1988 that I have owned since 1989.

My friend followed me home the other day and said my brake lights were not working right. They looked liked amber turn signals. That is because the red portion of the lense had faded.

Here my brake light is on and you can see it looks amber instead of red.



Time to pick out some red paint. This is the left/drivers side. Note the black plastic part I have removed from the back of the lense. I did not take a picture of it mounted on the back of the lense because I did not realize how important it was. Plus I only had the left side out at this point and did not realize that part was missing form the right side.



Left lense again. Here is that black plastic part that fits over the clear or backup section of the lense to block the light.That way light does not get thrown around inside the lense when just one bulb is on, such as the brake light bulb.



Here they are both painted.



Here it is a night with just the brake lights on. Because that part is not on the right lense light is being thrown around behind the lense.



I have changed the bulbs many times over the years and never noticed that black thing is only on the left side. This is the first time I have had both lenses out at the same time, so that is why I noticed it. I am the only one who has worked on the car for 21 years. It was in an accident before I bought it in 1989 and repainted - left front damage. They must have taken the lights out for the repaint.

 

I understand the need for correcting lenses and such but remember there are regulations regarding how far away your lights have to be seen. Painting the lenses may make the color more "true" but a cop will more likely give you a ticket if the lights aren't bright enough before they give you one for having faded colors with factory lenses.

 

Don' they make paint specifically for painting lights and such?

 

ive always wondered that to, i cant seem to find any that could handle the temp from the bulb tho.

 

That would be the VHT spray paint that is not available in all states, and is meant actually (in most cases for the outside, not the inside). Testor's paint is an excellent enamel that bonds with plastic (as it should since it's model/plastic paint) and works well enough for collector car restorers, so why not a Toyota pickup?

Besides, if you look at the clearance price tags on the 3 boxes there was $6+tax spent versus $13-ish. Of course i use hobby paint all the time for crafty stuff, so i can appreciate the foresight here.

 

i think were talking about the actual bulb

 

I paid $2 a box for the paint years ago when WalMart was getting rid of that kind of stuff. Guess kids these days are into computers rather than building models. Being the cheap guy I am I was not going to buy some spray tint. A pair of repro lenses on ebay is about $40

You can see through the thin coats of paint, so now I have red brake lights.

Here is that black plastic part mounted on the left lense. It keeps the light from one bulb from showing shining through the rest of the lense. Funny that in 21 years I never noticed it was missing on the right side. But then, as I said, I never had both lenses out at the same time. I know the tail lights were removed when the truck was repainted because I can see overspray behind the light assembly. Looks like the light blocker would be the same for left or right. Now I got to figure out how to get one cheap.

 

Why not just go with the red LED bulbs? 4Crawler has some pics on his site I believe, plus if you break a tail light, then you still have a red brake light!

 

If I put a red bulb in there then the entire lense would light up red, including the amber turn signal and clear back up, because I am missing the black part. The paint solved the faded issue and it cost me nothing. Next time I am at the local Toyota truck wrecking yard I'll see if I can get just the missing part, without having to buy the entire light assembly.