What Tail lights Would Work on a 240Z ?

[Tim240z]

Here one that was on ebay.

Eric, if you don't have thesepics you might want to grab them quick.

 

here's the auction

 

Tim

[Guest Anonymous]

how about 180sx tails?

 

or a70 supra

 

or fd rx-7

 

or fc rx-7

 

the "bad ideas" page i found when looking for pics

looks like photoshop nerds smoking crack, some cool stuff though

[Guest KraZ4spd]

I'm Sold!!!

 

Now where can I get some rear fenders something like those? I wouldn't want to mess with the doors though.

Hey Zero, Do me favor. Raise the license plate just a bit, and try making the rear valance more like this. Just a little raise in the middle. I like the exhaust in the style you've got going.

 

Oh yeah, one more thing, YOU ROCK!!

[zero]

heres what you asked for, its kinda rough because i had to rush but you get the general idea.

 

and heres what you wanted nemisiz

[Guest LT4Justin]

Figured I'd throw this one out there...

 

 

Mid 90's Olds Cutlass Supreme sedan... If you were to rotate them both inwards 90 degrees and switch sides so that the radiused corner is on top, and the reverse lights are inward I think it could look decent on a 240 if the scale's right.

 

Plus they have the benefit of not being nearly as recognizable as Z32 or MKIV tails for example... so the car would look more custom, and less a mish mash of parts.

[Guest Anonymous]

if you like those so much whats wrong with the 180sx tails.

[tsumner]

How about taillights from a 67 camaro ss?They are rectangular approx.4x11(I guess) crome outer edge,flat black edging around a solid red center. Non ss cars had verticle divider creating 2 rectangular panels red on the outside white to the inside.

This is what I plan on using in my car.I haven't tried any mock-ups to check on the visual balance yet.

Could you do this in foto shop for me?

Later, Tom

[zero]

couldnt find any decent ss rear pics so heres a normal camaro

[zero]

heres the olds idea, i rather like this one

[blueovalz]

Headache1

[Sleek Z]

ZERO,

 

The OLDS tail light shape does fit the extended shape of Pierre's flare design decently and your assorted photoshop "what ifs" have been very helpful contributions to this thread.

 

However, the issue for many may come down to whether those tail lights or others suggested, will pass muster within the confines of the stock S30 tail light panel area above the bumper. As nice as Pierre'z custom body is, I suspect that few customizers will be taking their body mods that far outboard.

 

Can you use one of my early shots of Dan Judays car to work up ideas within the stock S30 panel? To me the stock panel spaces above and below the rear bumper are the most challenging and difficult to redesign in a fresh way. What do others think would work?

 

 

 

btw, the red Ferrari pic posted by Nemeziz 8 posts previous really shows what attention to detail the designers of that car took to integrate everything together into a completly harmonious whole.

 

Beginning with the design statement starting at the first front fender curve lifting up over the head light area, along the top, mid and bottom areas of the doors on back to the rear corner haunch and deck before coming to rest and completion in the rear tail light panel, Ferrari still resorts to a simple, but effective tail light theme of well positioned and correctly scaled ROUND tail lights. So very classic historically and yet Ferrari manages to still make their use look fresh, modern and natural to most of us. I think there is a real lesson to be learned HERE about how design can possess objective properties as well as numerous subjective ones. Very fascinating to me. Trying to understand just what it is that the Italians and Ferrari in particular, seem to understand so instinctively just drives me crazy sometimes when I am trying to come up with my own designs on a computer. (forget pencil sketching, I never have been able to draw worth sh**t)

 

btw, blueovalz (Terry) can you say more about "headache 1" statement in your last post? I know you have thought long and hard on your solution. Your thoughts would be most helpful at this point.

 

Hey, and guys, I've really appreciated the efforts some of you have put into this thread. This past week I've received quite a few off-forum comments about this topic and the tail light photo display published last week. One guy with strong opinions wrote to me and said, "In your (tail light) pictures of Z's there is only one person with any kind of creativity. It's the one that may have used tail lights from a 1971 ford Fairlane GT everybody else does the SAME OLD THING.The car is I-2_B jpg if he follows through with it and after it's painted it will look good."

