Simply red

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TheFinn
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Simply red

Postby TheFinn » Sat Jul 07, 2007 4:35 pm

Earlier today my Mégane looked like this:

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Why then? Well, ever since I bought the car these cracks have bothered me:

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Either someone's tried to clean the plastic lenses with some strong petrol-based solvent or then someone's pushed the car by the rear lights!

And I'm really not a big fan of the Phase I rear lights either so I thought I'd give the rears a slight makeover. So first the clusters removed from the car ended up on the work bench...

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...where I first cleaned the lenses with a mild bio-degradable solvent (Würth Pineline) followed by some silicone remover. Then it was time to check I had the right ingredients for the makeover:

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Check.

Then on with some masking:

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I haven't used this sort of narrow, elastic, plastic-based 3M masking tape before, but boy was I glad I did!

With normal masking tape the tight rounded corners would have been difficult to achieve, requiring many short lengths of tape over each other at varying angles to cover each corner. But, as you can see, with the elastic 3M tape I was able to do the entire masking in one piece! :D OK, the three meter roll was expensive as hell, but well worth the money IMO.

Next I did the same to the other lamp, then masked off the rest of the units:

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Then it was time to get shaking (the spray can) and start shooting:

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As the original red sections of the lights were masked off, I had a lense from an old 3rd brake light as a reference so I'd see when I was approaching the right "deepness" of red. That took about 10 layers (a lot, I know!)

After I thought I'd sprayed enough many layers, I went for a little bite. :wink: Then, after about 5 minutes when the paint had had some time to settle, I removed the surrounding masking tapes bar the narrow 3M tape:

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Looked quite close to my eye! Then removed the narrow tape as well:

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Bloody L! Did they come from the factory like that!? :shock: :wink: :D

I'm quite pleased with the result, the colour seems spot on compared with the original red.

After the paint had dried a little I re-introduced the lights to the car:

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I know this is as lo-fi tuning as it gets, and strictly taken illegal, but it doesn't matter. The rear reflectors and side/brake lights haven't been disturbed and the turn signal, although now red, is still bright enough. And here in Finland cars of US origin are allowed to have red turning signals at the rear, so I don't think the police will be too bothered with my Megane. The MOT is another thing but it's nine months from now, and by that time I hope some good-looking tuning items will have emerged for our Meg². So far I think all the Chinese production available for the Mégane looks totally crap, so will have to wait and hope for the best. While at it, these self-sprayed lenses may do...

Might get me some original Phase II lights, however, and slightly tint the horizontal clear section. I think that sort of red/smoke combination on the PhII clusters would look bonkers! What do you think?

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Ray
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Postby Ray » Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:45 pm

looks good but how do the indicator and reverse lights look?

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TheFinn
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Postby TheFinn » Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:38 pm

Ray wrote:looks good but how do the indicator and reverse lights look?


"...and the turn signal, although now red, is still bright enough."

The same goes for reverse lights, although I've remove the reverse light bulbs for the moment to avoid confusion. Will have to try find out which counter-colour to red I need for the bulbs to achieve a little less red emitted light...

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Basenji
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Postby Basenji » Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:31 pm

You can take some picts in the evening and show us the results.
zdrówko :wink:
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Jonault
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Postby Jonault » Sun Jul 08, 2007 7:20 pm

Ever thought of black lexus style rear light?
https://sslrelay.com/www.librautomotive.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=15469138376e04c/shopdata/0210_STANDARD+=26amp=3B+CUSTOM+LIGHTING/0020_LEXUS+LIGHTS/1300_Renault/product_overview.shopscript
Scroll down the page to find the right ones.

An edit as requested. This shorter link brings you to the website but you'll have to navigate to the correct page from there.

https://sslrelay.com/www.librautomotive ... shopscript
Last edited by Jonault on Sat Jul 14, 2007 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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TheFinn
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Postby TheFinn » Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:47 pm



The Lexus style is not for me, I'm afraid.... Totally passé IMHO and doesn't suit the M2's angular lines. But hey, that's just me... :wink:

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dickie
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Postby dickie » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:05 pm

Looks good mate. I thought about doing that myself, but was a bit worried about the indicator colour
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ICEMAN
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Postby ICEMAN » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:24 pm

Finn,

where did you get the spray from?? I want to spray my lights black!! I dont liek the lexus lights!! think they looks a bit typical!!


or does anyone else know where i can get the spray from??
Black Megane - Black Tints - Black 18" Rims with Chrome - Angel Eyes - Shark Fin - Tail Fins - Kenwood DNX7200 - ipod Video -Hertz Space 6.5" Components - PG Ti500.4 - MTX 9544-15" Sub - Orion D5000 - Audison Cabling - Optima Power = NICE

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MrAsia
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Postby MrAsia » Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:59 am

Looks very nice, perfect colour match.

Would like to see night time photos of the indicators and reverse lights.
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TheFinn
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Postby TheFinn » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:50 pm

ICEMAN wrote:Finn,

where did you get the spray from?? I want to spray my lights black!! I dont liek the lexus lights!! think they looks a bit typical!!


or does anyone else know where i can get the spray from??


