Murdered-out or all-black trucks are popping up at shows more and more. While they don't have the pop of something with multicolored graphics, they do have their place in the cool category. While it's not hard to get a truck that is all black and slap on a set of black powdercoated wheels, there is one area that will still have a lot of bright color: the taillights. So what are you to do with those red plastic pieces? Black them out with some candy paint. Because candies are transparent by nature, you can darken the red plastic but still have it light up red when the pedal is hit.
Galen had the crew at Merzees Custom Paint in Sante Fe Springs, California, smoke out the taillight and third-brake-light lenses on his Colorado project. If you're comfortable using a spray gun, this is something you can most likely do at home, but if not Jeff at Merzees says this costs about 165 bucks for the taillights and third brake light.
What's In The Box?
Here are the main products used to smoke a taillight. The red won't be necessary if your lights are all one shade of red, but you will need the black. Alsa's Candy Concentrates will produce a nice even color distribution when they are mixed into a clear carrier. The Speed Clear is a polyurethane clearcoat that air dries in 90 minutes, allowing for same-day sanding and buffing.
1a.The stock taillights have...
1a.The stock taillights have some letters embossed on the face as well as some lines left by the molding process. These need to be smoothed out, and a D/A sander with 400-grit paper will make short work of this task.
1b.After a few quick passes...
1b.After a few quick passes with the D/A, 800-grit wet paper was used to knock down anything left over.
2.Some Comet and gray Scotch-Brite...
2.Some Comet and gray Scotch-Brite takes care of degreasing the light and adds one more sanding step for an even smoother surface.
3.Here are the parts after...
3.Here are the parts after all of the sanding was complete. As you can see, the lights are dull. Don't worry, after all of the paint is applied they will be nice and shiny again.
4.Jeff used candies from Alsa...
4.Jeff used candies from Alsa Corp. He mixed the Candy Concentrates with the color blender per the instructions for the specific temperature of his shop.
5a.Because these lights have...
5a.Because these lights have clear lenses molded into them, a few layers of Candy Red were sprayed to turn the whole lens red. Jeff even got his 8-year-old son, Bodie, involved in the process and let him shoot the red with a SATA jet gun with a 1.4 tip.
5b.After five coats of red,...
5b.After five coats of red, you can see the lights are an even tone.
6.To darken the lights, Jeff...
6.To darken the lights, Jeff mixed up some Candy Black and laid down about six coats. The more coats, the darker the light will be, so these coats are a personal preference.
7.After they were dry, Jeff...
7.After they were dry, Jeff buried the candies in Speed Clear so the lights could be color-sanded and rubbed to a super-slick finish.
The Final Word
The lights are now nice and smoky and almost blend right in with the black paintjob. Even though the lights are darker than before, they still light up red when the brake pedal is pushed. They're not as bright and visible as before, but that's the price of being cool.