DIY BAP taillights Zep PROPER WAY, full stop (keeping the light reflector chrome)

[Defconxzero]

**TLDR;
dilute the mixture 50/50, use a funnel&tube, and do it in stages. **

I know several posts and videos on doing this have been done. But there’s also people squabbling about the safety or look of removing the light reflector portion of the chrome. And yes, the OEM BAP taillights do have chrome in the reflector portions, you can see it in images of damaged BAP taillights. I never understood why people would fill them all the way up with zep and not even try to preserve the reflectors. I asked in a thread and someone said they tried and it didn’t work. Well I fiddled around and got it to work and it’s not that hard. I posted this on the other zep BAP threads but I think if you’re going to Zep BAP, this is the actual right way to do it to accurately match the OEM BAP and one shouldn’t have to dig around, this is the the Zep-BAP How-to, full stop.

I did a bunch of experimenting to get this right on some spare parts I had. The three keys are
here is the process:

-CUT the Zep with water, 50/50 solution. This is to make it less potent so that it won’t affect the chrome immediately, because sometimes it does, as soon as it touches the chrome it may ruin it. So this buys you time when flushing.

-funnel the mixture in with a tube straight down to the clear plastic so as not to touch the reflectors in the reflector cups. Hold the tube with a paper towel so not even a drip can run down the outside of the tube and touch the reflector.

- lay the light “flat” on a towel to get the side part first. Fill it till it gets up to but not inside the reflector cups. I propped it up slightly on towels so it filled the whole bottom and didn’t leave air bubbles.

-wait 1 hour. (Takes longer than the standard 30 mins since it’s diluted)stage one complete

-tilt it to get the back side of the tail light chrome, carefully and slowly so that no solution gets up into the reflector cup. Prop it up with towels or whatever. again it shouldnt have that much in it so that the liquid level should just get up to the reflector cups.

-Wait 1 hour. Stage two complete.

-carefully and slowly lift it up high and look at it from underneath, tilt slowly between the two stages you just did, slowly to see if you missed any chrome that isn’t in the reflector cups. I had some chrome missed in between the two positions so I had to do a “45degree” stage as well, total of 3 stages , 3 hours.

-lastly , don’t just dump it out, then wander around to find a hose. Remember the zep can ruin the chrome immediately, the diluted solution buys you some time but don’t chance it. Have the hose running and right next to you. dump and flush it out with a hose on full blast immediately so the solution never gets to sit on the chrome reflector, instead it’s all flushed out and off immediately with flowing water.

-my hose water is filtered so I didn’t have any problems with water spots. if yours isn’t this might be something to think about, I’ve heard of other people using denatured alcohol or something but I didn’t need to, I dried with a hair drier and tube to direct the hot air into the hole, and an air mattress pump just to keep air flowing.

good luck!

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[AlpineKid74]

I do like the extra back-up lights. Where did you get them?
Was if very difficult to install them.
Live in Northern Michigan where it is dark when a persons leaves for work in the dark & gets home in the dark. Extra lighting when backing is good.

 

[Defconxzero]

@AlpineKid74
I was lucky enough to snag some from
JJC LLC before he closed up shop. Maybe you can message him and see if he’ll still sell you the package

 

[AlpineKid74]

I put JJC LLC in google & got nothing.
Also got a blocked site when I put in https://jjc-llc.com/.

 

[Grabber Rick]

**TLDR;
dilute the mixture 50/50, use a funnel&tube, and do it in stages. **

I know several posts and videos on doing this have been done. But there’s also people squabbling about the safety or look of removing the light reflector portion of the chrome. And yes, the OEM BAP taillights do have chrome in the reflector portions, you can see it in images of damaged BAP taillights. I never understood why people would fill them all the way up with zep and not even try to preserve the reflectors. I asked in a thread and someone said they tried and it didn’t work. Well I fiddled around and got it to work and it’s not that hard. I posted this on the other zep BAP threads but I think if you’re going to Zep BAP, this is the actual right way to do it to accurately match the OEM BAP and one shouldn’t have to dig around, this is the the Zep-BAP How-to, full stop.

