Fixin to night shades my tails and 3rd. How long should I let the clear cure before I put wax on them?

 

90 days.

On a side note, post pictures when you are done. Make sure to wet sand in between coats as well. I want to see if someone with the right technique can make it look good. All of the ones I've seen done look like crap, real texturized and "flat".

 

The right technique? I'm hopeful they'll turn out well. My buddy has access to a booth so he'll be clearing them for me free of charge.

 

Yes the right technique. Painting isn't just opening a can of spray paint and just shooting it. I'm not saying you're going to do a **** job, I'm just warning you it's very easy to make it look like a **** job.

 

I hear ya man. I was merely stating that I wouldn't say I'm a very good painter. I'm getting better though. You'd think after painting about 50 model cars growing up, plus many many other various little projects I'd be proficient. I am somewhat of a perfectionist though.

 

Same here ... Just please wet sand in between coats and especially before the clear.

Painting is all about taking your time with it and preping the product correctly. I believe Nite Shades comes with pretty well written directions, right?

 

Definitely be wet sanding. Have lots of paper left from doing some headlights.

As far as I know it comes with good directions. *shrug*

I've read about 50 tutorials for it though. If I screw it up I'll claim inebriation.

 

Can you give me a link to one of the better directions?

I really want to do my tail lights and my side marker lights. A guy on Ebay wants about $200 minus a core charge but that's kind of steep just for a set of tinted tail lights ..

 

My favorite one is on here somewhere. The thread is called Nightshades Tutorial or something. I haven't been able to find it though. It's got lots of writing and lots of pictures. From a 350Z to boot.

 

Or I just skimmed past it the first and second time searching for it.

Clicky

 

Appreciate it.

You said your buddy will be clearing them, is he a painter? .. or does he work at a paint shop? The reason I'm asking is that I have a great paint shop that gives me AMAZING prices. He said he'll try it but he wants to know what the paint ratio is ... I've heard 10 parts clear to one part black but that seems like way too much clear. See if they know.

 

I don't agree with using an orbital directly after finishing. Or wet sanding after clear, but other than that I liked his directions.

 

No idea. I'll try and find out.

 

FYI, they looked great after night shades and 1 coat of clear. I had to leave the shop after the first coat. He sprayed 3 total. Pickin them up tomorrow afternoon.

Full write-up will follow in appearance section. Maybe RP can sticky it since there's tons of threads asking for the info... I'll link the new thread tomorrow/Monday at the latest.

 

I'm guessing this question was referring to using clear/black instead of night shades. He said they normally use 8:1 (clear/color) when using other colors, but doesn't see why 10:1 would be a problem with black. If anything it'd just take a few extra coats to get the desired effect.

They use all NAPA products here (Ford guy.) If interested I'll find out exactly what clear he used.