So the previous owner of my car tinted the tail lights at some point and did a horrible job. I don't think he cleared them at all and after a couple passes of compounding and polishing, the tint was gone and there was absolutely no UV protection.

The lights started showing signs of wear and there were a million little "cracks" and they looked very faded and always drove me nuts. Today I sanded them down and tinted them, and I think they came out pretty good.

Here's my process in case anyone is interested:

1. Clean the tails with 1:1 mix of rubbing alcohol and water.

2. Remove tails or mask off surrounding area. Apparently removing coupe tail lights requires breaking off a clip so I chose to mask off the area with newspaper.

3. Apply the tint spray. I used VHT Night Shades, which is a popular choice. I did 3 coats with 15 minute drying times between coats. It was pretty hot out which helped.

4. After the final coat of tint, I waited 1.5 hours and then wetsanded both tails with 1000 grit sandpaper.

5. I started applying clear coats. I did 6 coats, again, 15 minutes between.

6. Wetsanded the clear coat with 2000 grit after waiting 2 hours.

7. Compounded and polished both lights.

EDIT: Went outside today and noticed some orange peel in the lights so I wetsanded with 1500 grit, then again with 2000, then compounded and polished. Now they're super smooth.
Now, here's what you were waiting for, pics!

You can see the fade and cracking in the lenses here:







Here's the final results:





Cracks are gone!

 

Great job! I don't know how you did all that with them on. I did mine too but I took the tails off and if you do it slow you wont break the clips. Hard enough doing a good job and wet sanding and painting them etc. with them off - you did a great job with them on!!

 

looks good; yeah seems tough with them on

 

Thanks man! Yeah, I'm sure I could've gotten them off somehow but I figured a good mask would be good enough. I taped the whole inside of the trunk off and taped around the headlights BEFORE going over the whole rear of the car with newspaper.

Thanks, wasn't too much trouble. The prep work was worth it.

 

Looks flawless man! GREAT JOB!!!!!!

 

Thanks man!!

 

looks great! i bookmarked this so that i can do it to my G when i have the time. did you compound/polish by hand or did you use an orbital? is it necessary to compound/polish at the end?

 

Looking good!
For those wanting to do this, try to source an industrial grade clear coat, that makes a huge difference in initial deep gloss and longevity.

 

Looks good, they even match your wheels nicely.

 

Thanks man! I polished using a dual action polisher. If you don't have access to that, polishing by hand is fine, and compounding isn't 100% necessary so you may be able to get away with just polish. I used Meguiars M205.

Thanks. And I agree, your choice of clear coat makes a big difference. I used automotive grade clear coat with UV protection, which is important because the factory UV will be gone once you wetsand.

Thanks! Yeah, that's what I was going for.

 

wow that looks awesome! I'll def be going this route when the tint the tails on my next car.

 

They look really nice ! Great work. I might try your process on my lights too. Thanks again

 

Nice job. Do you have any more pics of the process? Also, never would have considered red wheels, but yours look great, esp. with the tint!

 

Thanks man!

Thanks! It's pretty simple but time-consuming. Make sure you plan a full day for it.

Thanks, unfortunately I didn't take any pics during the process because I wasn't planning on doing a DIY or anything. There's a few good videos on YouTube is you search VHT Night Shades

 

nice wat'd u use to clear it?