Having completed 98% of previous owners' deferred maintenance over the past 3 years, & running out of things to do, I put the coach up for sale. It's still my toy, however, & I decided to attack the infamous purple tail light problem. First. I lined the bases with aluminum tape - mylar would have been better, but the aluminum was in the tool box & it's better than dull black plastic.

I did a Google search for tail light paint, & found some at EAutoWorks.com. $26.95 plus $6.95 shipping - not cheap for spray paint, but pretty effective. Forget about reading the directions, they're in Japanese.

Following are the results:

left side before, one red, one purple


right side before, two purple


lined with aluminum tape


left side after painting


right side after painting


left side parking lights on - cloudy bright afternoon


right side parking lights on - cloudy bright afternoon

The purple is not a surface effect, it permeates the plastic. It is not as translucent as the original red. I'm sure the paint reduces the translucence as well, & I could probably left it a little thinner. More is not always better.

Anyway, all my tail lights look red now, though they are clearly not all identical.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:

Forget about reading the directions, they're in Japanese.

WOW! I had no idea that stuff was that good.

Is the paint sprayed on the inside or outside?

A halogen bulb might restore some of the lost brightness.

If you can scan or photograph the label, I can have it translated.

Sprayed on the outside. Inside wouldn't have helped much since the outside lens surface is purple. I'll see if I can resurrect the label directions & scan or photo.

My 86 Regal has the dreaded purple tail lights so I thought I would post this here. I read in a motorcyle forum that using Scarlet RIT dye bringing it to boil and then submerse lens for a few minutes has worked. Anybody heard of this, would there be any danger of cracking, would have to suspend so they wouldn't touch the pan. Couldn't come across the paint that olroy mentioned on his post.. do they still make it? Thanks for the help.. Gerald

Found some paint on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...fPartsQ5fAccessories ,sorry wish I knew how to make that smaller. Maybe the same stuff olroy mentioned.. no instructions made in Japan! Still curious about the RIT dye.

quote:

Originally posted by Gerald:
Found some paint on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...fPartsQ5fAccessories ,sorry wish I knew how to make that smaller.

Here's the tutorial that I did.

Thanks Bill NY... not to difficult... guess I should have looked a little better!