TECH- How To Make Kustom Taillight Bezels

[TheDooWopKid13]

well here goes my first tech. hope you guys like it.

the first step you do is get a car. I got a 1963 pontiac catilina 2 door hard top.

please give me about 15 minutes before posting.thanks.

[TheDooWopKid13]

2nd step is you take the bezels off of the car.

[TheDooWopKid13]

3rd step is you get a file, a wire brush, and a die grinder.
you cut the original bars that go across the lenes. then file them down till they are smooth.

[TheDooWopKid13]

cut down bezels.

[TheDooWopKid13]

fieling down the bezels.

[TheDooWopKid13]

when they are done being filed. it should smooth, like they were never there.

[TheDooWopKid13]

after you have finished fileing them down, you get them ready for paint, by masking then down.

[TheDooWopKid13]

then you get one set of nos tailight lenes.

[TheDooWopKid13]

then after you paint them with color of choice. i used white rustoleum. you assemble them back together and mount them back on your car and step back in aww.

[TheDooWopKid13]

here is a close up of the completed bezel/lens. i will try to get another tonight when they are lit up.

[TheDooWopKid13]

o i forgot the before pic. well here it is.

[MercMan1951]

Very nice! Great How-to for these cars. I can think of several Ford products from the late '70's that come to mind with similar taillights that this would work EXACTLY the same on...but since that's O/T, I'll let the masses figure it out.

Nice work!

[TheDooWopKid13]

thanks mercman. i forgot to tell you guys it took me about 4 hours to do that.

[chopt50]

they looked better stock

[shoebox72]

No offence but I think they looked better stock. Maybe you could have added extra bars instead of taking them off.

Just my opinion.

Billy

[DrJ]

I like it.
It's cleaner design.
That makes it more honest design.
Why?
Because it's not three tail lights with a seperator it's one lens with some faux "window panes" like the junk plastic one's lots of houses are getting these days with fake window panes.
Keep thinking up easy, subtle changes to do. That's what 60's customs were about.

[Junkyard Dog 32]

Cool.

JOEhttp://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Armstrong]

Cleaner,smoother-I like it!

[50mercfan]

definate improvement. and hardly noticable to the untrained eye . good job.

[133]

that looks pretty damn kool. great idea i might add.

[burger]

I like it man, but I'd like it a lot better with bellflowers, astros, and a white flaked top.

[mikes51]

Good tech post. I like the trick of painting the modified part, saves money by not having to rechrome them.

[lownslow]

nice job.....looks nice and clean, simple like a 60s car should be .....what are the rest of the plans for it ?.....will it be shiney ?....

[autocol]

[ QUOTE ]
they looked better stock


[/ QUOTE ]

man chopt50 you are the biggest dick on the HAMB. 100 posts. 100 unnecessary, unconstructive insults. the kid is 13, he's tricking up his car how HE LIKES IT, and he did good. show us your chopped 50, if it exists, and we'll all tell you how shit it looks.



DooWop, i like it mate, keep up the photo's.

[plmczy]

Doowop, that is cool. Little suggestion would be find a small bullet and put it where the flat spot is on the lens or maybe put a blue dot there. Keep it up, lookin good. Keep us updated on your ride. later plmczy

[Mai Ki-Ki]

I'm with Autocol on this....Looks good man. Keep going...I'd be happy to have that parked in my driveway...(or a licence)..

Cheers

MAiki

[marq]

My personal penneth worth is i like it ,just like DR J said it aint seperate lenses it is one lens and now it looks cleaner and simpler to my eye.There is an old saying "you can't please all of the people all of the time,only some of the people some of the time" this is true because everyone likes something different so if you are going to critisize i suggest it be done tactfully and constructivly,personally i don't like 60's cars but i can appreciate the work and thought the kid put into the post and actual work .I still think the after looks far better than the before (only a personal view mind)keep up the good work kid............Marq

[RawDeal]

I did like the tail-lights before, but the idea is not bad - and the new cleaner style looks also good!

Cool post, because it's something that I wouldn't have thought of!

