Polished taillights & painted rear trim

[capt_furious]

I polished my taillights while the Z was getting painted, and figured I should paint the rear trim while I was at it, since it'd be a wasted effort to put the salty trim back on over a set of good taillights.

 

Here's what the car looked like before:

 

 

Here are the taillights in process. The right one has been completely polished, the left has been wet sanded. Of note is that I shaved off the DOT lettering before sanding.

 

 

 

Left side wet sanded and primed, right side yet to be started. The primer is Tamiya surface primer, because I had a can in the paint drawer and because the slot car shop across the street had two boxes on the shelf. Works for both plastic and metal, which I needed for the chrome trim pieces. I wet sanded everything, including the chrome pieces, before priming. All primed pieces were wet sanded again with 600 grit after they dried. This produced an extremely smooth surface and I don't think I'd have got it with a standard primer. Tamiya's spray nozzles are well designed and the primer goes on very smoothly(important if you're painting models).

 

Left side and center painted with Dupli-Color Graphite Wheel Paint. This is very close to the stock color(a bit light from what I can tell, either that or the old paint was really dirty and blackened from road film & exhaust)

 

Closeup of the center section. This was after a coating of Krylon Crystal Clear Satin. I didn't want a high gloss and I needed something to seal in the wheel paint...the metalflake seemed as if it might rub off after it dried, and might age quickly as a result. This sealed it in and gave it a sheen without looking too 'plastic'.

 

All assembled. I tinted the reverse lights with Monogram Clear Lacquer Tint. Stuff works great, even leaves a nice gloss over the polish I'd already put on them.

 

Closeup of everything assembled. I really like the look, works well with the car's colors and doesn't overpower anything. The chrome definitely had to go back here, if it had been perfect I'd have left it alone, but it was flaking and pitted.

[Guest mg89]

nice work. looks good

[ThreeMoneyJ]

looks really good, I need to do something with mine too.

 

I couldn't help but notice your license plate frame, Santa Rosa? I haven't seen your car around though

 

John

[e_racer1999]

that came out REALLY nice.... GJ

[capt_furious]

Thanks for the compliments! I'm really happy with how it turned out.

 

(John, I sent you a private message)