Refinishing Delaminated GT tailights (Page 1/10)
IMSA GT FEB 10, 01:40 AM
I recently have been chatting with 86fakegt and he had an issue with his GT taillights...the typical delamination and crazing of the clear lenses. I decided to give him a hand and paint them back to a factory finish look.

The first thing was to set the lenses on my light box so I could really see where I was going to mask the lettering.


I then masked the letters using 1/8" wide 3M vinyl stripe tape.


Then I masked the clear portion with the same tape and since the tape is vinyl, some really nice curves can be made to follow the edges.

You can clearly see the delamination on the left panel. It was really bad.


I then sprayed the black. I used the Auto-Air brand of water based black because it covers very well yet goes on very thin so I would not have a huge edge around the clear portion of the lense. It dries very flat with absolutely no gloss.


Once that dried, 5 coats of urethane was applied.


Here is one of the finished lenses after wetsanding and buffing.


And to give you an idea about the gloss, here is a pic glancing across the "Pontiac". Notice it looks like glass. God I love a good urethane


Also, I wetsanded the clear portion of the lenses to remove any deep scratches with 2000 grit paper and buffed them out. The clear portion also is now flawless.

Anyway, I hope this encourages more of you to do this. It is really pretty easy and you can make your lenses look brand new and never have to worry about delamination again.

[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 02-10-2009).]

Fiero1Fan FEB 10, 03:18 AM
Fantastic!!! Thanks for the How To.

Would you mind if I add this to my list of How To on my website?

[This message has been edited by Fiero1Fan (edited 02-10-2009).]

pontiackid86 FEB 10, 03:43 AM
WTF i remember when i saw them on my new fiero they were delaminated real bad very nice hard to beleave they were once on my GT how much would you charge to do my set of taillights?
fyrebird68 FEB 10, 08:20 AM
Nice work.

Did you spray the clear urethane after you unmasked the letters or before?
IMSA GT FEB 10, 05:02 PM

quote
Originally posted by Fiero1Fan:

Fantastic!!! Thanks for the How To.

Would you mind if I add this to my list of How To on my website?




Go right ahead
IMSA GT FEB 10, 05:04 PM

quote
Originally posted by pontiackid86:

WTF i remember when i saw them on my new fiero they were delaminated real bad very nice hard to beleave they were once on my GT how much would you charge to do my set of taillights?



Are you talking the PISA ones?
pontiackid86 FEB 10, 05:05 PM

quote
Originally posted by IMSA GT:


Are you talking the PISA ones?




nah i have a set of actual GT ones i use for inspection purposes that i wouldent mind having restored to there formaer glorey.
IMSA GT FEB 10, 05:08 PM

quote
Originally posted by fyrebird68:

Nice work.

Did you spray the clear urethane after you unmasked the letters or before?



I unmasked the letters first and then sprayed the clear over the lettering. It buffs out crystal clear so you never know there is clearcoat on there. Plus, I didn't want to feel any indentation where the letters are....just one smooth tail light. The only area that remained masked was the clear portion of the taillight. The reason was if anything ever happened to the clearcoat in that area, it would be difficult to sand off without damaging the lenses. This way with the lenses bare, you can buff out any scratches from the plastic without worrying about clearcoat.
BMTFIERO FEB 10, 05:16 PM
That realy looks good!!!

What brand of urethane did you use?

------------------
White 88 GT 5 spd
Red 88 GT Auto
Black 88 Coupe 5 spd (For Sale)

Fiero1Fan FEB 10, 05:31 PM

quote
Originally posted by IMSA GT:


Go right ahead



Thanks!!