Taillight Conversions On 98 Civic Sedan

[xxtwstedmethodxx]

Hey I was wondering if there are any relatively simple conversions I can do to my 4-door 98 civic. And how hard would it be to use taillights made for the civic coupes, I want to put the taillights with the bezels on it... but they dont make it for sedans. And for using a coupes taillights, what would I need? Thanks in advance

[Civic_D16Y5]

the coupes are smaller and longer, much work and not worth it, keep them stock and save the money for the motor

[Ricochet]

what he said

[apexigod]

ah, don't you hate it when people don't answer your question?

blah blah, save for the motor, euro's are gay, this is gay, that is gay

what you can do, is have the custom refiberglassed into the back of your car, and will probably cost around $250 + whatever the paint job costs to refinish the surface.

[Ricochet]

I hate it when people ask these questions

[sageuvagony]

6th gen sedan tail-lights are UGLY. YOu can see why he's changing them... but the rear end would have to be redone. If I had that car, I would want to do it badly but wouldnt spend a ton of money just for different tail lights

[Ricochet]

I would look for some all-red ones, if any companies make them..

[Civic_D16Y5]

ricochet, your usually the one to say to do it yourself when it comes to somethings, like with these tail, a person could red them out themselves couldnt they?

[Ricochet]

They do make transparent color sprays (red is one) just like the black Nightshades stuff, but orange signals shining through that would be ugly..

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by apexigod

ah, don't you hate it when people don't answer your question?

blah blah, save for the motor, euro's are gay, this is gay, that is gay

what you can do, is have the custom refiberglassed into the back of your car, and will probably cost around $250 + whatever the paint job costs to refinish the surface.

$250 for a taillight conversion (not including the cost of painting)? Your numbers are off there, WAAAYYY off. Redoing a back end for a custom tailight conversion is a heck of a lot more than "$250 + whatever the paint job costs to refinish the surface." The cost of taillight conversions is well into the thousands of dollers, not $250.

[apexigod]

Originally Posted by eckoman_pdx

$250 for a taillight conversion (not including the cost of painting)? Your numbers are off there, WAAAYYY off. Redoing a back end for a custom tailight conversion is a heck of a lot more than "$250 + whatever the paint job costs to refinish the surface." The cost of taillight conversions is well into the thousands of dollers, not $250.

no its not, and I don't know what body shop you are going to...but your getting fucked.

a tail light conversion is actually very simple...you take out the existing tail lights, make a fiberglass panel to fit in the space between the tail lights where the license plate is, pop that peice off, insert the fiberglass panel, fiberglass the license plate holder in, put in the new tail lights, fiberglass that to match up the the car...fiberglass the holes, and your done. Refinish the surface, paint it to match.

I hate to break it to ya, <i>mr. right</i> but a 4D to 2D Civic tail light conversion doesn't cost $250. I'd find a better body shop if I were you, <i>junior</i>

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by apexigod

no its not, and I don't know what body shop you are going to...but your getting fucked.

a tail light conversion is actually very simple...you take out the existing tail lights, make a fiberglass panel to fit in the space between the tail lights where the license plate is, pop that peice off, insert the fiberglass panel, fiberglass the license plate holder in, put in the new tail lights, fiberglass that to match up the the car...fiberglass the holes, and your done. Refinish the surface, paint it to match.

I hate to break it to ya, <i>mr. right</i> but a 4D to 2D Civic tail light conversion doesn't cost $250. I'd find a better body shop if I were you, <i>junior</i>

You are wrong. Maybe the parts are that cheap, but with Labor included I can assure you it's not. I can wrap a pair of front seats in Suede for $300, but I assure you it will cost you more to have it done, and way more for the material unless the wholesalers sell to you.

A taillight conversion is putting the wrong tails on the wronf car, like putting IS300 tails on a 96 civic. It's a lot more than simple, "pop off and fiberglass. True, it's not to complicated if you know how. Still, it requires cutting an pening for the new tails, fiberglassing for te install, paintin, etc. It takes a lot of time to do a qauliy job, and if paying someone, time is $$...period. It's just like the interior work. I can re-uphoster a car with a custom interior in suede and new carpeting and mats for around $900-$1000, including the carpeting. Now I sure as hell won't charge a custmer that. I have to make a profit on the parts, thats MY PRICE wholesale. Then theres the COST OF MY TIME TO DO THE WORK.

