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DIY: Vinyl Your Tail Light Corners

19K views 51 replies 41 participants last post by  Teg.Time 
#1 ·
Ok, as promised just incase I leave the site forever. I will leave you all with a couple DIY’s on my specialty: VINYL!!!

The most popular thing to do is turn your 94 tail lights to turn them into 98 tails.


Tools required:



*Red Vinyl
*Xacto knife or razor blade
*Soap mixed with warm water
*Blow dryer
*Decal applier or credit card wrapped in cloth

The decal applier can found at Wal-Mart I believe or any custom signs store near you. The vinyl can be found at a sign store, ebay or pm me.

*The tail light used in this article is a 98 JDM Tail light. I don’t have a 94-97 tail light on hand so this will do for now. The final product has a slightly darker corner than the rest of the tail light because this shade of red was made for the 94-97 tail light.

WHY VINYL?
It beats paint if you’re bad at painting or if you don’t want to paint at all. It’s easily reversible and does not chip of. once it is on, it’s on until you want it off. Vinyl grips very very well but can be peeled off with some ease and doesn’t leave a messy residue. It lasts long, on average 3-5 years when used outdoors and can endure extreme weather.


1.Mix warm water and a little bit of soap in a cup. Enough to get some small bubbles going.



2.Clean your tail light so it is nice and clean. You want the surface to be dirt free to apply the vinyl.





3.Dip your hand in the cup, and rub the soap/water mixture on your tail light corner to get the corner lightly wet.







4.Peel the vinyl and apply the whole thing on the tail light.





5.Use the applier or credit card and PUSH OUT starting from the middle of the corner pushing outwards. This will get the water out. Make sure to push out any possible air bubbles out as well.







6.Grab the blow dryer, put it on HOT mode. The blow dryer will soften up the vinyl so it can bend easier and form to corners. I start off in the LOW mode and point it towards the corners of the tail light and repeatedly PUSH OUT from the middle. This will help straighten out the vinyl and help it wrap around the edges.





7.If there are any bubbles or creases still stuck, just peel the vinyl from the corner closest to it and rewrap it as you PUSH OUT from the middle of the corner outwards to straighten it up.





8.As the vinyl is taking shape, put the blow dryer on HIGH mode (if applicable) to blow at the whole corner and edges to finalize and make sure the vinyl sticks on to the tail light.





9.Take out your Xacto knife/razor blade and cut around the corner of the tail light. Use light pressure, enough to cut off the vinyl but too much pressure will leave a scratch in the tail light. The stock tail lights have a small crease outline in which you can cut along. If you want, you can trace this crease. If not you can trace outside of the crease to make sure you don’t cut off a part of the vinyl that is covering the amber.





10.Peel off the excess, if any of it is still stuck then cut it off.




11.Use the blow dryer to blow at the cut edges if it peeled off a bit. Use your car/applier to flatten those edges off.



12.You’re done, hit the streets and enjoy your new red corners.







Contact me for any questions about the write up or vinyl via PM or aim: mystikalstriker.

-Tony
 
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#35 ·
ok i bought some from a local tint shop, i did everything it says, then i got to the corner and it lookd like crap, so i ripped it off, and i musta did this like 10 times and i still cant seem to get it to fit. it keeps wrinkling up everytime on the corner and it just pissed me off so i quit, any solutions, [like slits in the vinlyl, tried that made it worse]
 
#38 ·
Integra820 on Oct/30/07 said:
ok i bought some from a local tint shop, i did everything it says, then i got to the corner and it lookd like crap, so i ripped it off, and i musta did this like 10 times and i still cant seem to get it to fit. it keeps wrinkling up everytime on the corner and it just pissed me off so i quit, any solutions, [like slits in the vinlyl, tried that made it worse]
Trust me it's easy I did mine in 20 mins and i got it from a guy on ebay. To get it to be smoother and curve in on the corners you have to use the hair dryer. It'll heat it up and soften it up enough to mold onto the taillight by hand but you just gotta be quick about it or your gonna have to re-wet the lens and do the corner again. And BE CAREFUL, too much heat will start to melt the vinyl so keep the hair dryer on hot medium to help you out. I actually used a heat gun, but it gets much hotter much quicker so it was trickier for me.
 
#39 ·
Integra820 on Oct/30/07 said:
ok i bought some from a local tint shop, i did everything it says, then i got to the corner and it lookd like crap, so i ripped it off, and i musta did this like 10 times and i still cant seem to get it to fit. it keeps wrinkling up everytime on the corner and it just pissed me off so i quit, any solutions, [like slits in the vinlyl, tried that made it worse]
too much heat.
 
#40 ·
Yup wrinkles in the corner when your applying heat means too much heat, just make it warm enough so its more flexible like a paper towel would feel almost. Any slits in the vinyl would be visible, let amber through, or would overlap and make one spot redder than the rest. Definitely not desirable.
 
#41 ·
Integra820 on Oct/30/07 said:
ok i bought some from a local tint shop, i did everything it says, then i got to the corner and it lookd like crap, so i ripped it off, and i musta did this like 10 times and i still cant seem to get it to fit. it keeps wrinkling up everytime on the corner and it just pissed me off so i quit, any solutions, [like slits in the vinlyl, tried that made it worse]
im with him Lol .. this guy made it look so easy but im having a hard time
 
#42 ·
ok for those having trouble with the corner of the light. This is what the hair dryer is used for. It heats up the vinyl so you can STRETCH it not too hard or it'll rip. It might take you a few times to get this right. When I did the first writeup for this on T-I for the RSX I must have went through 3 pairs before getting it down. Just a reminder Patience is golden when it comes to this project. Atleast for the corner part anyway.
 
#45 ·
Anybody done this with a similar product to tint the corner lamps in the front?

I painted mine once, but they faded pretty quickly!
 
#47 ·
yes Hot soapy water. use dishwashing soap. Make sure there is no OXY clean stuff in it or it might not let the vinyl stretch.
 
#50 ·
Nice work.I'll probably experiment with this on some extra tails I have in my garage.



I painted my 95 tails. I'm good with paint, so if you do it right, they wont fade and they won't have the orange peel surface. here is my how to paint tails CORRECTLY thread


This looks like it may be a better alternative though, reason being, you can remove it easily and that it it will take a lot less time than painting.
 
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