Painting taillights?

[Wow]

So, I have a commercial shop that I lease...across the parking lot used to be a paint shop. The guy that ran the place had an old XJ that he painted Chevy orange. This was a crappy old XJ, in a rather ridiculous color, but this guy made it look really nice. He took off all the little tiny mouldings and trim peices and door handles and repainted them black, and he also painted the taillights completely red.

He invited me over to look at it since he knew I drove an XJ and I said something like "wow, you're twice as old as I am and you've got twice as much energy!". Now I know why - he was freaking high on meth, awake 24/7...and currently in prison. I was totally going to have him paint my Jeep. :doh: He was in the process of reattaching the moulding on my Jeep when he disappeared and I took over his shop...

Anyway, he painted '89 or so taillights in a "candy" red color. They looked factory, which I believe is pretty rare, so I said "you painted those?!" :worship:

I have no idea what he used or how he did it but I want to do it. It had to have been some kind of professional automotive paint, he kept bragging about how expensive the whole job was. Something like $1100 worth of paint on that jeep. Anybody else paint their taillights? I have his shop and a better air compressor...certainly I can do a better job than he did.

 

[RedHeep]

http://hondaswap.com/~mike/tails/

Google is your friend.

You can probably paint better than that douche, since his paint job looks horrible, but you get the idea.

 

[hubs97xj]

http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=40

No pics atm (he's been working on redoing the site, I believe), but it's sandpaper (very fine- 2000 grit?), blue 3M masking tape, Testors 1605 Transparent Candy Apple Red, and some clearcoat when you're done. Took 3 or 4 light coats to make the amber portions match the red on mine. I didn't clearcoat, and if you get close, the finish is obviously not stock- not quite as bad as the Honda, but not great. Some clear and a bit of wet sanding should fix that. Total cost was around $20, took just a few hours to pull the lights, prep, and paint.

Others have used vinyl with good results as well.

Not a great pic, but here's how mine turned out.
http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii244/AHhub/DSCF5341.jpg

 

[GrimmJeeper]

you could just keep your eyes peeled for a wagoneer XJ at the junkyards, they had full red tail lights.

 

[1990JEEPXJ]

i did it to my 90 as well, orange just didnt fit. just lightly scuff them, clean them, and paint.

 

[clean4drxj]

go to a hobby stopre and get some candy red paint(testers I think)