Anyone opened up tail light housing
 

Hi i just bought some clear euro style tail lights.....but i'm not a big fan of them......what i want to do is open them up and paint the shinny chrome bezels this metallic blue..has anyone successfully opened up the housing on an aftermarket tail light assembly...do you have any tips to open it without cracking the lenses......

i would think the aftermarket ones would be easier than the stock ones. i heard you throw them in the oven at 200°F for about 5-10 minutes, pull them out (carefully, don't want to get burned), and pry them apart. clean 'em up good, do what you got to do, and seal them back up. to seal them, i would use a marine grade silicone or something similar to make sure no moisture gets in there.

and if you do this, i want to see some pictures! (in process and final result)

LOTS of guys with the aftermarket lights have taken them apart....for the simple reason that so many of them end up getting water in them and fogging up because of crappy workmenship.....so even if you don't plan on coating the insides with metalic blue paint....I think it would be a good idea to take them apart and reseal them NOW, insted of later AFTER you already have them installed.

man i can't believe how cheap these lights are......i didn't buy those apc ones cause i saw the workmanship and i was amazed how bad they were....I am kind of iffy about sticking them in an oven at 200F but i guess i have to try something once i get them apart i guess i'll use methacrylate to bond them, has anyone really taken them apart??? cause i have this feeling that if i head the whole housing the lens will distort and look funny......

.............anyways i'm going to stick them in the dryer and see if that is hot enough to losen the glue.....

Well i wouldn't stick those tail lights in the oven....i did that and they warped.....the partial dome that the clear lens has fell in.........and the silver crap started to peel.....anyways i guess i'll have to leave them and maybe try to paint them or something....man they suck......i'm going to have to agree now with those people out there......altezza lights suck...but i guess i paid good money for them so i'll just calk them up and stick them on my car..

just out of curiosity......has anyone ever used ketone to remove the lenses??

I have a carbon fiber APC style altezza. Problem with them is the lenses slightly fog, but worst of all is the red strip along the sides that don't match for shit. I took off the plastic shell with a butter knife and hair dyer. It is in 1000 pieces. I did something way wrong. Anyways, the shell was garbage anyway because of the red strip. Now I have altezzas without the red strip but no plastic shell. Next step is to create some kind of cover. I have different ideas but need to talk to others to see if any are realistic ($). Money talks and I suffer from slight laryngitis. Will update this thread with any further progress. Any thoughts from the club?

so you're saying that they fog up normally, like they're not well sealed? b/c i plan to get those in the future so i'm wondering if i should seal em more when i get em.

they fog up normally, not too bad though, slightly noticeable
The red strip is the worst, it clashes colors.

I ended up sticking my Ractive ones on my car.......the left side is noticabley screwed up......but i'm going to try some stuff to fix it or i'm going to put a gasket on the bottom so that it's not as obvious (that's where it really warped)....anywho what i ended up doing was taking something called "goop" the clear adhesive and sealing the entire side....it's clear so it wasn't too bad....I've driven through a couple of rain storms now.......and so far they haven't gotten any water in them.....so i guess if i were you i'd seal the entire outer edge before you even put it on your car.http://C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\mycar_wclears.jpeg

what exactly looks bad on yours? who did you buy them from?

I bought them from a local auto store in Winnipeg...the actual lights look ok....it's just that i was trying to get the lenses off so that i could paint the silver inner housing....so i stuck them in the oven and the head defromed them....the way the lights come from the factory aren't bad.....the construction is poor but the actual looks aren't that bad looking .......i do prefer the Ractive ones to the APC ones i find the APC ones are a little too plain...but i'm going off what i saw on the internet.....

The APC carbon fiber ones are sweet on paper. The fogging isn't that bad, but the red strip sucks. I'm not sure of the ractive ones. rsversion.com has a gunmetal style.

yea, if you guys find any diff. kinds of altezzas not chromed i hate those ones, preferably carbon fiber jus inform me also :D thanks.