 

How many of you agree? You can review photo I-2b in the GUIDE TO CUSTOM TAIL LIGHT IDEAS photo display.

 

---Sleek Z

[pparaska]

Originally posted by Sleek Z:

...One guy with strong opinions wrote to me and said, "In your (tail light) pictures of Z's there is only one person with any kind of creativity. It's the one that may have used tail lights from a 1971 ford Fairlane GT everybody else does the SAME OLD THING.The car is I-2_B jpg if he follows through with it and after it's painted it will look good."

 

How many of you agree?...

Eric, to an extent, I agree. To me, the round thing is just too overdone and it doesn't compliment the lines of the rear of the Z nor many other cars. I know that's not a popular opinion here. But the fairlane GT lights don't fit too well either - they're too short in height and wide to make it look good to me. I actually think that if:

http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zp_tail%20light2/pictures/dcp_3484.html

had better looking lights behind the slats, and the panel was painted the same as the car, it's look the best - very much like what Tim240Z is doing.

 

So, I kind of go along with your mystery guy on the "SAME OLD THING" idea. Just because it's (round taillights) on the Skyline GTR doesn't mean it looks good or belongs on a Z, IMO. That's all it is, of course, my opinion.

[denny411]

I can tell my plasma cutter will get some use when I design my tailights. I too lean towards the cut slits, and maybe sequential led`s or something

[blueovalz]

IMHO, the rear of the Z needs as much horizontally oriented lighting as possible. The individual round lights are efficient in space and design that the "competition" look requires. Form follows function, and in this the simple round light is very effective. Large and/or ornate rear lighting is not what you will generally find on a competition car. BUT (and I hate to use that word), it seems round tail lights are becoming ubiquitous in custom designs. With that said, I have always felt that horizontally oriented lighting is needed to overcome the "narrow" look of the Z rear. Personally, my endeavor is to find a suitable set that is wider that tall, simple in design and function, and small enough to elicit the desired "competition" appearance, but large enough to properly fill the rear panel without leaving too much unused or open space. Tim240Z has a very nice start on this. Eric, I appreciate you putting up the rear shot of the Z for us to experiment with. I wished I had PhotoShop (or what ever it is) to play with.

[pparaska]

Denny - I love it! horizontal slots, with sequential LEDs! Now THAT's more to my liking.

Kind of a cross between the 68 Firebird tail lights and the 65 Thunderbird idea of sequential lights. Build it and if it's not outrageous in price, I'll put 'em in!

 

Terry, when you said "...the rear of the Z needs as much horizontally oriented lighting as possible" I was thinking "yeah, that's what I was thinking but never really put in writing.

[Sleek Z]

Pete & Denny,

 

I agree with you both that the 2 slit panel designs do have something pretty interesting going on when applied to the S30 rear end and I'd love to see more experimental designs along that line emerge.

 

When this thread first began, trying to free myself from being so identified with typical round tail light designs, I had been envisioning some designs in my head formed from intersecting tangent lines of circles (as opposed to solid round lights) and straight lines aproximately 1/2" ot 1" in width developing on each side of tail section having one or more connecting lines all the way across the panel that most likely would have had to have been constructed first as a slotted panel. Where mine would have departed from the lights behind the slots concept shown in Tim240Z's design and the one in my tail light display was to develop half rounds of red, amber and white plastic that would have fitted into the slots and emerged as 3D rounded relief forms on the outside of the panel, the glow of which woud be visible from the side angles and from eye level when up close to the car in the dark. The tricks involved to give totally even luminance behind all plastic strips (slots) plus a sparkly refraction look behind plastic and still meet DOT requirements I still have not arrived at yet, but I am confident that all could be worked out..

