Since I'm midway through a very long build right now, I've been coming up with ideas here and there for visual mods.

I was thinking this morning (at 4am while I was working on the Jeep ), that I would like to try painting the Tail Lights. I'd like to go from them being Red, Amber, and White, to just Red and White.

Has anyone tried this before? Is is possible to sand off the amber color out of the light and then use just some mid-level rattle can tail light paint to re-paint the whole thing? I'm midway through painting my '90 black and I think it would look cool if I ended up doing red and white tail lights and then do a light coat of VHT Nightshade of the tails to give a nice smoked appearance on my freshly painted Black XJ.

Has anyone tried this before? Can it be done?

 

Bueller?

 

Someone has done it, I'm not sure how, but it's possible

 

http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=40
Here is a great write up and a great site overall

 

YES! Exactly! Thank you very much! You're a rockstar man.

That's what I had in mind right there, plus a really light coat of VHT Nightshade and clearcoat.

Anyone else done this on a Pre-95 XJ? That's my tail light set up and I'd be interested to see those specifically.

 

They look good, but I would imagine the amber will still shine thru the red paint. Just a thought.

 

I decided to try the experiment on my tail lights and I really like how it turned out (try as I might, I wasn't able to find this done on a Pre-96 XJ).

Supplies Needed:
1,000 grit sand paper
Testor's Candy Apple Red Transparent Spray Paint (found anywhere model cars are sold)
Straight Razor
Painter's Tape
Patience

Old Left Side Tail Light:





New Left Side Tail Light:




Comments? I really like the new look! I'll do the right side tomorrow

 

looks clean

 

Looks good, nice work

 

I did the same to my 01 cherokee. I used the red metal cast paint from autozone on the amber then some clear. It turned out great

 

very nice, are you still planning on smokin em out?

 

How well does the paint adhere to the plastic over the long haul?

 

Well I saved myself all that trouble & simply swapped on tail lights from a wagoneer. They look exactly like your pictures, except the edge was chrome. I painted mine black on the edges. Plus I scored an extra set in case I broke those. Sorry I'm at work & can't post pics, but I can when I get home. I think the waggys were available '84 - 88? I'm sure someone will correct the dates if I'm wrong ...
Edit: Pics from the web

 

Haven't totally decided yet, I think I really like the new look the way it is! I may use one really light coat of some VHT, but we'll see how these look first once my paint job is done.


I'm going to clear coat them so I would imagine pretty darn well. Testors is a really sticky paint.

 

ive got red and white taillights on my 00, i didnt make them, i dont know how you could get rid of the amber color