I've never liked the rx8 tail lights, I really hate altezzas but that's just my opinion. Anyways, I decided to tint them since it'd be less clear and altezza looking that way. First time I did it I used Night Shade, worst crap ever. Turned out terrible and had a purple tint to it.

I wet sanded all the night shade and clearcoat off and decided to redo it. This time I used the same stuff I did this on with my old SUV. I really should've just used it to begin with since I had such great results, but stupid me wanted to try something new. Oh well, live and learn.

Anyways, pics.

Wet sanded down


After first coat


After second coat




Third coat




Fourth





The paint is still drying currently, later I'll be doing a few layers of clearcoat. After that is all dry I'll be wetsanding it a tad to take out any blemishes, then polishing them. I'll take some pictures of them on the car once it's all done.

I'm MUCH happier with the way they turned out this time, a nice glossy color and no purple tint to it. For anyone wondering, I used Testors Transparent Black Paint, it is a tinting spray for model cars.

 

preliminary results look pretty good, although it sounds kind've tedious. oh well, guess it makes it that much more rewarding. can't wait to see them installed again.

 

Yah it's tedious, but I don't mind. I've painted and tinted a lot of things in my life, I'm used to it. Since I did it in my kitchen, with newspaper well spread out and protecting stuff, I had my tv turned on and was watching. Every 10 minutes, new coat, then back to watching.

 

Hey, those actually look pretty nice. Please do post pics as soon as everything's installed!

 

I will, it'll either be later tonight or tomorrow, depending on how long it takes me to finish them and if I get sidetracked working on my rx7.

 

pictures!! im excited to see it

 

So far it looks good--I would never do it though; I like the lights on the RX8.

 

Nice work, dDub. What do you plan to use to polish them? Glass polish or a paint polish?

 

Meguiar's Mirror Glaze polish, #7. It's made for painted surfaces including clearcoat.

 

So far so good! I'm looking forward to the final pics!

 

Alrighty, done.

After clearcoat was done/dry.




One on the right is wetsanded/polished, one on the left isn't.


Both sanded.


And a couple night shots of it on my car, just got done putting them back on. I'll get some daytime pics tomorrow.

 

Maybe better pics would convince me but right now they just don't look quite right. To me they just look dirty, like there's a thin film of road grime/dirt on them. I realize you went to alot of trouble doing this and if you like it that's what matters most. Not something I'd do though.

 

Road grime? Hmm, not sure about road grime being that dark.

But yah, to each their own. I hate the altezza look and am really annoyed that its the new "cool" thing for car manufacturers, especially Mazda, to do. But oh well, if there weren't people that liked it they wouldn't do it.

 

Maybe better daytime pics will do it justice.

 

not bad, not bad. i'm likin' your island and gas stove top though. waiting patiently for day shots....

 

Heh, my mother would thank you. She picked out the layout/design for the kitchen.

 

Damn that looks like a lotta work. Nicely done. *Waiting for daylight pics.

 

looks nice.... would love to see the daylight pic too

but have you notice you have just lost the night reflective thingo....
so lets say if you park it at night, the on coming car will be more difficult to see/locate you since there are no reflective bits from the taillights......

 

daylight pictures pls!!!!

 

hrm.. smoked is an ~okay look i guess.. but you also frosted the covers up by sanding em.... which doesn't look that good...

oh well.. as long as u like it that way

 

i think if you had used a high speed buffer to polish the lense. you would have a smoother look which to me would look great. i see a lot of what we call an orange peel texture.

 

Day time pics.

 

Good job! Looks good with your color.

 

Yah, before doing this I did a photoshop mockup of what it might look like, to help me decide if I wanted to or not. I really liked how it looked with titanium grey, which is why I went ahead and did it. I think it'd look best on black of course, really sleek.

 

Nicely done dDub.