ok some of you might know from the recent posts i've made, that i got NOS headlights. (yes the whole 144 bucks) but now my corner lights look so horrible next to them i get sick! hah not really. anyway i was trying to think of something to do about it.. thought about sanding them till they shine but i dont think that would actually come out good. i mean these corners wouldnt even look good if i took the lenses off got the orange part out and made them "clear corners" since they're not CLEAR. so i was thinking about painting the whole things amber. i've seen SOME stuff online but i cant find a reliable place to get them.
does anyone know where you can get the translucent amber spray paint? its the only thing i can come up with to deal with the "smoke grey fogged" look of them.
You can get them pretty good with the polishing.
Before polishing:
(http://home.comcast.net/~ktf23t/picture_008.jpg)
After polishing:
(http://home.comcast.net/~ktf23t/picture_009.jpg)
im not seeing any pictures? thanks for the post tho :)
edit, dont know why i couldnt see them before, i hit the quote and looked at the links, your befores look WAY better than what i got, im not sure polishing will work b/c they look pitted and frosted... but i'll give it a shot, what stuff did you use?
Heh - this freaked me out - I did a Google search of my user name and the word "polishing" and I found an article based on the post I was searching for. Someone used my post to create an article on how to polish plastic lights. Since most of the article is taken from what I wrote, you can just use this link as a reference http://www.lincolnsonline.com/tech/00019.html
I do appreciate the person giving credit to me though!
thanks a lot, i'll deffinatly give it a shot. for those out there that are looking for amber corner paint, look for Tamiya R/C car spray paint. it's translucent and is made for the bodies that are made of lexan and are perfectly see through and you paint the inside. a word of caution tho is that the color orange might actually be a bright "beautiful" orange instead of a dark amber color. also i found some glass paint that might work from hobby lobby. (i might try these just to see and if i do i'll post up results but im ganna try polishing first)
Here's a link to the spray paint i'm talkin about http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tam/tam86043.htm?source=froogle
Last winter, I took all the lights off my car and wet sanded them with 800 grit sandpaper, then 1500 grit, then polished them out with polishing compound and sprayed them with some clear lacquer.
I thought they came out pretty good, but it definitely took some elbow grease.
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c223/Red_LX/IM000049.jpg)
Clear corners are for ricer copycats. If you want to make a statement, make a unique statement :shakeass:
You'd be surprised how well your lights will polish up. They might look like hell, but it's really only the top 1/32 of an inch or so that's bad, unless they're really REALLY bad, in which case they can have millions of tiny cracks that go all the way through the lens (my old non-TC inner lights were like that). Even if they're cracked through, though, polishing them will still make 'em look 100X better.
Or you could do something REALLY different, like I've done with my corners:
wow thats nice, your he guy that makes the sequential tails correct? anyway those arent 2 different corner set ups are they, i bet those are bluish or white untill you put the blinkers on? i really like that if so, im ganna check out your website to see if you sell those as a kit :hick:
im not trying to make a statement with the amber, im just trying to find a solution to ugly lights, i havnt had the time to try the polishing just yet, but now that i see the led version im thinkin about goin that extra mile(s) i just looked at your site thunder chicken, do you sell LED kits? PM me if you dont mind and can you show me how you did those corners?!??! please please please :hick:
You're most welcome. Thanks to you my cars have nice, bright eyes. :)
EDIT: anyone else who'd like to contribute to Lincolnsonline's TECH database is more than welcome to contact me. :)
That is a single light. It's amber when the normal park lights are on, then turns blueish white and gets a helluva lot brighter with the turn signals (the amber LED's actually light up with the turn signals too, but the white ones overpower them).
I do not sell them. The amount of work involved would mean they'd have to be at least $300/pair to be profitable. Just taking the stock light apart can take several hours because unlike the inner lights and headlights, Ford glued the lenses on the corners really, REALLY well.
My original thread on 'em is here (http://"http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=12956&highlight=clear+corners") - you can almost use it as a "how-to"
...and if you think THEY'RE cool, you will be floored when I finish my LED tail light project. approximately 600 superbright red LED's (300 per side) arranged in the stock three-circle-per-side configuration, each circle with a blue LED in the center that can be switched independently (to resemble the old "blue dots" but remain legal when I turn 'em off), and 288 superbright whites (for backup lights). This is a much bigger project, though, and has been in the works on and off for about four years now...
You can get transparent colors at a hobby store. Tamiya makes transparent orange that's pretty close to the turn signal, Testors makes a metallic yellow that's also close. I don't think they'd last long in the real world of rain, sun, gravel and such. The flipside is, the paint is pretty cheap as compared to visiting an auto paint supply.
yea i posted a link to the tamiya paint, its really cheap. if i were to do this i would add a good coat of clear coat. im actually thinking about using exterior glass paint thats translucent so i can mix it and get a darker shade closer to the darker amber vs the orange. i have a feeling it'll be too vibrant a shade of orange.