Tinting Taillights

[Steven]

I've had some "Clear" type Aurion taillights which some of you know I had troubles with recently when applying tinting spray to the outside. I won't say anymore aside that my experience wasn't positive and that I don't recommend anyone do the same on these particular types of taillights.

As a result I do have several slightly damaged taillights sitting around which are ideal to experiment with.

Tinting/painting the chrome surround on the taillight itself underneath the cover would achieve something very similar to my previous attempts, but would remain road legal (think blackened headlight mod).

I'll update this thread as my failures progress.

First attempt was placing the outside taillight into an oven, 120 degress for 15 minutes. Very mild temp but I didn't want to destroy the taillight on the first go.

Result: The glue holding the clear plastic on these is no-where near as strong as the headlights, and there is no sticky residue (implies the need to be completely reglued on assembly). A problem however is that the clear plastic on these lights is EXTREMELY brittle. Yes even though the glue released without any drama, the plastic itself would crack at the slightest outward pressure. Even a hairline crack can ruin these. I continued on trying a few different methods as I worked my way around and eventually got the whole lot off (in several pieces).

From this go I figure around 150 degrees for 20 minutes would allow the glue to unstick completely with minimal pressure on the cover. Further a sharp instrument to "cut" through the glue might help however even touching either of the mating surfaces under the cover will result in scratches so I'm not too keen on this idea.

First attempt - total failure, but much learnt. Second attempt coming shortly. Pics too.

[Steven]

Second attempt, 150 degrees for 15 minutes.... Yeah.

Also I did discover something useful by this complete waste - The outside cover does have a press fit just like the headlights, yet is held in place with something closer to superglue than the silicon-type stuff used on the headlights. Because of this press fit, you can't even run a knife around it to cut the glue.

So the end result is... You simply CANNOT disassemble Aurion taillights without completely destroying them in some way.