Removing Spray Tint from Tail Lights

[bigunclejethro]

I've read many different responses with varying warnings, but I'm looking for advice from people who have done this with their cars. My attempt with VHT Niteshades didn't go as planned. In fact, most of it came off when I tried to buff them after clear coat. I couldn't get any shine so I just kept going at it. There are a few dark spots that are clearly still tinted and I want a safe way to remove it without fogging up my lights or eating through the plastic. So far the best solutions I've read about are goof-off or mineral spirits. It sounds like mineral spirits may be safer with plastic, but may not be strong enough. I've watched many videos where goof-off was used, but the manufacturer does not condone use on plastic. I won't wet sand my lights, but I'm open for any suggestions/constructive feedback. I do not have easy access to a buffer, so any solutions that avoids this would be appreciated. Thanks all.

[Lobitz68]

probably stuck working with the mineral spirits then... I would wetsand and buff them. This would easily be the quickest and most effective method.

EDIT: Why are you taking it off? Because it is patchy from the buffing? There is a system to getting a shine that starts with a light wetsand using a 2000 or higher grit wetsand sand paper and then moves on to a light buffing with a compound followed by a light buffing with a polish. The idea is to progressively make the scratches smaller. This should be pretty easy to achieve with a proper coating of clear.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Lobitz68

[bigunclejethro]

This is what my lights turned out to after trying to buff the VHT.

I kept buffing until I got them to shine. I clearly did something wrong along the way and I wasn't able to get any shine until I was all the way through the tint. If I had to guess, I probably used an incompatible clear coat. You can see there are some spots on the two backup lights that didn't come off with buffing and I think it looks bad. I want to clean it all off and have them tinted with film instead.

It sounds like mineral spirits are safe on plastic, so I'll give that a shot this weekend. Thanks for the feedback Lobitz68.

[bigunclejethro]

I spent some time this weekend removing the remaining VHT Niteshades. I had a small set of lights I had tinted a while back way too dark, so these were perfect to test on.

First I tried mineral spirits. This did absolutely nothing. So I moved onto Good-off. This works great, but really dulled the lights and seemed to almost eat the plastic on the backside of the reflector. I'm glad I used this on a set of junk lights first as my DJ lights would've definitely been ruined. There are many videos of people using Goof-off to get VHT off and it works, but it will ruin your lights!

I decided to take a much safer approach with my actual tail lights since the LED version cost nearly $150 per light (ridiculously expensive). This is the passenger reverse light before doing anything.

You can see the dark spot just under the clear part and less noticably at the top of the light as well. I had some Mcguires ultimate compound and just a hand applicator, but I went at it and it all came off really quite easily. I can see this being a major pain if you have them really tinted, but even with a rotary buffer this is easily the safest route.

Here is the end result. Good as new! Now I just need to make it through winter and decide what to do with em.

[Lobitz68]

Nice work. I would have borrowed, begged or stolen an orbital as that had to be a ton of work. But hey, at least you got it done!

[Evlmarine]

To remove any type of "lamp shades" you can use acetone with a cotton make up applicator pad and it will remove the paint and will not scratch the pastic. After you're done, just rinse the palstic with soapy water and you're done.

******* Update *******

Here's a picture of mine after being cleaned with acetone and alcohol, no damage to the plastic at all and its still very shiny.

http://www.dodgejourneyforum.com/gallery/image/2145-blacked-out-lights/

Edited February 19, 2016 by Evlmarine

[bigunclejethro]

Thanks for the info Evlmarine. I'll keep this in mind next time I screw up my tint job lol.

Yours looks pretty good. Did you end up clear coating and polishing?

[Cody Chornobey Powley]

Good off in the spray can look.it up on YouTube....

[bigunclejethro]

Cody, have you tried this yourself? I tested Goof off on an old set of lights from another car and the lights were completely ruined afterwards. It definitely removed the tint, but the plastic was in really bad shape after. It may be possible to buff out the effects but I would really not recommend it on our lights unless you're willing to dish out $400 for a set of lights.

[Cody Chornobey Powley]

Yea I used it only my elantra. If you find it ruined your lense just wet sand with 1000 and 2000 and even clear coat it after if your wish. I also used plast x for buffing and it turned out better then how it was even before the tint