All of the DOT and SAE lettering on my taillights is starting to annoy me. It's all crusty and white around all of it. I'd like to remove all of it, and take some plastic polish and a buffer to my lights.

Has anyone removed the lettering? If so, what seemed to work best to remove it?

Thanks -

Alex

 

take a file or some coarse grit sand paper, 180-220 something like that to get rid of the lettering, then switch to some 800wet to clean up the sand scratches and pollish the whole thing, finnish with some 1500-2000 wet then use some rubbing/buffing compound to bring the shine back out, to keep it looking good id get some spray Clear and clear them good, if you want you can go back and buff the clear and make them even more shiny, they should look good and last for awhile

 

Thanks for the tips...I think I may also mask off the areas around the lettering so I don't scratch it up more than I have to.

 

I was searching for shaved drip rails and found this, but figured I would add some information to this post.

If you want to take the DOT/SAE marking off your tailights it *is* illegal, but what isn't these days. Living in California your local police are supposed to be trained to pick up on things like this. They might or might not pickup on a subtle change like that, but its not law enforcement I would worry about. When you have to take your car to an inspection station they are *supposed* to check the DOT/SAE codes on your lights to make sure the lense, bulb, light intensity is all to spec. If you were to do that I would have a set of stock tails to swap back to when you take your car for inspection. That way you don't fail for something stupid like not having DOT/SAE approved lights.

FMVSS 108 stands for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards section #108. This sections details all the photometric and physical requirements of all exterior automobile lamps in all 50 states. It details all aspects such as color, light intensity, stress tolerances, heat tolerances, etc for all vehicle exterior lighting equipment. It is the definitive standards that all automotive lamps, OEM or aftermarket, need to adhere to when they are sold in the United States.

 

Holy ****! That's a lot of crap to worry about. Why do new cars not have all of the lettering on the lenses then?

*Not to mention - do you work for the government in the department that wrote the requirements? How do you know all of that?!?*

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Quik89Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Holy ****! That's a lot of crap to worry about. Why do new cars not have all of the lettering on the lenses then?

*Not to mention - do you work for the government in the department that wrote the requirements? How do you know all of that?!?*</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you look closely enough the markings are there. My friend has an emission & safety inspection handbook which has everything you could possibly need to know about inspection standards.

 

sand off the letters ands ask questions later

 

Yes I have done this. i will try and post pics or maybe a write up.

First I started with some 220 grit and knocked down all the letters to level. Make sure you keep the paper moving all around to not create any flat spots. The letters that say CRX were removed with a blow dryer. I then used some cleaner wax to remove all the sticky goo from the stickers. After all the 220 grit, I moved to some 600, now here is where I went and sprayed a VERY light coat of spray tint call Nightshades. I did this sos you can still see alll the color come through, but it gave it a very slight tint and gave ot a ton of depth. After that I hit it with a ton of clear coat. remember that clear coat out of a can is pretty thin. I used a can and a half on all the lights. After the clear dried for a few days, I smoothed everything out with some 1500 grit wetsand , making sure it was VERY smooth. Once that was done I used some Meguires cleaner was and polished them up. The result was AMAZING.

If you do not want to tint, then just skip that step and go into the 1500 wetsand. And then with the cleaner wax. I will try and get a write up on this soon with pics

 

good stuff, thanks!

 

i used a new razor blade and just cut them off and them buffed em with plastic polish

 

whats ur setup?

 

Who are you talking to and what do you mean by setup?