VIC - Clear Tail Lights Day

A Few More Pics!!!

Hey all.......firstly a few BIG thankyou's!!!!

To Ray (xpenZive).......for hosting this day! & allowing the 'evil black shit' near
his home!!

To James (Zealous).......for going far above & beyond true Z mateship!!

To Tim (Baroo) & Jay (hypedz).......for all their much needed help!

To everyone for coming along & making it such a great day!!.....even if it was a little 'messy'!!! .....& time consuming!! 12hour day!! what were we thinking!!!!

& LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!!.....to Patrick (dBcar)!!!......mate your custom pin striping was just AWESOME!!!!! :zlove: .......we could never have achieved such a great result without it!!!

& now to the pics!!

The brave souls who were about to put themselves through the "black tar pit from hell" ......the smiles would soon disappear from their un-suspecting faces!!!!

fradda (Jorge)


'Roy's Little Helper'


Spacefrog (Keen....I hope that's how ya spell it??? )


Some poor sucker!!!


We were later joined by Mafi-zed (Trav) & Chad......sorry no pics!! but I'll explain why in a minute!!! ......but the custom pin striping they had with them thanks to dBcar (Patrick) was just sooooo sweet! :zlove:
And so it began......


Roy ponders what he has got himself in for????......while the boys are hard at work!!


Well that's the easy bit done!!!!


There was such an 'evil presence'......some of it rubbed off on Roy's black beast!!!.........mmmmmm very 'eeeeevil'
Roy cleared his lights as well but just tried these on for size!!


The 'oven method'.....note the hi-tech piece of precise equipment keeping it all
in place!!!


There is a severe lack of pics after this point!!.......for those who are not familiar with the 'evil black shit'.......trust me it gets EVERYWHERE!!!! ....& the last thing my silver camera needed was some black fingerprints!!....I wish I had a pic of the Prepsolve can though!!!.......by the time we had finished it was black too!!!......just from the 'evil black shit' on everyone's hands!!

So after a 9.30am start I was confident we would be finished by late afternoon!!!......boy was I wrong!! ......I had to leave the scene of the crime by about 5.30pm.......car & lights still in pieces along with everyone else's!!! ......to rush off to see U2 at the 'Dome'........don't think my better half would have ever forgiven me if I'd have missed it!!! As I've already said.......James went above & beyond the call of Z mateship to finish my car for me!!! :zlove: :zlove:

So at 9.30pm.....only 12hours after the day had begun!!! I received a text message in the middle of 'Elevation' saying the guys had finished!!.....& even then I later found out that Keen had gone home 'half done'...due to the difficulties he had getting his lights back together!!!

A word of warning......anyone thinking of doing this.....it's probably best to keep it to smaller numbers......clearing 6pairs of lights was probably a little too ambitious when you consider each one had to be prepped.....then have a stint in the oven for 15mins etc etc!!!

Also......it crossed my mind that there may be an easier way to remove the 'evil black shit' from the lights if you are planning to replace it with new stuff where they seal with the car body???......by cooling it down rather than heating it up??

This is only my 'hypothesis' as we didn't try this at all!!!!!!!

When it's warm it becomes tacky & soft.......but if it was cooled??....say in the freezer???......would it harden??.....& the stuff loves to stick to itself!!!!.....so it may then be possible to get a small amount off the light, roll it into a ball & 'pick' the rest off with this???.....just a thought as James mentioned having some success once with a similar method!!......would be interesting to hear if anyone has tried this???

But enough of that!!!!
Here's the final result!!



Mr Nissan would be proud!!!!:zlove: :zlove: .......& all for much less than $500+!!


& now for the bad news!!!

after fitting the cleared lights.......2 of the lenses seem to have cracked overnight??? .....my driver's side & fradda's passenger side!!!
......I hope no one else has had any issues with theirs???

Mine had no cracks after they were separated......as I would have seen them immediately when I applied the pin stripes........& similarly when James fitted them to the car & cleaned them up at the end......he noticed nothing???.....it was dark by then so this could be a factor???......but they appear to have cracked through the night??? Has anyone else had this happen before??

I was wondering if,with the boys finishing at 9.30pm, the cold night air may have had something to do with it????......as the car was left undercover but outside that night!!! The lights were hot to close them back together & re-attach them to the car body......Could rapid cooling have caused the outer plastic to crack???

Who knows???.....but after Jorge saw my disappointment today (Mon).....he later went home to find his had done the same thing!!!

So it now looks like after promising myself that I would NEVER go through that hell again.......I will have to!!! .....well at least for one side anyway!!!
At least I will have Jorge to keep me company!!
Keep ya fingers crossed for us & I'll keep ya posted!

