93[BB4]Prelude's 4th Gen Tailight mod

[93[BB4]Prelude]

Disclaimer- i am not responsible for any damage that you do to your own tailights or any other parts while attempting this modifcation.

WHAT YOU NEED: Stock tailights
Aftermarket Tailights (your choice)
Oven
Flat head screwdriver (you may need more than one)
Silicon window and door caulking
Ruby Red Stained glass spray paint (or another color, your choice)
Patience, and around 6 hours.

BEFORE:http://a116.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/15/l_4927811bc7b415a07494f945dd156d93.jpg

Well i got sick off my Ruby red aftermarket tailights. I had the black altezzas, that were painted with the ruby red tailight paint. I liked them at first but as time went on, i lost all feelings for them haha. This is because they consisted of just one lit up circle opposed to the stock tailights triangular lighting. The two circles were just to stupid looking and to small for the beautiful ass of the 4th gen prelude. So i decided to combine my stock set and my aftermarket set to create a beautiful set of custom tailights.

First off, remove the tailights from your car. There are 4 nuts (8mm) on each tailight assembly holding it to the body, and 2 gold screws (phillips head) holding the white plastic lightbulb holder to the actual tailight. Remove all of those. If its your first time taking off the stock tailights, you will have to pry them off carefully.

NOTE: Its better to start the next step with the AFTERMARKET tailights, for they are made lousier than the OEM ones and are MUCH easier to get apart because of the type of glue and construction. This way you will get practice for the OEM tailights

Now you have to bake them. Like in SiSpeeds tutorial, you set the oven to 250 and put them in for 4-5 minuets (the extra minuet wont hurt them i left them in for 15 one time haha because i forgot, they were fine, just reallly easy to get apart) then start on the bottom of the tailight and pry loose the clips and pry the lens with the flat head screwdrivers. Use pennies and jam them in the pryed areas so that the tailight doesnt reassembly itself. Once the tailight cools down a little, put it back in the oven. Repeat till you can either cut the glue, or just pull it apart with your hands

Youll get this
http://a369.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/7/l_0fe42a2c0a370352de2bebb604cda298.jpg

Repeat for the Stock tailights:
http://a141.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/96/l_7e7b8681f2a5d12331ab5f4f426125f4.jpg

Now the Lens that i am using for the finished product does not have a diffuser. Therefore it would look stupid on the stock tailight assembly because you would see the lightbulb etc. Lucky the Stock tailights have what is called a diffuser, which diffuses the light haha. It comes right out of the stock lens

Diffuser (stock lens on left, diffuser on right)
http://a667.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/55/l_81346eb60d3ceab67946e6604644886a.jpg

(This step IS optional but if want them to look like mine, then you must do it. besides 50% of this mod consists of the blinker and reverse section being something other than amber.) Pop the amber and clear blinker section out of the Stock tailight assembly. Tape up around the area were going to paint like this....
http://a485.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/24/l_ad0c81dd4a30b8d0e7a0572c93bb313c.jpg
.... and paint it black, you can expiriment with other colors also but its at your own risk.
http://a646.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/81/l_70faf6ca1850461ada88681009b3ddb5.jpg

Next is to remove all that OEM Grey sealent Honda used from the tailights. Heat them up again, and remove as much of it as you can with whatever tool you deem fit. You will not be able to get ALL of the Grey glue out, if you can, then your a god.

Here are the Ruby Red lens' with the diffusers in them, see how they look different from the second picture
http://a978.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/110/l_239e647b17534a23dbd3c0d84d4406b9.jpg

Take the Silicon (your choice, but it should be a interior and exterior, water sealent, etc. common sense stuff. we dont want water in your tailights. you can buy this stuff at any hardware store and probably walmart and places) and fill in along where the Grey glue was. CAREFULLY place the diffuser AND THE DIFFUSER ONLY onto the tailight, Its impossible to get the diffuser to sit right if you put both it and the lens on at the same time, which will cause your lens to not sit right = leaks and looks horrible. Now you can put the lens over that, and push down to snap all the clips back into place. Wipe away and excess silicone and let dry for atleast 1 hour before putting back onto car.
http://a362.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/79/l_45f11483e627e8d7dce33eafdf0c3961.jpg
http://a162.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/22/l_f2923a67c350923d2e31f94b00cf81b9.jpg

Yours Truely, Vt3cprelude (This is my first DIY, let me know what i did wrong)

[Si Speed]

Loose exactly like mine, only I put fluorescent light cover in mine. Good work though. :biggrin:

[93[BB4]Prelude]

Thanks, they are darker then stock, and when lit up, they are SUCH a nice red because the lens' are the Ruby red painted ones from my black altezza, not really orange like the stock tailights and the lens has its own diffuser for the blinker/reverse light part, so it doesnt look all ghetto w/o a flourescent cover like yours has, ill get a night shot

[93[BB4]Prelude]

the night shot i tried to take just doesnt do justice for the red color it has. But IMO it looks great

[Si Speed]

It looks a lot better than smoking the tail light IMO. A more, factory yet custom look, ya know?

[93[BB4]Prelude]

yea exactly, factory custom, because very few aftermarket tailights look good on the 4th gen, so we strive to make hondas little baby tailights into a mature beautiful butterfly of a tailight... lol did i just say that?