ZEP taillight smoked look mod - results and misconceptions

[McTreFlip]

Has anyone tried this with the Lariat taillights with the leds

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[bigcat1185]

I need to do this to my third brake light so it matches the rest of the the BAP lighting.

 

[Wonderwall]

I need to do this to my third brake light so it matches the rest of the the BAP lighting.

Sorry I'm a little uneducated on all this. What's BAP?

 

[bigcat1185]

Sorry I'm a little uneducated on all this. What's BAP?

Black Appearance Package

 

[Dnel29]

Has anyone tried this with the Lariat taillights with the leds

Wondering this too. I thought I saw that someone did, but I can't find that post anymore.

 

[Wali]

And for those saying you're gonna get rear ended... it probably won't be due to that small amount of light difference. It'll be from someone texting, talking on their phone, not paying attention, or they're just plain crappy drivers. A light that's a little brighter won't fix that.

I reeeeally wish I didn't know what you're talking about.
Parking lot at McDonalds and I stopped for someone backing out. I was at dead stop. Young lady behind me took out my taillight and bumper. Said she was soooo sorry and that she'd dropped her phone.

I'll see how good her hands of Allstate are.

Just so this has some semblance to the point of this thread:

Has anybody been able to mask or not strip the chrome off of the backup lens using the zep dip?
Maybe tilt it just so?

Also it seems you ought to be able to use a lot less dep if you put the whole thing in a big baggie.

Wali

Formerly pristine 2023 Alto Blue XLT BAP hybrid

Heres a pic just in case any body wanted to see what’s still chrome and what isn’t inside of a BAP taillight.

 

[Defconxzero]

Yea I was thinking the same, why wouldn’t you just not fill it all the way, and do it in stages? Get the side first then rinse and then the main part , again not filled all the way, that way the reflector cup never gets removed….. any thoughts ? Thinking about doing this and if I do, this is what I will attempt

 

[Mdmac]

Looks great! Going to do this soon. How long did it take for the condensation to dry out in that taillights?

Hello,
I just did my Zep taillight hack and was easy. Took about 30 for all the condensation to clear up but came out great

 

[Mdmac]

Hi all!

I recently did the ZEP tail light mod on my 2022 XL and I wanted to share not only my results, but I wanted to clear up a lot of misconceptions and things said in the original post about this from a year or so ago.

First off. This entire mod is amazing and I cannot recommend it enough. It took a while to do, especially the 3rd brake light, but I’m impressed with the results.

So with that said, let’s clear up some misconceptions with the original post. There was a lot of back and forth about the entire process; but especially needing the 25% stronger ZEP that isn’t obtainable anymore. This is partially true ZEP doesn’t sell bottles that say “25% stronger” anymore. However, someone pointed out that the regular ZEP works just fine. It did for me. I’m positive it’ll work for anyone else too. I got my ZEP from Walmart in 1gal jugs.

My method was to remove the lights, take the bulbs and harness loose, fill it up 75% of the lights capacity with ZEP, and reinstall the bulb harness with the light bulbs removed. I then rotated the lights every few minutes and shook them vigorously between rotations. Every speck of chrome came off in 30 minutes per light or less. I had to spray it on the 3rd brake light as it’s an open back housing and it will not hold any liquid by design.

I used 2gal between the 3 housings. I then rinsed with a garden hose (detail bay which has filtered water but any hose should do) until no bubbles or ZEP were left. I then rinsed with distilled water from Walmart. 1gal was like $1.70 near the baby section at my local Walmart. I blew what I could out with compressed air and let the rest evaporate before reinstalling. As far as the harness went, I rinsed it off as well and blew it dry with the blow gun. It didn’t discolor the contacts or anything weird. I reinstalled all three lights; and these were my results (running stock bulbs for rn).

Hello,
I just did my Zep taillight hack and it looks great. Never thought about the red brake light thank you for mentioning this I plan on doing it tomorrow

 

[Sanchecini7]

¿Esto todavía funciona con agua destilada? No puedo comprar ZEP en mi país. ¡Gracias!

 

[Jacobrippey1]

Tempted to try this... Anyone do this on an Area51 truck?

 

[Defconxzero]

Yea I was thinking the same, why wouldn’t you just not fill it all the way, and do it in stages? Get the side first then rinse and then the main part , again not filled all the way, that way the reflector cup never gets removed….. any thoughts ? Thinking about doing this and if I do, this is what I will attempt

so I did exactly this and it worked great. I did a lot of testing until I got it right. The first trick is to pipe it in carefully with a funnel and tube so it doesn’t touch the reflector. The second trick is to cut the Zep 50/50 with water. It takes longer, it should soak for a full hour, rotating it twice to cover the angles for a total of 3 hours. But that way when you rinse it out, the solution doesn’t affect the reflector portion. Now it looks basically exactly like the oem BAP tail light. Looks good and the safety of keeping the reflector is maintained.

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