King23

iTrader: (4)

i wet sanded and did 4 light coats of nightshades followed by 2 coats clear turned out good

LILWS6

i have no clear on my tails and side markers and from what i can tell hae had no problems with fading or peeling or flaking. The car is always parked in a garage away from the sun tho so could help. i just wet sanded them with 2000 grit and buffed away by hand. the side markers i also sanded off the raised letters. i'll see if i got a picture of the side markers but i know i got a good picture of the tails. I also have had the problem with the third brake light i've left it for now but i do need to strip it back down and try it again its weird. hope this helps at all. if i were to do it again i would use a good clear and buff it just for peace of mind
before

after

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

^ Looks good but now your third brake light looks out of place lol

LILWS6

yea been working on that. can't vht the dam thing or it has cracks in the paint its strange alot of problems with the third brake light for tinting. i may make my own here soon if i can't figure anything else out.

lethal bird

iTrader: (12)

Has anyone ever used the red night shade of a firebird/TA tails? I've been highly debating on it.

arapitis

iTrader: (1)

i ended up wrapping my 3rd with vinyl tint

VinR1

iTrader: (17)

My grids are VHT'd with matte clear

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

From what I've read on here, spraying it first with a coat or two of clear then spraying the vht, then some more clear with fix the cracking problem. I think the plastic reacts with the vht and cracks. When you coat it with the clear and create a barrier between the plastic and vht, it won't crack..

Dr Tran

iTrader: (10)

I redid my 3rd brakelight today, and the underside cracked this time. I thought that was kind of weird, I might try that clear>VHT>clear idea.



But to the OP, yes I would clearcoat/wetsand/polish them.

LILWS6

yup thats what the top of mine did lol. first time i did it i thought there was still some grease on it or something so i cleaned the **** out of it and tried again no avail still looks like that. so yea when i get a chance i may try the clear first then vht. on a side note my trucks third brake light did the same thing i just shot clear over it and called it good tho

ws6foose

iTrader: (2)

yeah i thought about that when i was buying a can of the black shade. but i did 3 coats on mine and no clear yet, has a very nice shince imo

lethal bird

iTrader: (12)

I had blacked out tails for a while but didn't care for them. Ive got a spare taillight I plan on doing in red I just have to do some sanding which I hate!

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Just don't do what I just did today. I sanded the letters off my tails, but had a brain fart and like an idiot didn't use a finer grit to smooth them out and clean up the sanding marks, so now after the tint is dry they look like crap

Blu99T/A

iTrader: (5)

I tried clearing the 3rd brake light first, then tinting it, still didn't work. The top was always cracking on me. I tried this several times.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Did you try doing VERY light coats with the VHT, and waiting a good 8-10 min between coats?

Blu99T/A

iTrader: (5)

Yep, You name it, I tried it. There are a few threads about people having the same issues trying to tint the 3rd brake light on T/A's. The underside, I have never had a problem with, along with taillights or side markers, just the top of the 3rd brake light.

ws6foose

iTrader: (2)

Every time I've done a used third brake light it has done this. Wtf

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Hm OK. The Camaro 3rd tends to do something similar and that's how I got around it (then I replaced with an LED 3rd later on).

What if you just used standard black spray paint for plastic with adhesion promoter on the top part, then tinted the underside, and then clear the whole thing?

Just trying to think of other ideas.

Blu99T/A

iTrader: (5)

I did something similar. I sanded the top part with 120. Used lightweight filler and smoothed it, then painted the top black/cleared. No light at all is getting thru there... Bottom side of lens is VHT and cleared.