Justwondering
Well-Known Member
While I'm trying to figure out where the water is getting in to my trunk, I find that the rear taillights are looking way too shabby.
There have been several recommendations about rehabbing the silvering on the plastic:
- rechrome with multi-stage process
- mask it and paint it with silver paint
- put pin-striping on it
- take it off and just polish up the lenses
I'm going to experiment. This will run for a year or so (depends on funding for the paint job next year).
Before:
Leftside is going to have bright silver:
No masking, to tape, free hand highlighting of the raised lense areas.
Right side before:
Right side will be plain silver
Right side after. This pen has a rounded tip. The other pen used on the driver side had a chisel tip.
Both sides completed with one coat:
And for comparison, here is the before so you don't have to scroll to the top:
well this is rather awkward. I didn't take a complete photo of the rear before I started...Doh!
My next step is to get the pin striping and use that on the center portion. I'll also go back and put a second coat of paint on each side to ensure complete coverage.
So why didn't I tape things off and make this look stellar?
Its an experiment on how well these paint pens and penstriping hold up in the weather.
This is to be a daily driver, not a show car. I want to determine if the different types of silver paint wear the same. I also haven't applied pinstriping before, so this looks like a chance to give that a go.
After I get everything in place, I'll go ahead and apply future floor wax liquid to the lenses to rehab the red plastic a bit.
The end result should give me enough info to make a decision on how I want to prep the lenses next year so they look as good as the paint job I'm saving for.
There have been several recommendations about rehabbing the silvering on the plastic:
- rechrome with multi-stage process
- mask it and paint it with silver paint
- put pin-striping on it
- take it off and just polish up the lenses
I'm going to experiment. This will run for a year or so (depends on funding for the paint job next year).
Before:
Leftside is going to have bright silver:
No masking, to tape, free hand highlighting of the raised lense areas.
Right side before:
Right side will be plain silver
Right side after. This pen has a rounded tip. The other pen used on the driver side had a chisel tip.
Both sides completed with one coat:
And for comparison, here is the before so you don't have to scroll to the top:
well this is rather awkward. I didn't take a complete photo of the rear before I started...Doh!
My next step is to get the pin striping and use that on the center portion. I'll also go back and put a second coat of paint on each side to ensure complete coverage.
So why didn't I tape things off and make this look stellar?
Its an experiment on how well these paint pens and penstriping hold up in the weather.
This is to be a daily driver, not a show car. I want to determine if the different types of silver paint wear the same. I also haven't applied pinstriping before, so this looks like a chance to give that a go.
After I get everything in place, I'll go ahead and apply future floor wax liquid to the lenses to rehab the red plastic a bit.
The end result should give me enough info to make a decision on how I want to prep the lenses next year so they look as good as the paint job I'm saving for.
