CAUTION: Tail light painters.

Recently (.. well.. like 2 months ago) painted my tail lights with Testors Transparent Candy Apple Red enamel paint. Even put 12 or so coats of clearcoat ( i was very careful.. haha ... and paranoid). Well.. now winter comes with all its fury. Houston weather sucks especially. ...

THE PAINT CRACKED OFF.... Not only the clearcoat, but the red coat as well. The paint, possibly not being able to withstand extreme (40 F.. yea.. whatever.. its cold to my sorry A$$)... cracked off due to exposure to cold. If ANYONE knows how to prevent this (i garage my car.. but its outside during day for school parking).... please tell me. I have orange blotches now... horrible.

-Phil

i didnt even do that many coats and i didnt even clear coat it


its been cold here and my car is outside 24/7 and mine has not cracked or anything or faded... neither has both of my freinds that have done theirs

NismoG20, what exact paint did you use?? I was thinking of doing this to my p11 but am now having second thoughts...

No clearcoat? How long have you had the paint on ? What type of paint?

The amazing thing is that the cracked paint chips got the chip that was from the entire layer. What i mean is.. it chipped ALL THE WAY to the orange reflector! .... Very odd. I'd expect some chip through layers of the paint.. but not all the way to the orange...

-Phil

The paint chipping off right through all those coats is strange. Sounds more like it was intentionally done, but who knows. I'm also thinking about painting my taillights, so if you get any solid info about whether they are cold proof or not, post it, because it can get some darn cold here....

Also, I was thinking of getting a spare set of taillights to do this to, and swap them, but then again I don't really need 2 sets of taillights. What can be done if I screw up? How long should I let it dry, 24 hours? I guess I could always fall back on getting another set of taillights if I did screw it up...

Originally posted by ricecube77
Well.. now winter comes with all its fury. Houston weather sucks especially. ...

:hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe: :hehe: :hehehe:

In Houston? :hehe: :hehehe:

Son, you don't know what winter is.

Ask me next time what Rochester winters are like. :D

By any chance did you paint a lacquer clear coat over the enamel?

Lacquers are "hot" paints, which means each coat etches itself into the previous coat by way of a chemical reaction. Sometimes this reaction can cause cracking. It could be they were already cracked, but the cold actually broke the pieces loose.

your supposed to use clear coat for the body of a car, dont use laquer. use gloss clear enamel.

How many coats of paint are you guys using, BTW? I'm going to do this tomorrow, and I have some perfectionist in me, so I want to get it right...

My taillights have a black plastic strip in between the orange part and the red, and the clear (reverse) is located in the bottom red section, so it should be quite easy to mask things off.

I used Testors Clearcoat High Gloss Coat.
Not Laquor :)



-About the intentional chipping, i highly doubt that. Why would they choose to crack the paint and not try to hit both sides, or crack the entire light? Very odd.......



George.... You don't know what REAL winter is. Ask me what winter is like in China. BOOYA :bandit: :bandit: :bandit: :bandit: :flipa: :finger: :bandit: :finger: :flipa: :bandit: :bandit: :bandit: :bandit:

J/k. Haha

-Phil

If you really want to do a good job painting taillights, you need to use some high quality paint. The best way to do this job is to use House of Kolor transparant kandy apple red and House of Kolor shimirn clear coat (3 to 4 coats) This will stand up to all kinds of conditions.

If you don't believe me, try giving body pros in southern cali a call. Talk to Derrick Telak. I talked to him and was going to send him my sister's taillights (97 Sentra) but he told me what paint to get and how to do it myself. They charge around $80 to do 2 taillights (4piece is a little more) They are perhaps the leading import body shop and have had tons of cars painted by them featured in magazines.

BTW, there is also an article about this process used by body pros in SCC a few months back (They painted the taillights on SCC's project 200SX se-r)

Well, I just applied the first coat of paint, and I think it's gonna turn out looking great. The orange section now has a slight red tinge, hopefully a couple more coats will get it the same color as the brake light section.

Mine are a lot wasier to work with than yours...the clear part for reverse is located in the red section, and the orange part is completely isolated from the red/clear by a black plastic strip, so it's a lot easier to mask off.

Rice, I did the exact same thing, maybe cause u asked me how I did mine. :) Mine is 2 weeks older than yours I think and I used the same process. Not quite as many coats of red though and only a light coat of gloss. My car is outside 24/7 in the midst of lovely New England weather. Mine looks as good as the day I did it. Don't know what to tell you

6 coats of red and a can of clearcoat. Not tat much......

Is Testors or House of Kolor available in Auto parts store ?

Probably not. They're both brands of model paints, so you should check in hobby stores.

Well, I did it. I used the Testors stuff. I only had time for 3 coats today, and I'm extremely pleased with the results, but since the painted part is still ever so slightly lighter than the brake section, I'm gonna put on another few coats tomorrow. Really pleased with the results!