DIY: Tailight Removal and Tinting by: Buddha

THIS POST IS FOR THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO REMOVE AND TINT THEIR TAILIGHTS
REMOVING THE TAILIGHTS
Materials needed:
- 1/4" socket driver
- 1/4" extension
- 8mm socket
- flat blade screwdriver (medium sized)
- phillips screwdriver (#2)
Step by Step removal:
A. Body Lights
1. Open hatch, and proceed to pull back the carpet in both rear corners of the luggage area. There should be one round plastic clip on each side. Just unscrew these with your hand. If you can't you are a weakling! Pull back the carpet a bit.
Top grommets are the bump stops for the hatch. Bottom ones are screw clips that if you cannot remove only if you are a weakling

2. Remove tailight wire harness. To do this just squeeze the two clips together and pull. Then remove the (3) 8mm nuts that hold each tailight in place. There are (2) on top, and (1) on the bottom.
3. Remove each tailight CAREFULLY!!! These cars are getting quite old and very brittle. In some cases wiggling back and forth might break the rubber seal loose. If your rubber seals are dry rotted or cracking, now is a good time to replace them.
Now with the body lights removed lets move onto the lights in the hatch itself.
B. Hatch lights
1. Remove the plastic panel on the underside of the hatch. It runs the entire length of the hatch and is held in by (6) plastic (one turn screws). Using a phillips (#2) only turn these one turn to loosen them. It then almost falls out.
Here is the plastic panel

2. Each of these assemblies are also held in with (3) 8mm nuts. (2) on each side, and (1) under the bump stop on the hatch. First remove the rubber bump stops on each side of the hatch w/ a flatblade screwdriver. Then remove each 8mm nut. Next remove the other 2 nuts on each side of each tailight.
This is where the bump stops were. A nut is hidden in there.

3. At this point the lights are ready to come out. Start wiggling them to break the rubber seals loose. But remember they are only plastic. Don't break them.
You did it the tailights are out!! Now close the hatch so you don't drain the battery, and get ready to sand and sand and sand. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif

TINTING THE TAILIGHTS
Materials needed:
- paper towels
- Windex (or other cleaner)
- razor blades
- 600, 800, 1500 grit wet sandpaper
- water
- Palmolive dish soap
- masking tape
- tack cloth
- VHT Nightshades (transparent black tailight paint) Part #SP-999
- Clearcoat - preferably professional quality
- Polishing Compound
- Cleaner Wax
My parents got mad because I took up the entire kitchen table with my project. God I can't wait to get an apartment.

A. Prepping The Tailights
1. After the lights are removed, clean them THOROUGHLY with Windex or other brand window cleaner. No I am not Greek (I love that movie). The ammonia is a great cleaning agent. Also you will be wetsanding so do not worry, it will not harm the paint or clearcoat!
2. After the lights are clean, take a razor blade and CAREFULLY remove the raised lettering. This will make it much more easier while sanding and won't take so long. Be careful ALL STATES REQUIRE DOT APPROVAL!! It just depends on how flexible your local law enforcement is going to be .
Here are the lights after I used the razorblade to remove the writing.

3. Begin sanding by filling a bucket with just a drop of Palmolive dish soap and warm water. This procedure is used by many old timers in body shops because it gets rid of natural oils from your hands as well as oils and residues on the tailights as you are sanding them.
This is only a drop of Palmolive ! This is all you need.

4. Start off with 600 grit paper to really get rid of the rest of the letters and markings on the lights. You want to sand evenly across the lights. DO NOT FINGER SAND <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/mad.gif" BORDER="0"> . This will make them look uneven and like sheite. Keep sanding and sanding and sanding. This stage is going to take a while if you want your lights to look good. Don't forget the sides of the lenses. Remember to keep you paper wet while sanding and do not get any water inside the bulb holes. It will not look good when it dries.
At this point my fingers were hella smooth. KEEP SANDING!