CheerZ
Russ

 

nice pics russ, but did anyone tell you james took 4.5 hrs to put your boot trim back together definate mechanic material

my lenses havent cracked but then again my lenses havent been stuck back to the light yet, has to wait till this weekend, im gonna try some thinner 1.5-2mm stuff to help disperse the light a bit better

 

Did any one tell you that i didnt have any correct size tools! lol! (somebody was hoggin them all!)

At least i'd be a rich mechanic, think of all that labour!

 

No stripes for something different. and didn't wanna spend 2 hours lining them up perfectly straight.

 

Now you guys have to update your photo collections with your new clear lights Especially if you use an old pic in your sig

 

Tell me about it lol...i used to park my car with the front sticking out, now i hang my arse out all the time LOLL...

my lights havnt cracked....i would say it has something to do with the glue getting harder as it sets....i havnt put any glue on mine yet because i still need to run a line of silicone from the inside to keep the diffuser pushed out...so seeeing as i havnt put any glue and havnt cracked, i would say its got to do with the glue setting over time and applying pressure to the glass....

maybe just apply the glue, and not tighten the screws up, so when the glue sets more it moves a lil to keep tension off the glass...then the next day tighten the screws up....

 

What a marathon of a day. As with tech days that I had when I was in Canberra I am always amazed at how nice the Zedders who come to these things are. What a great community to be a part of.

Russ did the actual diffuser that we cut out crack?
Keen I think you have a power steering leak, fluid on driveway where your car was.

Clearing the lights is well worth it but as Russ said our efforts may have been a little optimistic LOL But we got there.......eventually.

 

Yeah that's my car. In the process of trying to claim it on warranty.

Sorry to mess up your driveway. It was probably the 10 point parking I did at the end of the night, when I had my reverse globes out shining on the rear window, which made the rear view mirror useless.

How bad are these cracks? I noticed one on my left light. A small one, underneath my brake light reflector. But it might have been there already?? not sure. We noticed this on Sunday night, while we were still working on it.

After having to open up my tailight a couple more times since sunday. I'd have to say I'm getting quite good at it.

 

James when it comes time to put your baby together!!! :zlove: :zlove: ....call me anytime you need a hand!!!! CheerZ mate!!![/QUOTE]


that makes two lending you a hand, James thanks for all your help mate really mean that mate thanks

also, Tim you too mate, thanks for staying back with James and seeing it through to the end :zlove:

 

guys .. you cannot say that you were not warned ..

..search will reveal an historical victorian thread clearly stating that .. "never again" .. and a much, much more recent thread by yours truly, wherein the whole house was covered in THAT black schisen ..!!! .. isn't it LUBBERLY ..??!!

and to the technicalities .. the cracking lens .. two possible issues..

over heating .. check out the baron threads ,, the tail light unit in the oven .. place it on a large hunk of wood, in the oven, to prevent direct heat transfer .. and while in the oven, turn the unit a few times, again to distribute the heat ..

second possible problem, as mentioned, could relate to the mastic ,, i used what was there .. and did not have an issue ,, i.e. i did not replace any black schisen .. there is enough there to do 10 zeds ...!!!

just a couple of thoughts ...???

 

No!....it was

the actual clear plastic outer cover on the light that cracked!!

 

That sucks balls bad. I think I will buy a second set of lights and do it all like that when I do them. Just incase.

 

how?

how have so many cracked?
ive done mine twice now without a problem

 

Well done everyone, im very impressed with the results of the double clear taillights, i cant wait to do this mod on my car, is there any chance of doing this tech day again sometime early next year??? That way everyone who missed out, like me and krause007 could make an appearance as well as many others who couldnt make it. This will also give me time to buy a pair of spare tail lights.

 

Hehe, thanks for including me mate, I've actually had the OEM clears for a few months now, I was coming so ppl could copy the pinstrips etc off the 'official' ones But always looking to join in a club day!!

Cheers, Andrew

 

haha, yeh i know thats y i chose my words carefully, 'make an appearance' lol cause i remember when you said you'd offered to come and help the guys copy the offical light pinstrips. If we have another one would be great for you to come and make sure we get it exact

 

my lights....

are perfect no cracks at all,still not on car yet, black ones are still in hav'nt tested the reflectors yet looks good.Also thanks to tim & james for your help through out the day.

 

Never Again!!! lol

I don't think you will find too many of us rushing to go through this again!!! ......but if you decide to organise another one yourself early next year??.....I'm sure a few of us will be more than happy to come along & help out!
:zlove: :zlove:

 

Pics???

Hey Roy......would love to see some pics when you get the cleared tail lights on the black beast!!! :zlove:

 

Just a theory but the outer lense may have cooled quicker because it is on the outside of the car.