All Red Tails: What's the best way to make/buy them?

[ltvinny]

I want to replace my factory taillights and I'm considering several options.

Option 1: All Red Tails

Option 2: Clear/Red Tails

Option 3: Smoked/Red Tails

I would really like to see what all red taillights would look like against my Moonlight Blue paint but I'm not sure what the best way is to buy/make a set. The two options I've found to make them are to paint OEM or aftermarket tail lights with specialized paint or to apply red tinted film to OEM or aftermarket tail lights. I believe that the red paint is probably the best way to go but I'm not 100% positive.

I also found a company that sells OEM tail lights with the all red paint already applied:
http://www.bks-tuning.com/epages/171...ucts/VWCORL004

Does anyone have any experience with any of this? Is there a company that manufactures them? I want something that looks as though it could have come from the factory and has a shiny OEM-like finish.

Thoughts?

[RedYellowWhite]

I originally bought the EmpireGFX film to do mine, but didn't manage

So, I bought a pair of already tinted (painted) all-red (oem set) from ebay.de (not the shop in your link tho...)

Torsten here has an aftermarket set (InPro's I think) which he mad all-red using the EmpireGFX film on his green VR. DIY link: http://www.53i-styling.de/

if I were to do all-red tails again, I would personally opt to make an crystal clear/red InPro set into all-red using Testors paint

[crisvr6]

go and buy this



and paint them



and looks pretty crappy on white

[vdubCorrado]

start here...


remove, clean, very lightly sand and tape off...


use VHT Nite Shades red or smoke (which ever you are looking to do) in long sweeping patterns otherwise it will run




now if you desire you can cleat coat... i just leave em as is on red. smoke usually needs clear. reinstall.


the can has been updated since this car was done...


(clear was not sanded in this picture)


...here's red with reverse lights left clear. these were done with Testers Stained Glass Paint. do NOT use! it fades really bad!

first done


after a few months


later that season after it started being stripped for it's complete bare shell build up (still in progress )

notice how they've almost completely faded back to orange...

[Torsten]

if your going with some crystal clear lights to paint them red, dont forget to paint the ugly chrome housing black. it makes them look 1000 times better

[VW_OwneR_85]

forget buying aftermarket new style lights they look absolutley Shiit! ruins the corrado!

you want candy red or a tint spray and then a 2k clear coat ontop or a 1k spray can clear
{but not as good as 2k } heres some smoked i did for my m8,



and all reds for mine, but turned out ok without a clearcoat, going to lightly scuff it then clear it next time im spraying,

[Tk2g60]

I originally bought the EmpireGFX film to do mine, but didn't manage

Are these the overlays you are talking about? Why didnt they work?

Op here is a previous thread about all red tails.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-All-red-tails

I was thinkIng about the overlays but not if there is issues with them. The. I guess testors all the way

[Torsten]

i had them and it worked fine first time, actually it was just a try and i still use the lights for years now.

[Rhino74]

I used vht red nightshades on mine and taped off the reverse lights. I used clear on them though, they came out nice.


381724_2704172492108_1490629783_32915536_744546220 _n by driverx15, on Flickr

[Sr. Karmann]

and looks pretty crappy on white

But they do look pretty good on grey now

[petethepug]

****
*****
***** MAKE 'EM *****

That looks really good Torsten. After seeing this I'm torn between smoked or red. The smoked lights I ordered are definitely not as dark as they're pictured. After the red shade's applied the plastic lens seems sculpted instead of looking like the chrome reflector behind it.

Reminds me of this:

I'll be happy to ditch this look:

I'm torn between smoking em or all red. After looking at a couple different examples I think the the all red tails look good smoked and the clear tails look good tinted red

[RedYellowWhite]

Are these the overlays you are talking about? Why didnt they work?

Op here is a previous thread about all red tails.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-All-red-tails

I was thinkIng about the overlays but not if there is issues with them. The. I guess testors all the way

It was my first time trying something like that with overlays and I f@cked up bad ....
Didn't stick well due to too many corners, had air bubbles etc. But as I said it was the first time I tried something like that. I've done a pair of turnsignals recently and those came out amazing

[dogger]

Vince take my advice and sand the writing off first if you do them or have them done. I don't know why people don't do this. Looks 100x better. Also spray a good urethane clear followed by wet sanding and polishing.

