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Niteshading Taillights

DIY:
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49K views 103 replies 68 participants last post by  Codoje  
#1 ·
This DIY was created by Razloga

Ingredients:
• Tail Lights- preferably ones that fit your car, and I urge that you have an extra set for “just in case”
• NiteShades- Made by VHT (Can be found in most autozones, napas, etc. ask for it if you can’t find it, they should be able to order it)
• Sand Paper- 400/ 800 grit & 2000 grit (400 will hopefully not be used, it is a little coarse but works well for very stubborn area’s)
• Sanding block- For the sand paper
• Alcohol- not the drinking kind, the rubbing kind
• Painter’s Tape- a.k.a. masking tape (the blue one, it doesn’t have as much adhesion)
• Paper Towels
• Phillips Screw Driver
• Microfiber Cloth
• Wax- Turtle “Ice Wax” is beautiful
• Sharpie- I’ll explain…
• Xacto Knife/ Small Box Cutter
• Flash light- Small Pocket one works fine
• Painting booth/ area- someplace that will NOT be disturbed while painting- the greatest enemies to paint is dust and lack of preparation
• Time- no point in doing this quick if you want them to look good

1. So then, the first step is to get all of the stuff I mentioned.
2. The tails- if you want to use the ones off of your car, that’s fine, but you will have down time (you have been warned).
3. Sanding time- because you are working with plastic, wet sanding is much more preferred then dry. USE A SANDING BLOCK!! They only cost like a buck but it will be easier on the hands and you will get a more even and smooth sanding and it will take a little longer…
• Patience- This WILL take some work, don’t try this and give up, and DON’T try to save time by using a sander/ coarser sand paper- you’ll just end up creating more work later…
• DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY DIY WITHOUT FORST READING THROUGH IT ALL AND HAVING ALL SUPPLIES READY!!!!



Picture of my “Tool Box”
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Nite Shades By VHT
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Sand Paper
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Sanding Block
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Rubbing Alcohol
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Microfiber Cloth
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Blue Painter’s Tape
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Paper Towels (blue ones don’t come apart as much as the white ones)
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Sharpie
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Tails
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Painting Area
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The first step is to use 800 grit sand paper and a block with some water… You will want to sand just enough to scuff up the surface of the tails, the “Clear coat” on them is very thin and 800 will take it off easily, pressing hard is not necessary.
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#2 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

They should look something like this-
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Take notice of the edges of where they glued the different colored plastic together… see the edges? Make sure you sand those well, you have to create a flat surface around those areas.
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You will have to try and sand everything everywhere- but it will be a little hard, the water makes everything look very transparent, so just do the best you can.
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Now is where you use a paper towel to dry them off- do you see where some places are still “glossy” and others are sanded? Well now you take the sharpie and just color over the glossy areas…
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Do you see how those edges that I mentioned earlier are kinda raised and prevent the marker from getting down inside? That will need to get sanded down.
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Now whenever you put the tails under water again you will see exactly where you need to sand- the glossy areas are highlighted with the sharpie- so sand everything until the sharpie marks are gone… repeat as necessary. BE sure that you get all of the edges and the little DOT markings, everything needs to be uniform.
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In the end you should have something that looks like this- notice how there are no areas that have remained glossy? This is what you are trying to accomplish.
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These next couples of steps are for a “cut out reverse light”- if you want to leave the reverse shaded, skip ahead a little…

Use the blue tape to just cover all of the reverse light- over aping in needed, and make sure to go over the edges, you will cut the excess off with the knife.
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Now do the other side..
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Put the flashlight into the hole for the bulbs- and flip off the lights- it should look like this…
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So, working in the dark, it should look like this- notice how there are some darker rings around the edge? You will cut along side the outside/ last ring…
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#3 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

When you are done, it should look like this-
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Do the other side too-

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Now, take the Phillips screw driver and flip the tail light upside down, see the 3 screws? Take them out and CAREFULLY putt aside the plastic piece, as it will still be held on by the rubber weather stripping you have to be careful while working with it.
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Take a piece of blue tape and line the “inside” of the rubber seal, and put it back together- it will look like this- the reason we do this is to make a nice barrier for the rubber against the paint…
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Another View
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Using that “border” add some more tape until everything but the colored plastic is showing
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OK, now- take a blue paper towel and put some alcohol on it, rub the tails and get rid of all grease (from your greasy, nasty hands… :p) and any accidental residue from the tape.
(sorry, no pics, but you should be able to figure it out)

Set the tails down on a raised surface (makes it easier to see what you are doing)
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Take a can of nite-shades and shake… SHAKE the can well, always remember- a happy can is a shaken can, (I like to put my little siblings to do this work, I make them shake for like 10 minutes)

When applying the paint to the tails, always remember to use slow, even strokes while keeping the can no closer then 10” to the surface- And ALWAYS start outside the tails, and finish on the outside the other side- NEVER press the nozzle while the can is pointed towards the tail, sometimes the cans like to “spurt” and spit little globs of paint onto the tails, which is not good.

