taillight conversion

[Speed Demon Lover]

im looking into a taillight conversion, i like those afterburner lights http://members.lycos.nl/hendrik/crxproto/cyber.htm but i was wanting to do one lite on both sides and cut out a design instead of a circle. does anyone know how to make the afterburner lights or if blackouts are made for a crx.

[crxlvr]

no blackouts avail, although if you find some clears(good luck) then open em up and spray that black tint Testors model paint in em, that would black them out.

[TheSilentChamber]

I can make you some fiberglass covers that you could cut any design you wanted to into them and mount them on top of your factory lights, or put some red lense behind them and make your own light.

edit- but I dont have any crx lights laying around and I think there differnt than civic lights.

[CivicSpoon]

NightShades blackout spray maybe?

[Speed Demon Lover]

Originally Posted by TheSilentChamber

I can make you some fiberglass covers that you could cut any design you wanted to into them and mount them on top of your factory lights, or put some red lense behind them and make your own light.

edit- but I dont have any crx lights laying around and I think there differnt than civic lights.

how would you go about doin that?

[TheSilentChamber]

make a mold of the tail lights, pop it off, lay the fiberglass inside the mold, pop that out and bam, cut your design pop the cover on and your ready to go.

[Speed Demon Lover]

is there a way i could do that myself

[TheSilentChamber]

yeah it wouldnt be that hard. Tomorow if your still intested I'll write a walk-though on how to do it, I'm tired and fixing to go home.

[Speed Demon Lover]

sure, cool that would be amazing.

[90hatchsi]

TheSilentChamber...I take it you do your own fiberglass work, like the eyelids on ebayfor the 88-91 civic? Just curious, but where do you get your fiberglass from? I can't find it anywhere in town. I have access to a pottery studio and I can make molds easily with clay, but I can't find fiberglass to make products with. Can I use something other than clay for molds like cardboard?

[TheSilentChamber]

90hatchsi. I buy all my stuff though a wholesaler though my shop. You can usually find fiberglass at automotive stores such as autozone, o'reilys, ect. Clay wouldnt make a very good mold becuase the resin would accually penetrate the clay it seems like, unless it was fired and finished, but it will still be pretty brittle. I use fiberglass to make all my molds, its the best thing to use.

To make a fiberglass cover for your tail lights:

You will need:
Fiberglass cloth, enough to cover both lenses three times, this would probably be one or two of those small one yard packages sold at automotive stores.
1 quart of polyester resin, with hardener.
Paint brushes, you can use those cheep throw away ones or you can get a cheep natrual hair one for a little more and clean it up with acetone, your choise.
Rubber gloves.
Masking tape
Small rubber squeegy or plastic bondo spreader
General tools.

Clean the taillight with acetone, just put some on a rag and wipe it across it a couple times, this gets most everything off of it as acetone is very strong stuff. Do not soak the tail light in it it will melt. Now wipe it down with a clean rag. If your going to be doing this work while its still on the car use masking tape to completely cover the surrounding area about 6-7" wide, and cover the bumper all the way across the top and about 4" down where your going to be working at. If your going to take them out of the car tape off the back of the taillight and everything you do not want the fiberglass to touch. It would be best that if you remove it you build some type of jig or something to hold it firmly in place with the lense facing strait up. Once you have everything tape you'll want to wax the tail light with 2-3 coats of wax, normal car wax will work. Normally you would use mold release wax but it is pretty expensive and you wont need but a little bit and car wax will work. take and lay your fiberglass cloth over the taillight and cut a piece that overlaps the edges by about an inch or so all the way around. You will need three pieces for each tail light, this should be thick enough sence it is just a cover. Ok now to the fun part.

Find a plastic cup or bowl to mix the resin in, dont use styrofoam it will melt. Mix the resin in the cup, you wont need much, if the cup is about 3" wide you will need maby 1" of resin. Add the hardener, but DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH, most people over catalize resin way too much, follow the directions on the can of resin. once you have mixed them together real good take your brush and paint on a coat of resin, add lay on your first layer of fiberglass cloth, it should stick to the resin that you painted on fairly good. Now stick your brush in the resin about 1" deep or so to cover the tip of the brush, now you will want to use a kind of dabbing motion insted of a painting motion. You want to push the end of the brush strait down into the cloth over and over again, dont add too much resin. You are trying to achive what is known as proper wet-out. The fiberglass cloth should come pretty much clear, no white spots. Once you have the entire thing looking that way (it goes really fast, but it sounds slow when your reading this) repeat that for the next two layers, adding only enough resin to make it turn clear and pushing the resin into the fiberglass with the top of your brush. Once you have finished the third layer take your squeegy or bondo spreaker and lightly go across the surface, this will smooth out the resin and make make the surface alot easyer to work with. Just cover about 1/4" past the edge of the lens with resin, you dont have to go all the way to the 1" overlap. Ok now you can clean your brush with acetone as well as the squeegy or you can simply throw them away if you dont want to clean them. Let the resin work its job, should be hard in couple hours depending on temp, if its cool outside it could take longer. Once it has hardend you can remove it. To do this take your bondo spreader and cut it so that its about 2-3" wide, grab the edge of the fiberglass that has overlaped and pull up on it, slide your speader under it work it till you get it between the lense and the fiberglass, it may take a few tries. Once you have it between the lense and the fiberglass start pushing it araound, you will be able to see where it has seperated at, push it around the edges get as close to the middle as you can, till the whole thing seperates, you may have to tugg on it a little.

Now you will want to trim the edges and finish it. You can use sissors to cut most of the overlap off and then get it perfect with sand paper. To get the shape you can use 80 grit on the edges, but only use this on the edge to get it down to final shape, its to course to use on the surface of it. Use 120 grit to sand down the face, the move on to 220. If you have small voids you can can put a skim coat of bondo on themand sand that smooth. You can use a dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut your design into it then finish the edges with 220 grit sand paper, or you can use a jigsaw, but make sure you have a sheet of plywood under it if you use a jigsaw. Sand it all smooth with 220 grit, primer, paint. Sence this is for taillights you shouldnt have a problem with shine though, but you can put a couple layers of black paint on the back if your worried about it. Now attach them, if you want it perminate you could glue it or if you ever want to take them off you could use double sided mounting tape, a few strips in differnt spots will hold it on good.

[Onimacus]

I think that CRX is ugly, im sorry.

[Speed Demon Lover]

wow thanx alot for that info im gonna try it

[Speed Demon Lover]

still taking suggestions

[TheSilentChamber]

need any more help just ask.