Mods to taillights?

Body kits, spoilers, lights, and anything on the exterior of the vehicle
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bigdoug
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 5:36 pm
Location: Detroit Area, Michigan

Mods to taillights?

Post by bigdoug »

As we all know there are no aftermarket options (as of this posting) for the taillights on the 03-08 vibes. So my question is, has anyone done anything mod-wise to the taillights to make them look nicer? I only know of the red covers for the yellow area, and I've also seen someone talking about doing an LED board but I haven't seen a finished project of that. If there are taillight mods I've missed on here, I would love to see them.

I've been throwing around some ideas of my own, and I thought I'd put some of them down here. I might continue to use this thread if I go through with any of them. I'm itching to go back to the U-pulls nearby, and I need to justify the $15 or so for a taillight to buy to play around with and try mods on.

BTW, does anyone know if there's a way to remove the tinting on the factory taillights? Scraping, sanding, chemicals? I have a feeling that's a no. I guess it may be possible, if you can get the lens off, to use it to make a mold and mold a new lens out of clear plastic (the reflectors would have to stay red due to laws). Then you could have the whole thing clear with colored bulbs, or just the turn signal section.

One of the simplest ideas I had would require using the red vinyl covers for the yellow part of the lens. The taillight has three "sections", the top one is brake light and tail light or parking light (though it's not on when you're parked?). The middle section of course is the turn signal, and the bottom is unused. The idea is to make the second section both a tail light AND a turn signal. This is accomplished by using the same bulb and socket as the top section. Pick up a couple of those top brown sockets from a junkyard, with some wiring intact. Wire the same wires as the top socket into the tail light wires, and then wire the other wire into the turn signal wires. The sockets themselves will have to be trimmed a little with a knife or dremel to fit the middle socket holes. Now, your top section will be brake/tail, and your middle section will be turn/tail. This is why you'd need to red out the yellow part.

The other idea would be to light up the lowest section, the one with the rear reflector. I don't know how easy this will be. The lowest section has about an inch or so gap between the lens and back wall. An LED, or a few LEDs might light it up. This is why I wanted to pick up a junker. Other ideas, which I have made some pictures of, are to put an array of LEDs in that section. Those LEDS could be parking lights, or they could be turn signals, although then what do you do with the turn signal? They might be brake lights as well.
taillight3.jpg
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