InfiniteGSX
20+ Year Contributor
- 3,183
- 15
- Dec 10, 2002
-
Tijeras,
New Mexico
Some people have been asking me to make one, and honestly its not worth it to have me do it. Its really easy to do. You ever oven bake your headlights or tail lights? I do all the time to mod headlights or tail lights for someone.
There are 5 10mm bolts holding the center tail in place. Undo those and pull it.
PreHeat the oven to 250. Place the center tail inside on a metal pan... like a cookie sheet, on the bolts so the plastic doesn't get to hot. Leave it in for a few minutes, but keep an eye... you want it to be too hot to touch with your hand, but not soo hot it melts ya know.
Then you need to pull the part out and quickly work to separate the red lens with the body. The center tails weren't given much thought like the tails and headlights were. So it should be extremely easy. However be careful, I'd hate for you to damage your tail. But if you do, its cheap at the local yard.
Next you need to get yourself some sand paper. I chose the Sponge Prep Sand Blocks... They are soo easy to handle. Get a heavy grit. You'll notice on the inside of the Red Lens, there is a silver reflective coating. You need to sand this down. Try to go as far down as possible. To get more light. To get more of an LED Look, sand it down to where there are tons of red dots.
Next, your going to have purchase some reflective paint. AutoZone sells this stuff. The type of paint that if you point a light at it, it reflects back really bright. Find something white, or silver. Non of that Amber or red crap. And you need to spray the inside of the Black base of the 3rd Brake Light. I laid mine with aluminum foil, that was a mistake! You could also use white paint... but that just doesn't look good enough. So for best results use the reflective paint. And before you go onto the next step, please make sure you let the paint dry so you can adhere stuff to it.
Next, your going to have to order an LED Strip from Ebay. You need one that is a little longer then double the length of the Center Tail. If you've seen the LED Gauge Cluster mods in here, thats what your going to do. Your going to wrap the LED Strip up inside. Get some Double Sided Tape or Hot Glue to stick it to the edges. Try to expand out as much as you can and make sure its up against the back.
You can stick the wire for this in one of the holes on the bottom.
Next is the hard part. If your center tail still has the ECLIPSE badge on it, PERFECT! Its also nice if you got a finner grit sand paper for paint prep... but if not, thats ok, just might cause problems in the end. Leave the letters on. And sand the outside surface to get a good scuff out of it, try to get as close to the letters as possible.
Next you have to make a choice of what color you want it to be. Since you have a red car, I'd assume your going to use a matching red paint. Once you've made your choice, make sure the surface you prepped is clean and your in a good clean area. Start spraying even coats on the face. Don't worry about the letters yet. Just make sure you get a few good coats on, if not your going to have issues with light flowing through the paint. If you want to prevent this entirely, buy some black primer and start out with this first... Then you can go over the black primer with the base coat (red if thats what you chose). Make sure you do even coats, following the instructions on the cans, you don't want any runs...
Once the paint has dried, the hard part emerges. Your going to have to peal the letters off. I used a small but very sharp knife. You have to be super careful, stick the knife under the letter and start to pull up on it. You might get very unlucky and the letter will come off and leave the sticky stuff. This is annoying! Cause it just makes the process soo much harder. But do not rush anything. If the paint didn't stick enough, it will stick to the letters and peal with the letters and this we do not want. A way to completely prevent that will be to take a razor, pref. an X-acto knife and go around the base of the letters, cutting the paint so when you peal, the paint is already cut and wont come up with the paint.
Once you get the letters off... your almost finished. Hold the piece up high to the light and watch the letters shine on through.
I recommend going over it now with a clear coat. Makes it look soo much nicer and protects the letters from chipping as you wash the car or anything of the sort.
Now you just have to snap the lens and the base back together, put the 5 10mm bolts back on and tighten up. And wire the led's into whatever source you see fit. Pontiac Fiero's have something similar that say PONTIAC in the back, it turns on with the Ignition wire. I wired the Spyders up to the Parking Lights. The White GST is wired to the Ignition... I think wiring it to the ignition is nicer. If your at a drive thru at night, don't have your lights on but the ignition is on to listen to the radio, everyone gets to see the nice ass of your car.