[corradokyd]

before I smoked mine, I did all red. I went to the hobby store and bought a can of Transparent Candy Grape which was the old school way to spray your tails all red. They held up great with a coat of polyurethane on top of them. I eventually just went half smoked...

[YONI RED]

Laminx Red
Before Clear n´Red

Later Red film

[xtremevdub]

Grind all the Markings on the tails OFF. (hella and what not..)
then use the film with very light soapy water...
DONT USE A HEAT GUN.
Use your woman's hair dryer... (or your boyfriend for the homos)

The results... First time doing a set...






Take a close look at the corners... They are perfect.
No spray paint can do that.

[g6raddo]

Grind all the Markings on the tails OFF. (hella and what not..)
then use the film with very light soapy water...
DONT USE A HEAT GUN.
Use your woman's hair dryer... (or your boyfriend for the homos)

The results... First time doing a set...






Take a close look at the corners... They are perfect.
No spray paint can do that.

Did you do both tops and bottoms or just the tops? They look great

[cata]

That's a kit that's just for the tops. It actually matches up quite nicely and can only be noticed with a trained eye.

His end result turned out a bit better with the markings ground off. If you spend the time, you can get nearly as good results with them left on, just gotta work harder with the heat gun. I used a bobby pin to poke tiny holes in areas where bubbles formed where water didn't get fully squeezed out. It ended up taking me an entire day with all said and done, but at least I can return the tails to stock condition if I choose to down the road

[xtremevdub]

That's a kit that's just for the tops. It actually matches up quite nicely and can only be noticed with a trained eye.

His end result turned out a bit better with the markings ground off. If you spend the time, you can get nearly as good results with them left on, just gotta work harder with the heat gun. I used a bobby pin to poke tiny holes in areas where bubbles formed where water didn't get fully squeezed out. It ended up taking me an entire day with all said and done, but at least I can return the tails to stock condition if I choose to down the road

Guys, seriously dont ever use a heat gun with the overlays.. the material is way too sensitive to high heat and will shrink way to fast to control it.. a hair dryer works amazing.
again if you shave the letters and imperfections off you will get a much cleaner look. Even better than the factory look. And you barely get any bubbles stock anywhere. The pin trick works well.
You MUST wet sand a buff the bottom part so it matches the super smooth shiny look of the tops...

to sand imperfections use an electric sander and you should be done in like 30 min.

BTW I sold that set, because they came out soooo good that I was seriously thinking about buying another corrado just to run those..

[cata]

Correction, used moms blow-drier. Much easier to find than a heat gun

[xtremevdub]

Correction, used moms blow-drier. Much easier to find than a heat gun

If you use some one else Mom's Blow dryer is even better!

[VW_OwneR_85]

Grind all the Markings on the tails OFF. (hella and what not..)
then use the film with very light soapy water...
DONT USE A HEAT GUN.
Use your woman's hair dryer... (or your boyfriend for the homos)

The results... First time doing a set...






Take a close look at the corners... They are perfect.
No spray paint can do that.

they look dude! well done, but i disagree about the spray paint comment,

cant realy tell from the quality of the photo but , these are done with tint spray followed by 2k clear and the edges and corners are mint, theres no reason they wouldnt be unless you dont do even coats and it builds up to much, either way good job, just another method of acheiveing the same results..

[6BangSneezer]

If you use some one else Mom's Blow dryer is even better!

Double werk cred!!!

[crazynorweegian]

They do look "dude." I have had my empire GFX overlays in a drawer for a while now, I might actually put them on this summer now... after the heater core.

[VR6 Rage]

Many helpful answers in here. I don't have pics online but I used sandpaper and polish on my OEM tails to rub off the markings and then overlaid the EmpireGFX reds on them. I'm very happy with the result since the red matches very closely to the red lower lights.

It wasn't the easiest install because the curve of the overlays didn't quite match the curve of the lights but with enough soap to move it around and a *sharp razor blade* (use a brand new one I think this is the most important thing) to cut off the excess the end result is worth it. I bought one of those tint install kits with the squeegee and razor blade and I recommend it.

Lastly, I don't daily my car so I can't talk about the longevity of the overlays. I would recommend this for non-daily drivers. If I daily drove it, I would probably go with some kind of spray paint and clear coat.

[cata]

If you use some one else Mom's Blow dryer is even better!