[JimC]

Koooool!
Makes me think "Now. why didn't I think of that"

I will bet a shiney new quarter, you get many "thumbs up" for that trick set of lites

Jim

[Oilcan Harry]

Its interesting that without the bars it looks like a tailight from a fifties car.

[low springs]

Doowop, it came out looking really clean and simple. you might think about putting something in that flat spot. otherwise very cool.

[Petejoe]

I like them! Great work, thanks for sharing your ideas!

[Upchuck]

[ QUOTE ]
Good tech post. I like the trick of painting the modified part, saves money by not having to rechrome them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, I likely would have painted the whole thing but the part he painted makes it look unnoticeable to me and professional

[buzzard]

Looks pretty good. I'd probably paint the rest when you paint the car. But it ain't mine, is it.

It's great to see a guy your age that's not skeered to take chances on doing stuff like that. Keep us up to date on the project.

[praisethelowered]

Cool- I love taillight treatments-

Here's another idea if you want it- You can file out the flat part of that cicle area on the bottom and trim a pointy round "beehive" lens to fit the hole exactly. The sell them at pep boys and autozone in red, amber, and blue. You could also use the tip of a 59 cad lens but why spend 20.00 when you could spen 3- plus the behehives come in blue and the cad's don't. That would make it look a little more "space-age" and 60's and a little less '70s cadilac eldorado.

Anyway- good work.

[MercMan1951]

I think the key to kustomizing is to make your car kustom without being blatently obvious in all aspects.

TheDooWopKid13: Unless you had your car parked side-by-side with another completely stock Pontiac of your vintage, most people wouldn't notice the time you spent on your taillights...but to most guys like us, we'd stand back and say, "hey, that's cool, look what THAT guy did to HIS taillights..." If you can grab someone's attention to the point where they know the car, but can't quite figure out what you did that makes them wonder WHY it looks different, that's golden!

A lot of cars rolled out of Detroit with great lines and features, but it takes a talented eye to spot when a kustomizer has somehow figured out a way to re-design a small part that, taken as a whole, improves the look of a car without being gawdy, ridiculous, or obtrusive to the rest of the design.

To the people who don't like what the kid did, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

To the guys on here who can appreciate change for the sake of subtle kustomization, the kid did a nice job. Period. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Germ]

I think it looks pretty COOL...
He just used whathe had, and changed it,,,

PRETTY STRAIGHT FORWARD

Whats cool HOMEBOY is that you have the PASSION at such a YOUNG age to THINK OUTSIDE the BOX,,and CHANGE things...

Good Tech..
I dig It,,,

LATER BRO,
GERM

[TheDooWopKid13]

thanks guys for all the compliments. i agree on the flat spot on the lens. if anyone knows where i can get them without if that would be a big help, or i could just add a bullet to it. the paint all the end will be a blue metal flake.

[Mutt]

[ QUOTE ]
I think the key to kustomizing is to make your car kustom without being blatently obvious in all aspects.

TheDooWopKid13: Unless you had your car parked side-by-side with another completely stock Pontiac of your vintage, most people wouldn't notice the time you spent on your taillights...but to most guys like us, we'd stand back and say, "hey, that's cool, look what THAT guy did to HIS taillights..." If you can grab someone's attention to the point where they know the car, but can't quite figure out what you did that makes them wonder WHY it looks different, that's golden!

A lot of cars rolled out of Detroit with great lines and features, but it takes a talented eye to spot when a kustomizer has somehow figured out a way to re-design a small part that, taken as a whole, improves the look of a car without being gawdy, ridiculous, or obtrusive to the rest of the design.

To the people who don't like what the kid did, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

To the guys on here who can appreciate change for the sake of subtle kustomization, the kid did a nice job. Period. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. My first thought was that there's going to be a lot of guys pointing out the Lincoln tailights on that Pontiac. Keep 'em wondering 'Kid. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Mutt

[saltflataddict]

I couldnt agree more with these last posts. looks real good. I did some subtle taillight treatment to my Galaxie lights and most wouldnt even notice. Its actually similar to what praisethelowered said using a small behive lens, but I couldnt find blue, plus I heard blue is illegal..nice work DWKid...