Some cool tricks is to go over this with VHT if your going to use VHT on your tail lights... Light still shines through, but you can't tell it says ECLIPSE until the light lights up. thats something new I wanna try out on the White GST's center tail.
I hope this has been Informative.
There are 5 10mm bolts holding the center tail in place. Undo those and pull it.
PreHeat the oven to 250. Place the center tail inside on a metal pan... like a cookie sheet, on the bolts so the plastic doesn't get to hot. Leave it in for a few minutes, but keep an eye... you want it to be too hot to touch with your hand, but not soo hot it melts ya know.
Then you need to pull the part out and quickly work to separate the red lens with the body. The center tails weren't given much thought like the tails and headlights were. So it should be extremely easy. However be careful, I'd hate for you to damage your tail. But if you do, its cheap at the local yard.
Next you need to get yourself some sand paper. I chose the Sponge Prep Sand Blocks... They are soo easy to handle. Get a heavy grit. You'll notice on the inside of the Red Lens, there is a silver reflective coating. You need to sand this down. Try to go as far down as possible. To get more light. To get more of an LED Look, sand it down to where there are tons of red dots.
Next, your going to have purchase some reflective paint. AutoZone sells this stuff. The type of paint that if you point a light at it, it reflects back really bright. Find something white, or silver. Non of that Amber or red crap. And you need to spray the inside of the Black base of the 3rd Brake Light. I laid mine with aluminum foil, that was a mistake! You could also use white paint... but that just doesn't look good enough. So for best results use the reflective paint. And before you go onto the next step, please make sure you let the paint dry so you can adhere stuff to it.
Next, your going to have to order an LED Strip from Ebay. You need one that is a little longer then double the length of the Center Tail. If you've seen the LED Gauge Cluster mods in here, thats what your going to do. Your going to wrap the LED Strip up inside. Get some Double Sided Tape or Hot Glue to stick it to the edges. Try to expand out as much as you can and make sure its up against the back.
You can stick the wire for this in one of the holes on the bottom.
Next is the hard part. If your center tail still has the ECLIPSE badge on it, PERFECT! Its also nice if you got a finner grit sand paper for paint prep... but if not, thats ok, just might cause problems in the end. Leave the letters on. And sand the outside surface to get a good scuff out of it, try to get as close to the letters as possible.
Next you have to make a choice of what color you want it to be. Since you have a red car, I'd assume your going to use a matching red paint. Once you've made your choice, make sure the surface you prepped is clean and your in a good clean area. Start spraying even coats on the face. Don't worry about the letters yet. Just make sure you get a few good coats on, if not your going to have issues with light flowing through the paint. If you want to prevent this entirely, buy some black primer and start out with this first... Then you can go over the black primer with the base coat (red if thats what you chose). Make sure you do even coats, following the instructions on the cans, you don't want any runs...
Once the paint has dried, the hard part emerges. Your going to have to peal the letters off. I used a small but very sharp knife. You have to be super careful, stick the knife under the letter and start to pull up on it. You might get very unlucky and the letter will come off and leave the sticky stuff. This is annoying! Cause it just makes the process soo much harder. But do not rush anything. If the paint didn't stick enough, it will stick to the letters and peal with the letters and this we do not want. A way to completely prevent that will be to take a razor, pref. an X-acto knife and go around the base of the letters, cutting the paint so when you peal, the paint is already cut and wont come up with the paint.
Once you get the letters off... your almost finished. Hold the piece up high to the light and watch the letters shine on through.
I recommend going over it now with a clear coat. Makes it look soo much nicer and protects the letters from chipping as you wash the car or anything of the sort.
Now you just have to snap the lens and the base back together, put the 5 10mm bolts back on and tighten up. And wire the led's into whatever source you see fit. Pontiac Fiero's have something similar that say PONTIAC in the back, it turns on with the Ignition wire. I wired the Spyders up to the Parking Lights. The White GST is wired to the Ignition... I think wiring it to the ignition is nicer. If your at a drive thru at night, don't have your lights on but the ignition is on to listen to the radio, everyone gets to see the nice ass of your car.
Some cool tricks is to go over this with VHT if your going to use VHT on your tail lights... Light still shines through, but you can't tell it says ECLIPSE until the light lights up. thats something new I wanna try out on the White GST's center tail.
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I hope this has been Informative.
I'm making another one! 
