bammax

On new cars with clear lenses the reflector is a small rectangle set into the bumper.

You can use a repair kit and apply the reflecting tape to the lens or to the bumper as long as it's obvious that it's there. Police usually don't care unless it's the end of the month and they're behind on their quota. If you have a safety inspection in your area then a clear lens is guaranteed to fail unless you have a dot stamp and a factory appearing reflector somewhere.

Phoenix'97

For argument sake, suppose you have clear lenses and took the liberty of painfully making them appear DOT compliant with clear repair kit patches that allow them to reflect light. Would this still be sufficient? I don't live in California and I am not sure how strict the visual inspection would be if they require the DOT stamp on the tail lights or not. IF YOU DO REQUIRE THE DOT STAMP, I don't suppose there is some way to get them approved, be-it a royal pain to do and possibly pricey to get the car itself okayed to use the tail lights? I am just trying to cover our bases for other forum members so that they don't get screwed if the day comes when the police decide to pull them over or their annual inspection is more thorough than they would have liked.

bammax

Police are always going to be hit or miss. A safety inspection will get you if the inspector looks for the stamp in the lense. If you manage to strip the red from a stock lens you can beat the inspection with just the reflector somewhere. If you can't strip the factory lense you need to get dot approved aftermarket or you need to be good friends with the inspector. If you live in a place that doesn't do inspections it's just a matter of not provoking the local cops.

Best bet for clear lenses on GM cars is usually export lights which look and are constructed differently from the US lights. Sometimes you can get lucky with the exports and don't need to do much

Phoenix'97

Yeah, police are hit or miss but you can't merely assume they won't harass you if your car in some form or another is non-compliant for safety. I never wanted to test police when I was driving 18-wheelers so I guess that mentality has rubbed off onto my car and now I second-guess such cosmetic modifications. The fourth-gen firebirds have no complete aftermarket tail light assembly support, AT ALL. So, naturally it is tempting to alter the tail lights that we have but going full clear has it's risks, that is the moral of the story here.

Now, I was interested in the export grid tail lights since I would love to have amber turn signals for my rear, but I want to preserve my U.S. set-up and not have to mess around with wiring to make it function like the export. I also want the red brake lights as well and I doubt any lens filter can accommodate both colors. This is where LED dual color bulbs and clear tail lenses would come into play but I need them to be DOT compliant granted they will be custom made by a shop if I ultimately decide to go this route. Otherwise I have to stick to solid red and change up the appearance of factory base model Firebird tail lights to give them a heritage look, something different for my car that isn't the tired grid pattern or honeycomb tail lights. At least they will have the DOT stamp and I will be sure to use the correct width for the black lines to preserve the reflectors molded into the solid red lenses.

bammax

If you want a quick and easy cosmetic change just get the early 4th gen style solid red and paint the cars body color over the areas you want blocked and clear coat the new color to blend in with the body more. From a distance it'll look like the lens is mounted through the body like pontiac did back in the 60's

Phoenix'97

That is a thought. I think I will stick with masking off a pattern on the base fourth-gen Firebird 6-cylinder tail lights. I like the "Heritage" look but I want more light to shine through compared to blacking off the outer perimeter, and I have received some inspiration on what to do from a custom LED tail-light mod found on youtube that also uses the "Heritage" look but results in more light output when all lights are functioning. The pattern also makes a more aggressive statement than either the Trans AM/Formula grid tail lights or honeycomb taillights. While it is worth it to black out the perimeter of the clear back-up lens, I don't feel it necessary to also spray paint lines over it, I want to keep it clear but sort of mimic the round honeycomb tail lights by having a thin black perimeter to clean up the look of those tail lights.

Then, I am nearly certain my reflector needs a refreshing and mirror finish chrome should do the trick and help to improve light output even during the day so that you can see my brakes!