Well, I'm not sure if any of you have run in to this problem, but everytime I meet someone and they find out I drive a 95 ES, they always say it's a very nice car but the taillights are HORRIBLE.

I've always thought this too, but the tailights did grow on me, but lately I've noticed the tails are too plain, boring and outdated.

So this weekend I'm planning on doing something to spice them up--
possiblilties

1. Smoke them (not black but translucent grey)
2. Red-out the orange horizontal bar
4. Silver-out the orange horizontal bar to give a "clear" look
3. Custom make a designed sticker painted body color and place over tails (leaving gaps 4 design)--- I dig the Skyline, Modena, and Vette tails.

I don't want to clear the tails. Opinions??

 

yes, yes!! smoke them out!! i have been wanting to do that but i wanna get it done at a body shop some far far time from now when i got the $$. i also have considered redding everything out. i even bought red film for it from japan and kinda held it up against the tails to see how it looks. i dunno, i thought it was a big cosmetic change (I'm picky) so i havent done it yet. I dont dig the "sticker over the tails to give it a something else" look (sorry). i think it look cool in chevy trucks tho. how would you silver out the orange part?? heat it and break it open?? mmm...me thinks too much work for a lil' bit of difference. good luck

 

the sticker thing could be cool... making them look like another design. i was thinking about just replacing the tails with another cars.... just have some molded in. my friend was doing that to his 88 prelude

 

These are mine, I think that they look bad *** cleared, but thats my opinion.. Let me know what you think..

Adam " Lexist "

 

XenonES3, did you happen to read my comment in the other thread, that in my opinion the taillights are the one thing in the 95-96 that really shows its age?

I like the look of yours, 1Loudlex. I have a '96, so the amber bar goes all the way across, instead of the half red/half amber middle bar (I just realized that last week, I had always thought the only difference on the back between 94-95 was the placement of the ES300 badge). Not sure if that makes it harder or easier. It would be sweet if I could get it too look somewhat like the 00-01 tails with the clear bar all the way across. I happen to have a slightly cracked spare I could experiment on...
I know clearing is a tough job, but I don't like the stickers (not a domestic pickup), nor the smoking (not a domestic muscle car). And the taillights are just too huge to red out the middle and have two giant red bars, like the Buick Rendezvous I was behind during my afternoon commute.

 

My LS lights are similar, old looking..

I saw a guy with a fixed up white LS with all red tail lights. Lookedp retty good.

 

the tail lights for the LS, there are companies that make the tail lights for them. they have some with white in them, and the white is moved around (not all in one bar). check the LS forum for some ideas....

 

I've got a quick question for those who've cleared the rear signal. Have you tried putting an orange bulb in behind the cleared lens? I was thinking about clearing them but still want them to blink orange for legal and safety purposes. I would think it'd work to put an orange bulb in place of the clear one since you've still got a clear lens that would distribute the light, but it'd be nice to know for sure before I go to the trouble. If nobody has tried switching the bulbs, how does the light distribute with the clear bulbs in?

 

I have the same concern as Kyle. Vehicles with stock clear tails, like the 00-01 ES, have a reflector behind the orange bulb to spread the orange light evenly when the signal is on. With the amber reflectors in front, designed to spread the light from the stock clear bulb, I don't know what the light pattern would look like without the front reflector. Perhaps somebody who has done the mod can post some day and night pics.

 

I red out the orange horizontal bar on the tails. It looks so stylin' and clean now. I'll post pics soon.

-mezoom, smoking the tails would look badazz, I put some 20% window tint over my tails just to see how it would look, and it looks mean. Don't black them out, let them be translucent, it looks a lot nicer.

-squarehat, tried to make it look like 00-01 tails.. no success.

 

That was what I was hoping and maybe if nobody has tried orange bulbs someone could throw one in and see how it looks for us. I looked and there are orange bulbs exactly the same as the clear ones in our signals. I would appreciate anyone's experience or wisdom on this issue. I don't want to clear them if I'm not gonna have orange signals or if they're gonna look funny with orange.

 

hey xenon, can you let me know how you did that. i was thinking about having my tails smoked with 20-30% tint

 

they dont look funny with orange. when i broke my tail light, the police wanted me to put some colored suran wrap over it or something, instead i just changed the bulbs to the color they should have been, since they were all clear before, i got a few red and one orange. they look fine like that....

 

which one, red or the tint? here's both..

red-

took some tailight repair tape, covered the orange. VERY LUCKY HERE!!!! the width of the tape perfectly matched the height of the orange bar on the ES tailight!!!! The tape matches the color of the rest of the light PERFECTLY!!! Also, the signals blink red and have barely lost any intensity. Amazing mod, highly recommend it!!!

smoke-

took 20% static cling on window tint, cut to dimensions, stuck it on temporarily (clings on due to static btw class and tint). I assume you could use super glue around the edges to get a more permanent effect. Good luck.

 

2 months ago I tried to clear one of my tails and it cracked. After the first one cracked I quit and sealed it up and put it back on my car. Even though one of my tailights were cracked I still didn't want the amber peiece there so decided to use some silver tape that I bought at my local auto store that you could use to cover lights, for show purposes. and I wanna know what you guys think.

as you could see the crack on the left taillight