dDub, why not do the ole' cook em' up technique. Open up the light and paint the inside. The Miatas have been doing that mod for years. Does it not work with this light? Seems like the best way to avoid cops, have a clear exterior and get rid of the look you don't like.

Just toss one in the oven for 15 minutes on 200F to release the glue. Paint, and re-seal. Anyone try that?

 

Did that on a previous car I had, didn't like the results. I had to reseal them many times before they stopped getting moisture in. Yes that's a problem coming from me either not doing it properly or not sealing well enough. But I just don't want to go through that again.

 

Truemagellen tried and tried and tried no luck separating the cover.

Others tried some melted the covers by using too much heat

For some reason the headlights are easier to separate than the tails.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ght=taillights

 

it just occurred to me how f-in irritiating it is that people call ANYTHING that looks like Altezza tail-lights "altezza's". I can sort'a understand it when you have a craptacular Honda, or some bolt on laden Mini-Truck, or some ridiculous ghetto-ricer-fartcannon 200$ car with 5,000 wheels...and the aftermarket "altezza" style lights. But when your car already comes with them how about just calling them "stock" instead of "altezza" ? When was the last time anybody actually looked at the Altezza lights anyway, there's a lot more seperation of the different lenses, a lot more chrome, no l.e.d.s etc etc etc.......so why do people keep saying our lenses look the same, or even call them altezza for that matter?

here's my point:

back of IS300-



our car:



now to me the only similarity I note is they both use clear in some places as opposed to the more traditional style of red/amber, but I still don't think that justifies being called altezza or whatever since they came with the frickin' car.

Here's my example of what I think aftermarket altezza's or altezza style or whatever the hell is:



that one in particular is for a del sol, and is a true "altezza" rip-off/wannabe

sorry for the rant but I'm really sick and tired of hearing our tail lights (which are some of the more unique and distinguishable ones out there) get trashed or compared to stuff all the time when they're totally different than anything out there.

 

So the Mazda 6 has Altezzas but do we call them stock?

What exactly is Altezza?

 

altezza is the name of the is300 in japan

 

and since the altezza aka IS300 started that trend.. peeps have been calling them altezzas ever since..

it was revolutionary back in the day... when the IS300 first came out with them...but then along came APC...need i say more...

i only wished we had tailights that looked like the G35.. i love those... all red with LEDs..or if some company could make an LED tailamp at least...

 

Those all look like altezzas to me. Yah they are "stock" rx8 lights, but they still resemble the "altezza style." Why would I say such a thing? Because Mazda was purposefully doing this! Ever since the fast and the furious and the honda modifying revolution that went nuts, car companies have been adding this STYLE of lights to stock vehicles, as well as other styles and dealership "performance" modifications. They did it because they figured it would attract more iinterest since so many people use that style as an aftermarket modification.

 

I'm planning on spray tinting my tails with VHT Niteshades. I have done this once before with good results although, I didn't go very dark. I had the orange peel effect on my last effort but I also did not wet sand, I was just curious if anyone has done this with success? I just want to know,
1. What exact brand of clear was used.
2. What grit wet sanding paper was used
3. After final coat how long was the paint let dry before polishing/wet sanding

Just for reference here is what my last cars tails looked like.
Before


After

 

Taillights look better, but the rest of the car...