not huge on the double, is the double white spot even legal? as your reversing light becomes red??

 

[Mangozac]

Ooops my bad - that's what I get for posting early morning. I'm going for quad white spots!

I've got a nice thick coat of clear over the top of the red paint. I've just got to pick up some fine grit wet and dry to polish them up to the necessary shine.

 

[Mangozac]

Well I finally got around to finishing the tail lights upgrade today. The clearcoat I had added over the painted tails was successively sanded with 800, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper, followed by some Polyglaze polish I had laying around. The polish didn't give me the level of shine I wanted so I''ll get something better to try eventually, but I decided that it was good enough to mount them:



Not bad eh? I'm very happy with the result and even with the amber front indicators getting rid of the amber everywhere else is definitely the way to go!

Big thanks to Levi (Hotride) for all the tips along the way!

Next up is to upgrade the rear number plate to a slimline and try coaxing the local dealer into giving me a new protector to match 8)

 

[ZED_NOT_ZEE]

Looks really good, have any close-up photos of the finish on them?

 

[Mangozac]

Sorry, no close ups because I wasn't 100% happy with them. Honestly unless you're up really close and deliberately inspecting the finish you'll never know. Like I said I'll grab some better polish and give it a go I reckon they'll come up nicely.

 

[Hotride]

I thought the gloss paint alone would have given them a great shine. but there you go.
and polyglaze? isn't that cheap supermarket polish?? get some Meguiars polish, you will love it.

anyways the lights look great!! much better then the uneven oem ones!

 

[Mangozac]

Thanks mate!

The gloss paint might have given it a good shine by itself if it had been applied properly. As it was it had a bit of orange peel and texture, so I had to sand and polish it out. Yeah I know, polyglaze is shameful. Which Meg's one do you recommend for a decent cut?

 

[Hotride]

ummm I think there is one called scratch X. that is what I would use to remove any fine scratches and swirl marks. (currently have a bottle of autoglym paint renovator, and it worked brilliantly on the haziness on the front lenses) I just prefer meguiars products these days!

I use their deep crystal polish as an everyday polish tho. scratch X whenever I find a mark/swirl/scratch/fading that needs attention

Edit: Scratch X link - http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+G10307

 

[Mangozac]

OK sorry I forgot to mention Scratch-X. I do actually have a tube of it but feel that it's not coarse enough, particularly for anything that needs a decent polish. Might check out the deep crystal polish...

 

[Hotride]

Ohh scratch-x is harsher then deep crystal. Deep crystal doesn't really have any cutting ability. I thought scratch-x would do the job.

I do find the autoglym paint renovator to work ok tho, removed some scratch's from the side of my car where some &$@% hit it with a trolley at a shopping centre! Did take about 1/2 hour with some microfiber cloth's tho

 

[Mangozac]

Oh really? Scratch-X really isn't very strong, so I can't imagine how light deep crystal is! Reading its description the AG Paint Renovator sounds like it's pretty course, so might be suitable...

 

[Hotride]

well the paint renovator has worked well for me - the headlights were a bit hazy, and it made them crystal clear, and has worked fairly well at removing a few scratches other people have added to my car probably worth a try.

the deep crystal is more of a pure polish - not for cutting just for shinning the car really. But i have Clay, paint renovator, Polish, Wax, wheel cleaner, tire shine, interior vinyl and leather cleanser now lol, getting a bit into the detailing thing lately. All my products are Meguiars except the paint renovator

 

[Mangozac]

Haha yeah the detailing thing is a massive black hole! I started down it on my last car but really got into it with the Zed

I'll head down the shops this weekend and see what decent cut polishes are on offer. I use Meg's NXT wash and the Tech Wax 2.0 paste, but a range of other stuff for everything else, including Poorboys and Chemical Guys.