5. With most of the markings gone, step up to 800 grit paper. Remember to sand evenly across the entire light. By this point the markings or any pitting (besides the factory divets on each light which are impossibe to get out unless you have a sawzall) should be gone. You are just smoothing the lights now. Remember to keep you paper wet.
Here is a comparison of the one sanded light to the orginal light.

6. At this stage most people will say sand with 1200 grit. DO NOT SAND WITH 1200 GRIT. If you sand with very light paper the lights will be so smooth that the paint and clearcoat will not stick to them. And if it does stick it will not be for long.
7. Clean lights thoroughly with clean water, with no soap and let dry thoroughly. From now on whenever you handle the lights wash your hands with Palmolive right before you do. Beleive it of not oil from your hands will do some pretty funky stuff to paint and clearcoat.
8. Tape off the lights with masking tape. This should take some time also. The corrado tailights have some tricky curves. All of the black plastic around the lights should be taped off including the red sections. Yes this also means the divider between the amber and red lights you lazy ass!
Here are some pics of the tails masked off



9. Before painting make sure there are no fingerprints, dust, or water on the lights. So set down the chicken wings with extra sauce, and wash your hands with Palmolive . Use a tackcloth and wipe them down to be sure. You are now ready to paint.
**All good paintwork is a product of great prepping so keep that in mind while you are cursing aloud. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif I cannot emphasize this enough. My dad was a body man and I thought I was anal. He was like my drill seargent while I was sanding!

B. PAINTING THE TAILIGHTS
1. Crack open the VHT Nightshades and put on VERY THIN LIGHT COATS evenly across the tailights. Try and do this in a well ventilated are because this stuff really wreaks. My mom almost had a heart attack when I painted them in my basement! But it was too cold outside to paint! Put on a light coat about every half an hour. Repeat this about 5-6 times or until desired darkness is reached.
**Remember it is unsafe and dangerous to make your tailights too dark. Please be responsible and courteous to other drivers. I do not want anyone to get hurt over a set of tailights being too dark to see brake lights or turn signals. It is really not worth losing a life over a set of cool frickin tailights.
2. Let the tailights dry AT LEAST 24hrs. This brand of paint takes some time to set up, and you can never be too safe. When dry you may wetsand VERY LIGHTLY again with about 1000grit to get rid of dust and prep for clearcoat. REMOVE ALL MASKING TAPE FROM THE LIGHTS/ EXCEPT FOR THE TOP SECTION OF THE BODY LIGHTS. You have to clear all of the lights.
3. I took my lights to a friends bodyshop to clear them. Professional clearcoat is the best to use and I highly reccomend it over store bought. I slipped the guy $20 for his materials and he was happy . If you do not have acess to professional clearcoat, use an ENAMEL based clearcoat. Do not use a laquer based clearcoat because it will strip all of the Nightshades off the tailights.
4. Before you clearcoat them wipe down with the tackcloth again. Once again when spraying the clearcoat on the lights, apply thin light coats of clearcoat. I put on 3-4 coats and let them bake for a while in the booth. Let them setup for about 24hrs.
5. When they are dry, remove the remaining masking tape. You are ready to wetsand with 1500 grit to get rid of the orange peel. I have not done this yet because I have very very minimal oragne peel due to my anal retentive prepping procedure, and I was too excited to get them on the car.
Here are some pics of them tails after they were cleared.



6. Now if you want, you can buff them with polishing compound and watch them shine like no other . Mine were not hazy at all so I'm not going to do this step. You can also put on a coat of car wax to protect them from the elements.
7. To install them back into your car just follow the removal instructions in reverse. Make sure you align the light in the hatch to the ones on the body. It will look ten times better if you do.
Smile because now your car looks even better!!
Enjoy Fellas!! Good Luck!! Go crusing or something. When you get home drink a six pack.
If you have any questions feel free to IM or email me. Also if I missed anything or spelling is wrong, let me know.
Also thanks to Cramer for answering so many questions and having one of, if not the nicest Corrado's on the vortex!! http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


Modified by Buddha92SLC at 1:43 PM 11-1-2007