If you think the cost of having someone do a QAULITY TAILLIGHT CONVERSION FOR YOU IS $250, then contact Kicker1solo. I can tell you right now his prices are normal. I know several people who have body shops who do darn good work, and it's not cheap to have them do it. If you want to do it yourself, your damn right it's no 2 grand. But if you want someone else to do it for you, and do a qaulity job, it's a hell of a lot more than $250. For one, at an average $50/hr, thats only 5 hours worth of time, not including parts. Realize the cost of having other people do body work I OVERPRICED, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF. A lot of this cost is in the price of labor. If you can do the labor yourself, it's a hell of a lot cheaper...it is with anything.

You have to assume a person in here who's never done any fiberglassing or bodywork themselfs can't do a qaulilty tail conversion.

Your example also did not take into accont creating a space for the new tails while covering the old space. It only taked of the license plate holder area. The tails are on the outside qauter panels AND next to the plae holder on the trunk. Chances are, you'll have to do some cutting beside glassin. Now true, cutting doesn't cost parts, but you're gonna pay to have someone else put in the time to do it.

If having SOMEONE ELSE do a taillight conversion was $250, a hell of a lot more people would be rollin lexus, bmw, and supra tails.

[Miataracer]

Originally Posted by eckoman_pdx

You are wrong. Maybe the parts are that cheap, but with Labor included I can assure you it's not. I can wrap a pair of front seats in Suede for $300, but I assure you it will cost you more to have it done, and way more for the material unless the wholesalers sell to you.

A taillight conversion is putting the wrong tails on the wronf car, like putting IS300 tails on a 96 civic. It's a lot more than simple, "pop off and fiberglass. True, it's not to complicated if you know how. Still, it requires cutting an pening for the new tails, fiberglassing for te install, paintin, etc. It takes a lot of time to do a qauliy job, and if paying someone, time is $$...period. It's just like the interior work. I can re-uphoster a car with a custom interior in suede and new carpeting and mats for around $900-$1000, including the carpeting. Now I sure as hell won't charge a custmer that. I have to make a profit on the parts, thats MY PRICE wholesale. Then theres the COST OF MY TIME TO DO THE WORK.

If you think the cost of having someone do a QAULITY TAILLIGHT CONVERSION FOR YOU IS $250, then contact Kicker1solo. I can tell you right now his prices are normal. I know several people who have body shops who do darn good work, and it's not cheap to have them do it. If you want to do it yourself, your damn right it's no 2 grand. But if you want someone else to do it for you, and do a qaulity job, it's a hell of a lot more than $250. For one, at an average $50/hr, thats only 5 hours worth of time, not including parts. Realize the cost of having other people do body work I OVERPRICED, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF. A lot of this cost is in the price of labor. If you can do the labor yourself, it's a hell of a lot cheaper...it is with anything.

You have to assume a person in here who's never done any fiberglassing or bodywork themselfs can't do a qaulilty tail conversion.

Your example also did not take into accont creating a space for the new tails while covering the old space. It only taked of the license plate holder area. The tails are on the outside qauter panels AND next to the plae holder on the trunk. Chances are, you'll have to do some cutting beside glassin. Now true, cutting doesn't cost parts, but you're gonna pay to have someone else put in the time to do it.

If having SOMEONE ELSE do a taillight conversion was $250, a hell of a lot more people would be rollin lexus, bmw, and supra tails.

Amen, very well said.

[apexigod]

Originally Posted by eckoman_pdx

If having SOMEONE ELSE do a taillight conversion was $250, a hell of a lot more people would be rollin lexus, bmw, and supra tails.

come to my town, and see eclipse's rolling on supra tail lights, and civics and preludes with lexus style tails, hell...there's even a 4 door civic here with 2003 Altima tails.

in my town, at 3B Collision Repair, they do tail light conversions for $250 + painting...and the guy is great.

so maybe you should move to my town, eh?

[kicker1_solo]

Originally Posted by apexigod

in my town, at 3B Collision Repair, they do tail light conversions for $250 + painting...and the guy is great.

so maybe you should move to my town, eh?

Impossible. There is no way in hell that a shop could and would do that and make money off of it. The average competitive hourly cost for body work is $40-$60. For a quick job you could get a taillight job done in a few hours, maybe 4-5 hours (and that's people busting ass trying to get it done, good luck finding people that work like they wanna get the project done). 5 hours at $50 an hour is $250. So the shop comes out even on the time spent, then there's the cost of materials and all that shit, they end up losing no matter how you look at it. Either you are full of shit or the guy in your town is a complete fool. Here in the northwest taillight conversions go for at least a grand, for a simple one. The last one I did was put 98 tails onto a 94 civic and that ran about $700 just for the labor. There's a lot involved in it, you have to cut in some spots and then fill in other areas, believe me, it takes time....and skill.

And if you don't believe me about all this, I can show you some of the cars that I've done that people have payed well over a grand to have my shop do. And I must be having decent prices if people are still coming.