370z Tail light BLACK HOUSING
 

has anyone tried blacking out the housing of their tail lights, and im referring to the jspec and jdm clear lens tail lights.

i know they have these for the 350z the black housing altezza which i bought and the letter Z leds light up. but the 370z has been out for 4 years now and nothin....

Look in the DIY section.

smoke em, tail tint looks good if you do it rite. :tiphat:

I was pondering over this mod myself earlier today. AFAIK, no one has done them yet. Not a lot of people get a the JDM housings, which you'd need to make the blackened housings show, and doing tail lights is harder than headlights because they are harder to take out. Definitely doable though, and the process should be pretty similar.

Tail lights are harder to take out then headlight?!?! Are you sure? Or do you mean take appart

Should just take longer to take out. More parts to remove before you can get to all the tabs and bolts holding it in.

http://www.the370z.com/diy-section-d...p-install.html

See here. Not too bad, just more than what you need to do for the headlights.

The housing and lens is zap bonded similar to the "Z" side marker lights. You would have to dremel the entire piece to separate the housing or it will crack the lens. Then you need to glue and seal it up real good to keep moisture out.

whats zap bonded? i wonder what tool should be used to cut out the lense without cracking? stupid 370ztuner.com wont respond and i think they have exactly what i want, says coming out soon but its been over a year i think.... under lighting product and scroll down and it says blacked out housing Altezza tail lights.. well if they dont respond to a phone call, there goes my long distance money, and what the hell, ill buy the lights and risk losing over $700+tax+shipping+duties....

something like this?

Ref: (I photoshopped the Euro Taillights)
http://www.the370z.com/members/cdepp...opped-euro.jpg

That makes me all sorts of horny.

Smoking the JDM ones gives a similar look, although maybe thinner than the guy did here.
http://www.the370z.com/exterior-inte...in-buffed.html

Took the words out of my mouth


The shame is that no pics can show the LEDs are actually red

something like that. but better !
this is what i had on my BLACK 350z and it looked crazy. Google Image Result for http://www.procarparts.com/images/NS0335-12720TLX.JPG

i cant sit around for that site to reply.. hope i dont lose my almost $1000...

ill be pissed if i crack the lens and then the next day they come out with the blacked out housing tail lights online.. ill snap

:bowrofl:

just be careful if you are using VHT that stuff is hard to get off. :icon17:

im going to use krylon fusion on the housing, not the lens, i have to cut out the lens on the jdm tails

im not familiar with photoshop yet, but can you make a photoshop of that tail light on a black Z and a pic of the entire back of the car with those tails?

For the tailights you will have to use one of two methods to CUT the lens off...

1: Hot knife (cleaner method)

or

2: Dremel tool

the lens cannot be baked but must be cut off. Once cut off you can then paint the insides. To replace the lens you can use High end Automotive silicone or Butyl Glue of which I recommend the later.

Beware this is a risky mod... much more so than the headlights.

It is much simpler to simply paint the lenses with automotive tint coat.

hmmm...

B@t™

This is the best you'll get without commission...lol

Before:
http://www.the370z.com/members/cdepp...1224-tail1.jpg

After:
http://www.the370z.com/members/cdepp...1225-tail2.jpg



Just putting it out there, there's not many images of any 370z with JDM taillights large enough to work with. Color changes in PS is relatively easy, as long as you're not going black to white or white to black. That's the hardest change to make, IMO.

Are we sure the JDM tails are zap bonded like the OEM tails? They might not be... Worth looking into IMO

they are zap bonded indeed.... i wanted to pull them apart since the beginning a fellow OG 2theextreme paid a shop to try and do it... they chipped it instead and pulled the plug becuase it was nearly impossible to separate them unless you cut them...

thanks for the pics, the white Z with black tinted jdm looks nice in pic, but idk how it looks in person, im actually going to buy the jdm tails and vht tint one of them like the pic of the white Z and see how it looks, and ill attempt to cut the other.. mean while i should look for just a 3rd jdm either right or left as back up in case i crack the lens.. i spent hours looking for a place here that could make a replica clear lens for my stock tails, but was unsuccessful.. otherwise i would have been better for me to try to mess with the stock lights.. and save the $700+ !

hot knife? you mean literally?

this will suck if i end up not liking the outcome.. would have to think of a way to take off the krylon fusion paint AND stick the lens back on..

i found a site that sold the tails for $700, was the cheapest out of the 4 sites i checked out, is anything below that? im in canada, so the shipping and reputability of the site would have to be considered as well.

A hot knife is the following:

Hot Knife w/Solder Tip 25 Watt (hcahcar0770) Hobbico Soldering Irons and Accessories

Also I would use professional automotive paint not krylon....

$700 is pretty descent.

Mike

i found a single oem tail light which im going to buy, and practice on that, going to cut the lens out and then make a clear mold of the oem lens with some plexiglass, i wonder what color the housing in the oem tail lights are? anyhow, ima give this a shot and post pics, wont be anytime soon though, gota wait for shipping and its still winter..

I found oem tail lights for $250 ea. Good deal. They are 333 from nissan's part website. I have the link saved at home, im at work now but i will be sure to post it tonight. I ruined my tails using VHT (it cracked the actual tail light) so i was thinking about practicing the hotknive thing with the broken ones. Ill give it a try and let you guys know how it goes.

Yeah, I have done my headlights on my own and failed on the tail lights on taking them apart. Just a heads up they don't come apart with heat gun I know for a fact. Cut them, is the best option. Also Dip your car has temporary paint that will smoke lights if you want to do the outside.

Black altezza tail lights
 

I guess I'm have to wait until a company makes some. I have a 05 Vette with some altezzas and a 350z with some black altezzas with the leds in the Z formation. One of the first things I buy when a get a car is black altezzas. It's a must to me.