I did a bunch of experimenting to get this right on some spare parts I had. The three keys are
here is the process:

-CUT the Zep with water, 50/50 solution. This is to make it less potent so that it won’t affect the chrome immediately, because sometimes it does, as soon as it touches the chrome it may ruin it. So this buys you time when flushing.

-funnel the mixture in with a tube straight down to the clear plastic so as not to touch the reflectors in the reflector cups. Hold the tube with a paper towel so not even a drip can run down the outside of the tube and touch the reflector.

- lay the light “flat” on a towel to get the side part first. Fill it till it gets up to but not inside the reflector cups. I propped it up slightly on towels so it filled the whole bottom and didn’t leave air bubbles.

-wait 1 hour. (Takes longer than the standard 30 mins since it’s diluted)stage one complete

-tilt it to get the back side of the tail light chrome, carefully and slowly so that no solution gets up into the reflector cup. Prop it up with towels or whatever. again it shouldnt have that much in it so that the liquid level should just get up to the reflector cups.

-Wait 1 hour. Stage two complete.

-carefully and slowly lift it up high and look at it from underneath, tilt slowly between the two stages you just did, slowly to see if you missed any chrome that isn’t in the reflector cups. I had some chrome missed in between the two positions so I had to do a “45degree” stage as well, total of 3 stages , 3 hours.

-lastly , don’t just dump it out, then wander around to find a hose. Remember the zep can ruin the chrome immediately, the diluted solution buys you some time but don’t chance it. Have the hose running and right next to you. dump and flush it out with a hose on full blast immediately so the solution never gets to sit on the chrome reflector, instead it’s all flushed out and off immediately with flowing water.

-my hose water is filtered so I didn’t have any problems with water spots. if yours isn’t this might be something to think about, I’ve heard of other people using denatured alcohol or something but I didn’t need to, I dried with a hair drier and tube to direct the hot air into the hole, and an air mattress pump just to keep air flowing.

good luck!

I thought about doing it with a squeeze bottle used for watering plants. It has a long hose with a 90 degree bend on the end. If I need it longer I thought about putting a piece of hose on the end. Will a small hose fit around down into the side where the large chrome part is? How did you get the chrome off so close to the reflector bucket? When you say 3 stages do you mean side first then the bottom 2nd and then turn and do the top half last? I will use distilled water to dillute the zep. I then may use a 5 gallon pressurized sprayer filled with distilled water to flush it out. I have well water and don't want spots. Thanks in advance for answering my questions. Your BAP taillights are the best I seen yet. To bad you live so far away or I would of paid you to do mine.

 

[Blinky]

I like this so much better than the dull look that the full Zep method gives, thanks for posting a well written how-to.

 

[Chewy]

Let me commend you for being the only person on this forum I’ve seen to do this mod the right way. Everyone else tries to make up for the lack of a reflector by putting in LED lights which is kinda half-assed in my opinion. Kudos to you for a job well done.

 

[Sticks]

I put JJC LLC in google & got nothing.
Also got a blocked site when I put in https://jjc-llc.com/.

He's closing up shop. Any remaining stock is on Ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/usr/jjc-llc

Looks like the reverse lights already sold out.

 

[Defconxzero]

I thought about doing it with a squeeze bottle used for watering plants. It has a long hose with a 90 degree bend on the end. If I need it longer I thought about putting a piece of hose on the end. Will a small hose fit around down into the side where the large chrome part is? How did you get the chrome off so close to the reflector bucket? When you say 3 stages do you mean side first then the bottom 2nd and then turn and do the top half last? I will use distilled water to dillute the zep. I then may use a 5 gallon pressurized sprayer filled with distilled water to flush it out. I have well water and don't want spots. Thanks in advance for answering my questions. Your BAP taillights are the best I seen yet. To bad you live so far away or I would of paid you to do mine.

i did it with a 10” tube. Anything like this will work just has to get the solution down below the reflector cup. It doesn’t have to round the corner. Lay the light so the big chrome flat side is down. Make sure you angle it up slightly and lean it on towels or whatever so no air gets trapped. The tube just has to lower straight down past the reflector cup till it almost touches the clear plastic. Doesn’t need to bend around the corner, the solution will just flow down there..