 

hint, to experiment with even luminance, sand edges of several 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick plates of red plexiglass with 240-400 grit sandpaper and sandwich them between equal sized pieces of wood or heavy cardboard, tape them to the front of a light box enclosure and turn on 1-3 small bulbs behind them in the dark and see what happens. Next get out some patterned metal such as an aluminum meat pounder from the kitchen (don't let your wife catch you), heat it up hot enough to metal the plexiglass and burn in diamond refractor patters in to the sand papered edges and test the look again. Even sand blast the refractor surface afterwards for a 3rd effect.

 

Biggest problem I saw in my earliest "tangent strips" concept was early designs did not at first seem appropriate for a performance sports car, but maybe with a bit of refinement and experimentation I could get them "tuned" to the S30 look?

 

As for the "mystery" guy with the strong opinions, I decided to omit his name because he posted me in private and I am not sure if he is a hybridz member or not. I know the guy is working on a pretty wild looking custom Z car of his own (18" whls & no top, etc). Maybe he'll eventually post here and let his own "cat out of a bag" for all to hear about and see?

 

'Nough Zaid for now,

 

--Sleek Z

[Sleek Z]

While I was typing my last post Terry beat me to a point that I wanted to "over emphasize" as this thread matured a bit more, that of the importance of stressing horizontal lines in the rear end redesign of a flared Z car intended for both performance and striking looks. Again, my favorite example lately is the Saleen 7. Division of rear end space on the Saleen is bit complicated IMO and it doesn't solely rely on all horizontal lines to build drama while adhering to good "form follows function" guidelines of a exotic and performance car, but it all seems to work for my eye.

 

 

However, I question whether the actual lighted tail lights themselves should be the main design feature that stresses the "horzontal line" look when seeking to enhance the "performance look" of a flared Z. My gut tells me that if the actual lit up tail light area mass reaches past a delicate proportional balance to the whole, the end result may end up appearing gaudy and 'heavy' on a car that is relatively small and even demure looking at some higher angles such as the S30 bodies do, with or without large flares added.

 

My suspicions are that the horizontal line "look" must be created from 3D background elements such as thin black grilles and panel recesses that house tail lights emerging from them and from such form follows function features such as bumpers or pseudo bumper imitations, lower tail pipe insert panels, brake cooling air exit tunnels and even specialized rear end adjustable "ground effect" air spoilers. (Isn't that what is on the red Ferrari on this thread page above or am I misunderstanding the purpose of it's lower adjustable panel at the bottom of the rear valance?

 

Terry, you'd be a great person to teach Photoshop or Illustrator to if you'd share the results here. The 2 together can produce some very cool stuff. I am no expert, but below is the type of effects that I have been able to produce so far that serves some of my practical designing needs.

 

Chow,

 

--Sleek Z

[Guest ProfessorRog]

I found photoshop on my computer and tooled around with it for a bit and came up with this (i hope the link works),

 

what do you guys think as far as taillight style/placement, id kinda like to do something like this with LED's

 

http://photos.msn.com/myfiles/folderview.aspx?Folder=4gPozhciq6admufgBujy5zZNOVp!WpWaJsuYnOBv1no%24

[Owen]

Professor,

I got an error message from that link, "Access to this page is denied". Underneath there was another link that said "Go to Home". At first I thought it said "Go Home"!

 

Anyway, the horizontal line...that's what's been bugging me every nite right before I fell asleep (not really). I agree that if round lights are gonna be used, much care has to be taken, otherwise they just look too plain or too much like an afternoon job. Just my opinion and I don't mean to put a damper on anyone's creativity either.

 

I bet if some of the original Z designers saw these round taillight posts, they'd be like, WTF? We spent hours and hours trying to get away from the Toyota 200GT look!

 

 

How about something like a Ken-Mary Skyline (yes, this is the real name, can't remember how it came about)

 

Owen

[Sleek Z]

Professor,

 

I had similar problems. Although I am using Internet Explorer 5 on a Mac, your photo display page reported that I did not have a browser capable of viewing the photo on the page hosted at MSN photo display website. There's some irony for you.

 

Anyway, I'd like to see them as much as Owen. Maybe you can try to post them up again or figure out the problem for us?

 

--Sleek Z