Write up! (Cheap fix for a faded third brake light "tbl")

[Z-owned]

Alright I made one that seems to have gotten wiped out with the new format so I am making it again. If you have the money I would suggest spending the $178 that conceptz sells the tbl for there is nothing like a nice new shiny black tbl to replace the ugly faded red one, but for $20 you can get almost exactly the same look if you take the time to do it right.

Time-depends on the temp and time it takes for the different coats to dry. I would plan for 4 hours +.

Supplies-VHT niteshades can be bought from ebay, or spend the time and hunt some down nearby I found some about 15 minutes from me in a little hole in the wall place took about 10 phone calls to various places to find it however.-sand paper (grits you want nothing below 320) and will want 1k grit for wet sanding the final product.-masking tape-newspaper or other to protect the rest of the car.

Suggested-good gloss clear coat-zona polishing paper ( I found it in a hobby store has grit from 1k to like 10k and helps alot with getting a nice shine from paint.)

The problem

1st. Step.-Prep the tbl by masking everything off around it, make sure and take your time cause you don't want to get any paint on anything other than the tbl. I also suggest masking off the actual brake light part withen the tbl to keep it stock looking a sharp razor blade will help alot with getting the correct shape for this. Also remove the nissan sticker your tbl may have like mine in the pic.

2nd step-Once everything is masked off take some sand paper over the tbl and sand it until it looses it's shine. Once this is done take a damp rag and rub over the tbl to remove any dust from sanding.

3rd step-This is where your going to spray the tbl with the vht niteshades. Make sure the stuff is well shaken, and I highly suggest doing several light coats rather than heavier since the stuff reacts a little different than regular spray paint. You want to give 10-15 min dry time between coats. The other advantage to lighter coats is better control of how dark the tbl gets, a new one well black doesn't look like black spray paint if you know what I mean. I did something like 12 light coats of vht total on mine.

4th step-If you aren't going to clear you can skip down. Those that have a clear this is where you would spray it on. Make sure to have given at least an hour for the vht to dry and more if you can. Again like the vht you will want to do several light coats of clear, I did 7 on mine.

5th step-Make sure to have given the paint proper time to fully dry, this is something that could be done the day after, though you would want to re-mask around the tbl to keep from scratching the car paint. But take your 1k sand paper and get it wet with a water/soap mix and sand over the tbl lightly going in one direction then the other.

6th step-At this point you can be done if you are happy with the way it looks, I personally wasn't and wanted a little more shine out of mine. This is where the polishing paper came in, this stuff goes up to a very very fine grit. Again like with the 1k sand paper, you are going to start with the lowest grit and work your way up through the different amounts using the same wetsanding technique that you did with the 1k.

Final outcome should yield you the following

Before

AfterNote you can see it still looks slightly dull in the pic above, that was before the zona polishing paper.Here are some a year later with how it's holding up, shows no sign of being any different than when it was just done.

Hope this helps people. Note I take no responsibility for anything that may happen when following this write up. Also I don't care that you can see my license plate in some and not the others before someone mentions it.
Modified by Z-owned at 12:06 AM 1/24/2010

[Ace2cool]

Also I don't care that you can see my license plate in some and not the others before someone mentions it.

You saw me coming, huh?

Good writeup, man!

[REDWINTERZ]

Thanks

Excellent write-up!

[bentandbuzzin]

I truly think the black is better. I don't know why Nissan used red. You can clearly see that the black works better with the taillights.

[Ace2cool]

Nissan actually produced the car with a black TBL, but over the years, most cars that have ever seen the outside of a garage have slowly faded to red.

[dantesdoom]

Looks great even a year after...i might look into this...i have a small crack...almost like its down in the tbl (you can't feel it on the surface)...this would cover it up and give me that stock look...without breaking my very very small budget! Excellent again!

[300freekzx]

I am doing this tomorrow but I am doing the whole back panel. I hope it works out.

[car nut]

Bandwidth exceeded!

[300freekzx]

I am doing the whole tail hope it looks good

[300freekzx]

Since my tails were really bad and had cracks in the even the clear sections I just blacked out and blacked them out. I DO NOT CARE MY PLATE IS SHOWING! They light up a lot brighter than shown.

[JayShep1]

I am about to do this to my tbl as well but I have some concerns.. After I get the tbl looking all new and shiny, what should I do about the bottom brake pannels? Do I just leave them be, or sand them/clear coat them, or...
If someone could help me out that would be great, I dont really want to black them out.. Any ideas?

[300ZXttZMAN]

I am guessing your talking about smoking the tailights if so buy this:

http://www.repaintsupply.com/pd-vht-sp9 ... -paint.cfm

Any parts house should stock it.

[JayShep1]

I am guessing your talking about smoking the tailights if so buy this:

http://www.repaintsupply.com/pd-vht-sp9 ... -paint.cfm

Any parts house should stock it.

Well I was just wondering if I do the third brake light, are the bottom brake panels going to look less shiney? How I might get the bottom panels to somewhat match the now new and shiny looking third brake light

[300ZXttZMAN]

No they shouldn't unless they are scratched or something?


Reguardless though you should go ahead and paint the TBL cause it will make rear look much better...

[JayShep1]

No they shouldn't unless they are scratched or something?


Reguardless though you should go ahead and paint the TBL cause it will make rear look much better...

You have convinced me!