quote Originally posted by vrossiter: So, you remove all the black out of the lens and then restencil the lettering, or do you just remove the lower portion and stencil the 'IMSA'? Have you put up a specific thread about this? How hard would it be to do only 3 letters below the PONTIAC with the split in the tailight? That is awsome, by the way! Vince

With the original delaminated lenses, the black portion that actually delaminates can be removed VERY CAREFULLY. Basically, I took a dremel tool with cut off wheel and scored the entire area around the original "Pontiac". Then I carefully pried upwards on the black with a micro screwdriver. If you pry too hard, you will go right through the lens. By applying a gradual pressure, you can actually hear the black portion cracking away from the clear of the lens. It then simply comes off in pieces. I then created a new reverse mask with my vinyl machine and sprayed the rear of the lens with black. Remove the masking and you have new letters. Then I masked the front of the lenses and sprayed the lenses in urethane paint and clear.

so in order to paint these lights im assertaining that this is the prossess correct me if im wrong.

step 1 dissassebly taking lens off of lights
step 2 wet sanding the whole lens with 2000 grit to make them smooth
step 3 taping off the light lens part and the PONTIAC
step 4 painting the rest black with a mat finish paint
step 5 wet sand agian with 2000 grit
step 6 pull off the tape from the light lens and PONTIAC and clear coat with urathane x 5

I found this article too.

http://www.calgaryfieros.co...docs/taillights.html

Are the lens made out of lexan?

The calgary fieros site specifies NOT to use clear cause it will eat through the plexiglass, opinions? Has the op had any issues with his so far? I was thinking of doing this sometime soon as my delamination worsened when a friend pushed on them when pushing my car...

Also, I have several finger nail depth scratches in my left lens thanks to some jack@$$ who decided to either lean or slide on my car with some studded jeans or hard object.. Will I be able to get them out?

Thanks.

quote Originally posted by nitroheadz28: The calgary fieros site specifies NOT to use clear cause it will eat through the plexiglass, opinions? Has the op had any issues with his so far? I was thinking of doing this sometime soon as my delamination worsened when a friend pushed on them when pushing my car... Also, I have several finger nail depth scratches in my left lens thanks to some jack@$$ who decided to either lean or slide on my car with some studded jeans or hard object.. Will I be able to get them out? Thanks.

The only way it will eat through the lenses is with a lacquer or acetone based paint. Urethane has very little harsh chemicals that will damage the lenses. The set on my car has been cleared for over a year. They still look like glass.

[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 09-04-2010).]

I ended up buying the painted lenses from the original post, along with the rest of the taillights, quite some time ago. They're actually sitting in the hallway resting on my Mr. Mike's seats waiting for my car to get back from bmwguru.

I have a couple pics I took when I received them, but the lighting was horrible, they look much better in person. The second pic shows how much clearer the transparent section is than my original '88 taillights, at least. The painted section in person looks MUCH better than my original delam'd taillights, these still look like IMSA GT's good quality pics from the original post.

------------------

'10 Camaro LT/RS, 312hp V6 6-speed
'88 Fiero GT - coming soon! - Project MIDTRBO

The rest of my cars are for sale
There's no replacement for turbo placement

Thanks for the help gentlemen. Can anyone recommend products suitable for this project that would come on a spray can? I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to painting, and sadly passed up an awesome deal on a professional airbrush setup that would have probably come in handy for this project. I appreciate the help!

quote Originally posted by nitroheadz28: Thanks for the help gentlemen. Can anyone recommend products suitable for this project that would come on a spray can? I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to painting, and sadly passed up an awesome deal on a professional airbrush setup that would have probably come in handy for this project. I appreciate the help!

As soon as you say "spray can", it means chemicals. This is the ONLY spray can type I will ever recommend. It is made by Spraymax, you actually press a button on the bottom of the can and it mixes the hardner inside the can. You then shake it up and because it is now catalyzed, you have a limited time to spray the part. If you goof up and have to re-spray later on, the can will already have hardned paint inside. You will have to buy another can to finish.
http://www.repaintsupply.co..._part_2k_aerosol.cfm

Anyone done this and then tinted the taillights? I would like to get rid of the delam on my lights and then tint them

quote Originally posted by The ROK: Anyone done this and then tinted the taillights? I would like to get rid of the delam on my lights and then tint them

That should work fine. Most people use VHT Nightshades to spray tint the inside of the lenses.

I tinted my corvette lenses with this
http://www.flyeyeskit.co.uk/index.php
Worked great applied it to four lights in 20 minutes and it looked awesome. I was thinking of putting it on the inside of the lenses to darken the clear area and give it the Pontiac hex pattern.......oh yea the kit is a tight hex mesh btw

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: As soon as you say "spray can", it means chemicals. This is the ONLY spray can type I will ever recommend. It is made by Spraymax, you actually press a button on the bottom of the can and it mixes the hardner inside the can. You then shake it up and because it is now catalyzed, you have a limited time to spray the part. If you goof up and have to re-spray later on, the can will already have hardned paint inside. You will have to buy another can to finish. http://www.repaintsupply.co..._part_2k_aerosol.cfm

Would the type of black paint used matter at all, as long as you sand it before spraying the urethane?

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: As soon as you say "spray can", it means chemicals. This is the ONLY spray can type I will ever recommend. It is made by Spraymax, you actually press a button on the bottom of the can and it mixes the hardner inside the can. You then shake it up and because it is now catalyzed, you have a limited time to spray the part. If you goof up and have to re-spray later on, the can will already have hardned paint inside. You will have to buy another can to finish. http://www.repaintsupply.co..._part_2k_aerosol.cfm

Oops the guy above posted the same question I had. Sorry

[This message has been edited by The ROK (edited 03-25-2011).]

quote Originally posted by 8-P: Would the type of black paint used matter at all, as long as you sand it before spraying the urethane?

quote Originally posted by The ROK: Oops the guy above posted the same question I had. Sorry

The basecoat does not matter as long as it is completely dry. For example, if you try to spray a urethane clear over a lacquer basecoat that is still curing, the lacquer will cause the clear to bubble.

In the process of redoing another set for a local. As always IMSA, thank you for the write up.

Tony

Yep great work

That is amazing result and I have seen it before several times on here. The lights looks basically better than new. My question is has anyone done a very good tutorial pictorial of this kind of thing on a set of Notchie taillights? I am trying to get some better ones as mine have cracks and I want to do them up right for my car. I have seen a couple interesting pics and videos of Notchie taillights done with sequential lights which was very cool and also someone put the pontiac lettering into the notchie lights. I want to do something like this myself for my project car but I was hoping someone had blazed the trail already. Is there such a thread or a link to some good pics and description? peace

Pete

Thanks for the tips on how to do this. I did it on my tailights and they came out great!!!!

quote Originally posted by Pete Matos: That is amazing result and I have seen it before several times on here. The lights looks basically better than new. My question is has anyone done a very good tutorial pictorial of this kind of thing on a set of Notchie taillights? I am trying to get some better ones as mine have cracks and I want to do them up right for my car. I have seen a couple interesting pics and videos of Notchie taillights done with sequential lights which was very cool and also someone put the pontiac lettering into the notchie lights. I want to do something like this myself for my project car but I was hoping someone had blazed the trail already. Is there such a thread or a link to some good pics and description? peace Pete

Basically with the notchie lenses, the only concern would be painting the outer edge black. That way the light is contained within the lens and not shining up at the sky or at the ground. The entire lens can be clearcoated. The inner part of the lenses can be masked with lettering and sprayed and LED's added. Also, the lenses can be tweaked or replaced with standard reflector red material to eliminate the "grid" that the lenses have.