I allow for a good 5-10 minutes of drying time in between coats… I usually sit down to watch a movie and pause the film every 10 minutes or so to put another coat on, I will usually go through 2 movies in just the niteshading…

First Shade-
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A few shades later-
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A few Shades Later-
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A Few Shades Later-
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A few Shades Later-
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#4 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

A few Shade Later-
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Last Shade Down-
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Wait a couple hours before handling it, I like to leave them out over night- Here is what they will look like outside
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This amount of shading is the exact same one as this- its just that the light likes to play tricks on the tails…
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After you have waited and can handle the tails, take notice of the surface… it should look like this-
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So first you take off the tape, please be careful and make sure you do this as slowly as possible, the paint likes to come off in pieces and as long as you ave good adhesion, it shouldn’t be a problem.
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Again, take notice of the little raised area’s where the tape was…
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Another picture of what it will look like after painting…
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Now is where you take your 2000 grit sandpaper and gently wet-sand the tails-
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Notice how the surface looks so much smoother?... this is what you are trying to accomplish-
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now, you DO NOT take the tape off of the rubber just yet, you leave it on. It will look like this-
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After you’ve sanded with the 2000 sandpaper and they have dried up nicely, take them to a body shop. I know, I know- you probably bought a can of clear, well I don’t care, you can throw that stuff away. The clear that they use in a shop is shot from a gun and will look MUCH better than any can-based clear coat, not to mention it will be glossier and hold up longer.
This is what they will look like when they return-
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Because you’ve pretty much done all of the prep work on the tails, no body should charge you more than $50 to clear both tails- the only thing they will have to do is de-grease (AGAIN!! sheesh people, what’s with your greasy hands??) and shoot clear- everything should already be taped off.- if they want to charge you more, politely tell them to screw themselves and go to another shop. $50 is the most you should pay.

 
#5 · (Edited)
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

In the end, this is what the tails should look like…-
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For the final step, realize that it is all futile and drop me a pm so I can sell you a set…

Thanks to Razloga for this great DIY
 
M
#57 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

Rushr said:
In the end, this is what the tails should look like…-
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For the final step, realize that it is all futile and drop me a pm so I can sell you a set…

Thanks to Razloga for this great DIY
Click to expand...
The best DIY I have ever read.... !

Hmm what exactly is clear? How can i ask it some other way cause i can't translate it on my language :? :p :D

Very nice guide i loved it.. I'm gonna try to do the exact same thing, my only fear was sanding it AFTER painting it, wont the paint go off somehow????
 
#7 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

great DIY!!!!!!!!
 
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#9 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

Great diy and AMazing looking lights mang...like real good. How much do you charge? Those look reall good man...
 
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#12 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

man, that was a damn good DIY. very through with plenty of pics. good job, man!

it looks like the clear coat made the tail darker looking. is that the same set throughout the whole DIY. they look really nice, man.
 
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R
#17 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

YoYo said:
Q; that paint cames more light or not?
Click to expand...
the paint cames??

Translator!! :3_hypocri

what Rushr says is correct, the more shades of paint I put on, the darker it will be in the end...

and it may just be my imagination, but when I first experimented with this stuff, I would put on like 2-3 thick coats- and they showed up horribly...

Rushr said:
The darkness all depends on how many coats he puts on. He can make them as light or as dark as you would want.
Click to expand...
+1 :3_winkthu

jdella681 said:
hmmm...very nice DIY..i have an 05 but i was thinkin of doing the same thing except leaving the reverse and signal unshaded.. any opinions?
Click to expand...
that would look awesome... but you should remember to spend more time prepping than anything else... careful prep work will make them look very nice :3_winkthu
 
#18 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

Definitely take them to a shop.. I wish I did and I probably will. Its a semi gloss.. not a mirror shine like this and I spent nearly 8 hours working on my tails.
 
R
#19 · (Edited by Moderator)
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

komokazi said:
Definitely take them to a shop.. I wish I did and I probably will. Its a semi gloss.. not a mirror shine like this and I spent nearly 8 hours working on my tails.
Click to expand...
yeah and if you've already put the canned clear on there, the easiest thing to do would be to just sand everything off and start over... unfortunatly...
 
M
#20 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

not bad, not bad. When I did mine, I didn't have the option of a bodyshop for cheap, so I did work myself on the tails. You can get nice glossy finish, but you got to put the work into it.

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I'm happy with the results
 
I
#21 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

hey Razloga u think I can follow the same steps to do my headlights? like I said in your other thread my headlights are really haziness even after taking the wetsanding - plastx route....so if I do couple light coats of niteshade on my headlights and have a shop clearcoat them they should look nice (but not too dark) and glossy just like your tails right?
 
R
#25 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

jb89 said:
Wow, tails look amazing! They are so smooth and shiny lol
Click to expand...
thanks man- it wasn't too easy :3_wink:

SpeedCheeser said:
Yeah, man. I gotta say those look pretty nice. Can you possibly get a pic of A.) day time with brake pedal pressed and B.) night time, lights on but foot off of brake?

<--seriously considering this.

Oh, also, how does it go from being scuffed to clear and glossy? What scares me about this is when you sand in the beginning and the light looks hazy and scuffed. How is it getting back to looking clear again after that?
Click to expand...
hey man, I don't really have a tib... but here are some daytime pics of the lights on...

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and as far as the whole "scuffed to glossy" thing, its pretty cool actually... when the surface is scuffed up, it is "unfinished" and a good buffing will make it all glossy again, or even running water over them will make them look glossy (kinda why your car looks so nice when its raining) and the clear-coat is applied while its a liquid and seals that glossyness in... if you'll notice that I sanded the reverse light, and it was hazy looking when going in to get cleared... but the end result produced a beautiful crystal clear light... :3_winkthu
 
#24 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

Yeah, man. I gotta say those look pretty nice. Can you possibly get a pic of A.) day time with brake pedal pressed and B.) night time, lights on but foot off of brake?

<--seriously considering this.

Oh, also, how does it go from being scuffed to clear and glossy? What scares me about this is when you sand in the beginning and the light looks hazy and scuffed. How is it getting back to looking clear again after that?
 
#28 ·
Re: DIY: Niteshaded Tails by Razloga

Are those the ones i now own?

Regardless, the DIY is incredibly well done. The final product speaks for itself. I know, i own one of his "creations". I haven't the time to invest because i travel. But his time and effort was worth it to me.

working on gettin pics for ya Raz. Dont worry, I didnt forget about you.
 
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