hey everyone, hows it going? i just thought, seems that i am waiting for some panel filler to cure before i add another layer, i'd give you can update on my r32 tail light install. some of the new members wouldnt even know that this is going on, however, most people would at least have an inkling that i was doing this..
so yes, i have, after telling people on teamnse.com & the teamnse yahoo group for the last 2-3 years that i would be performing this mod, i've finally done it. at the moment, i'm in the final panel filling stages, and prepping for paint, but i probably wont repaint the area i've been working on for a while, as i was hoping to get a full respray in some other colour sometime this year.
and i guess the question on the tip of everyone's tongues is, "is it a difficult mod to do?" well, i'd have to say that it is more of a pain in the arse than difficult.
things i have done to fit the r32 tail lights are as follows:
- drilled new holes for r32 tail ight mounting bolts, the orignal u12 mounting bolt locations will match up, however, a new panel would have to be fabricated to make the tail lights appear to come up to the boot lid. so, i just drilled new holes so the r32 tails sit up higher.
- enalrge the holes where the u12 tails are mounted (ie, the holes where the reverse side of the tail lights poke thru into the boot, where you change the tail ight globes)
- modify the section between the tail lights where the number plate is mounted.
- rewire the tail light assembly. simple enough. the r32 wire colours dont correspond with the u12 wire colourings.
- i chose to use a space invader type of product to fill in large gaps around the r32 tail lights where some of the u12 panels had to be removed & were not worth modifying the original panels. now i am in the process of applying metal based body filler over the other filler. however, if you wanted to remove the tail lights at a later date & return your pintara to its original form, then fibreglass panels might be on order.. i considered making fibreglass panels, but i figured that i was never going to remove the 32 tails, so it wouldnt be much point. hope fully the bog doesnt fall out one day
- and then of course, you have to then prep the finished tails for painting..
in the end, i'd say the mod is well worth it.. but i wouldnt recommend this as a diy for people who arent confident in hacking their pride & joy to bits & then filling the arse end up with bog/making fibre glass panels.
so far, the conversion has cost me around $400 for parts (r32 tails cost $130 each from adelaide jap, then i need bog, gap filler, primer, paint, sand paper, and the usual guff) and when my car got broken into, all my bog & sand paper etc got stolen, so i had to buy it twice, so you could say its cost me closer to $450-500 in parts.
then i also purchased 2nd hand tools for the job (since i only inteded to use them once) as normally i do serious diy's in brisbane & use all my dad's tools
so i had to buy a cordless drill & a 4" angle grinder, which set me back about $250 (2nd hand mind you)
at the moment, i havent got any photos. i wasnt going to post anything about this until i did get pictures, however, i needed to kill time, hence this looong message
so, tomorrow on the 200sx.org cruise, i will try get some photos of the lights & post them asap.
i may in the future post a brief diy in the diy/faq section of antrx, but i guess some of this message covers the basics of the conversion.
so there you go
i hope you havent fallen asleep before you've gotten this far..
Topic: r32 skyline tail light update (Read 18972 times)