I got it from a local parts store for €5.90 which translates to roughly £4. They had it in red, green, blue and smoke.

I'm from Finland so can't name any UK sources, but the spray I used was made by Motip. I've also seen other brands over the years, like Foliatec.

Just make sure you get a tint spray for plastics. There are also sprays available for tinting glass windows, but those are a big no-no on plastic lenses (the plastic will melt and bubble)!

The great thing about the plastic tint spray is that you don't need any other products (like a plastic adhesion primer) and you don't need to sand the surface to roughen it neither. Just make sure the surface is grease- and silicone-free before applying the tint in several thin layers.

A tip: Mask off the reflectors at the bottom of the lense so they don't get altered by the (black) tint. That way your "crime" is maybe deemed a bit less severe if the boys in the blue should stop you to have a little conversation about your stylish new lights... :wink:

But to be serious, anyone thinking of tinting their lights should be aware of this: Should you have an accident, those altered lights could give you some real problems (with guilt issues or the insurance refusing to pay if the lights are deemed to have been a cause of distraction to the other party)!

MrAsia wrote:Looks very nice, perfect colour match.

Would like to see night time photos of the indicators and reverse lights.


Actually there's no need for night photos: Like you wrote, it's a perfect colour match. :wink: Just switch on your sidelights and there you have the colour... :lol:

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ICEMAN
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Postby ICEMAN » Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:50 pm

cheers, will look into getting the spray and masking tape.

but wont the "yellow" indicator light shine through the tint spray?
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TheFinn
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Postby TheFinn » Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:26 pm

ICEMAN wrote:but wont the "yellow" indicator light shine through the tint spray?


One would think so (I did), because normally when you mix e.g. yellow paint with red paint you get orange. But with the indicator light in this case it's red!

Seems it's a bit different story with emission/absorbtion/multiplication/whatever of light than paints.... :roll: Or maybe the standard orange PY21W bulb is too orange (=towards red) already in itself, perhaps a paler shade of yellow bulb would do the trick?

Anyone here know more fundamentally about lighting principles?

If we have a transparent red lense, what colour bulb do we need shining behind it to get orange emitted light through the lense? (I hope you understand what I mean.) Blue? Green?


@jonault: Could you please edit that link you posted! Now we with non-widescreen displays have to scroll far to the right as there's no line break in the url! Linking from the key words using the BBCode goes like this:

Code: Select all

[url=http://the.bloody.long.link.here]Lexus lights[/url]

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TheFinn
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Postby TheFinn » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:30 pm

OK, cracked it by myself! :D

It just needed a bulb a "paler shade of yellow"! I rememberred I had once ordered a pair of these:

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It's a yellow led bulb, considerably more yellow than the standard orange incandescent PY21W bulb. I put it in and hey presto! The indicator flashed in nice orange!!! 8) Besides being more yellow, leds also emit monochromatic light which might help too.

The downside is this type of led bulbs aren't quite bright enough, but I'll be ordering some 3W high-power models soon from the same guy I bought my current bulbs from.

Plus I need to get one of them "led flasher relays" BMW & Co. use, because now with the led bulbs in, the indicators flash way too rapidly. That's because of the minimal resistance of the led bulbs which "confuses" the ordinary flasher relay designed for incandescent bulbs. Anyone know, has the Mégane still have an SAE type flasher relay like most Renaults I've had, or is it already the ISO standard?

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ICEMAN
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Postby ICEMAN » Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:49 pm

F**ing hell you want to do sumthing simple like spray your tail lights and you ahve to change the bulbs then change your relay!!!
mught as well forget it!!!

hahahaha

Finn are you an arts reacher??

bet you know the colour triangle insude and out!!

now you will say that the colour triangle is actually round!! lol

fab job finding a solution!! :tu
Black Megane - Black Tints - Black 18" Rims with Chrome - Angel Eyes - Shark Fin - Tail Fins - Kenwood DNX7200 - ipod Video -Hertz Space 6.5" Components - PG Ti500.4 - MTX 9544-15" Sub - Orion D5000 - Audison Cabling - Optima Power = NICE

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TheFinn
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Postby TheFinn » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:07 pm

ICEMAN wrote:F**ing hell you want to do sumthing simple like spray your tail lights and you ahve to change the bulbs then change your relay!!!
mught as well forget it!!!


No pain no gain... :wink:

ICEMAN wrote:Finn are you an arts reacher??

bet you know the colour triangle insude and out!!


No, I'm not. Didn't even remember it's called the colour triangle until you said it! :lol:

ICEMAN wrote:fab job finding a solution!! :tu


If only I could find the relay! :roll: Where the heck is it on the Mégane!? :conf

Just bought several new led bulbs off eBay. Will post pics (maybe vids as well) when they've (hopefully) arrived from Hong Kong and when I've sorted the too rapid flashing.


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