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Niteshade taillights?


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Anyone blacked out the tails on the MJ? I am trying to change the look just a bit. Mine were separating anyway so I took them off and I am cleaning them real well, using some plastic polish on them. As I look at them, I think I could make them into a smooth look pretty easily by back filling the mold from the back then sanding and polishing the front smooth. Then I could niteshade, wet sand, and clear coat them and have a newer look. But what would black outs look like to begin with?

 

Keep in mind I am going more for the street look.

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If you can get the lens off the tails you can paint the inside of the lens. Then you don't know have to sand and they look factory.

 

I did not know this, and I wish you had said something before I glued them back together...

 

I had the lens off to buff it. Hit it with fine sandpaper till it had a uniform appearance, then nailed it with Mguires Plastix. It looks damn near new now. Now I just need to pull the other one and do it. But I am hoping to find a good left taillight since it has a chip in the very edge. Not into the light really, just on the edge. This method cleaned them up very well. Just don't go too hard with the sandpaper, just hard enough to take the fog out.

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If you can get the lens off the tails you can paint the inside of the lens. Then you don't know have to sand and they look factory.

 

I did not know this, and I wish you had said something before I glued them back together...

 

I had the lens off to buff it. Hit it with fine sandpaper till it had a uniform appearance, then nailed it with Mguires Plastix. It looks damn near new now. Now I just need to pull the other one and do it. But I am hoping to find a good left taillight since it has a chip in the very edge. Not into the light really, just on the edge. This method cleaned them up very well. Just don't go too hard with the sandpaper, just hard enough to take the fog out.

 

How hard was it to pull the lens off?

You can also get a LED retrofit for your bulbs that will shine through the paint better.

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it was already separated. The lens was held on by the two side screws. After I cleaned it all up I actually only glued it with a good RTV, wanted something I know would keep most of the water out. So separating it later should not be too much of a problem if I am careful. The other side looks to have separated slightly as well so I am hoping that I can get it apart.

 

I don't use the LED bulbs. I got some for a motorcycle I used to have. Popped them in and stood back, the old bulbs were brighter. So I swapped them back out. May have just been a motorcycle thing, but you could not see them as well. COuld have been the bulbs too I suppose, they were off the shelf from advance.

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it was already separated. The lens was held on by the two side screws. After I cleaned it all up I actually only glued it with a good RTV, wanted something I know would keep most of the water out. So separating it later should not be too much of a problem if I am careful. The other side looks to have separated slightly as well so I am hoping that I can get it apart.

 

I don't use the LED bulbs. I got some for a motorcycle I used to have. Popped them in and stood back, the old bulbs were brighter. So I swapped them back out. May have just been a motorcycle thing, but you could not see them as well. COuld have been the bulbs too I suppose, they were off the shelf from advance.

I saw a write-up on a honda forum where someone made there own LED kit using super bright LEDs and it was really, really bright. Ill try to find it.. Its been quite a few years ago... The tail lights were completely black but even in the daylight you could still see the lights pretty darn good.. I'm thinking he used some super bright white LEDs..

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  • 1 year later...

I'm not sure how I missed this thread whn it came out originally, but theres a guy that workis in the body shop at the dealer I work at that has a 2 door cherokee that he did up in bedliner and he did his taillights like this with the tint and they are DARK! And if you are driving behind him you can barely see the brake lights come on, but it looks good! He definitely could use some brighter bulbs though!

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I did the ones on my Subaru within a week of owning the car back in Aug of 2007; I'm super happy with the results, they still look the way they did when I first did them and after 80,000+ miles of driving, I haven't encountered a cop who cares. Light still goes through great, can't even tell at night that they are tinted. I picked up an extra set of MJ taillights to do this to, but have yet to get around to doing it cause it does take time to do it right;

I first used 3M wax remover on the lenses to clean them. I then sprayed 2 even coats of spary tint on both lights (got the spray tint off ebay, "nightshades"), allowing 10 mins to dry between coats. This stuff runs easy, so take your time and be sure the tint is even. After I allowed 24 hours to dry, I used Dupli-color clear (got it at Wal-mart) and sprayed 5 generous coats of clear. After allowing another 24 hours for that to dry, I wet sanded them with 2000 grit sandpaper until all the orange peel was gone, I then buffed them using 3M rubbing compound and a Mothers Powerball on a drill. This is kinda a one time deal, so take your time to do it right or it will be an expensive mistake (or just look like crap)

 

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