I got the chrome off so close to the reflector cup by pouring enough solution in such that It touches the exterior of the cup and JUST barely goes into the cup.

and yes three stages, side, back, and one more in between side and back if needed. I’ll try to draw a sketch; the fill line is just representative for understanding. The goal is to look what what you’re doing and fill it until the solution touches the reflector cup but doesn’t go up into it. It’s too hard to draw that Detail but you should be able To see what I mean when you’re doing this. When I did this I went a little extreme and even siphoned some of the solution out before flipping slowly between stages but after I did it I decided it probably wasn’t nessesary but I wanted to be sure I never got the inside of the reflector cup wet. Good luck

 

[Grabber Rick]

i did it with a 10” tube. Anything like this will work just has to get the solution down below the reflector cup. It doesn’t have to round the corner. Lay the light so the big chrome flat side is down. Make sure you angle it up slightly and lean it on towels or whatever so no air gets trapped. The tube just has to lower straight down past the reflector cup till it almost touches the clear plastic. Doesn’t need to bend around the corner, the solution will just flow down there..

I got the chrome off so close to the reflector cup by pouring enough solution in such that It touches the exterior of the cup and JUST barely goes into the cup.

and yes three stages, side, back, and one more in between side and back if needed. I’ll try to draw a sketch; the fill line is just representative for understanding. The goal is to look what what you’re doing and fill it until the solution touches the reflector cup but doesn’t go up into it. It’s too hard to draw that Detail but you should be able To see what I mean when you’re doing this. When I did this I went a little extreme and even siphoned some of the solution out before flipping slowly between stages but after I did it I decided it probably wasn’t nessesary but I wanted to be sure I never got the inside of the reflector cup wet. Good luck

Thanks for more detailed info. I knew I wanted to mainly eliminate the side chrome part of the taillight. It just is so big and stands out way to much. Maybe after doing the side first I might just stop at that. It may look good with just the side chrome deleted. As long as the red does'nt look to much different from the rest of red on the remainder of the tailight. Seem I would have to tilt the tailight upside down to eliminate the chrome at the top edge of the backup light cup. Then forward to get the front up to the backup light cup chrome. I guess once I start I will be able to see what the zep is doing and which way to tilt it?

 

[Defconxzero]

Thanks for more detailed info. I knew I wanted to mainly eliminate the side chrome part of the taillight. It just is so big and stands out way to much. Maybe after doing the side first I might just stop at that. It may look good with just the side chrome deleted. As long as the red does'nt look to much different from the rest of red on the remainder of the tailight. Seem I would have to tilt the tailight upside down to eliminate the chrome at the top edge of the backup light cup. Then forward to get the front up to the backup light cup chrome. I guess once I start I will be able to see what the zep is doing and which way to tilt it?

I don’t really understand what you mean by tilting it upside down. Just do it how I described. If you don’t understand , then Practice with plain water to figure out the angles and coverage…

 

[Dale Seitzer]

Huh, wha, TDLR, BAP? Zep is a cleaning supply company, are you cleaning the lights?
What exactly are you trying to do?
does this treatment increase visibility?
Strengthen the plastic?
Make it lighter?

 

[Jacobrippey1]

Huh, wha, TDLR, BAP? Zep is a cleaning supply company, are you cleaning the lights?
What exactly are you trying to do?
does this treatment increase visibility?
Strengthen the plastic?
Make it lighter?

It emulates the BAP (Black Appearance Package) darkened taillights by using ZEP to peel off the chrome inside. It doesn't affect the red plastic and makes it look like the cooler OEM tail light option without ruining visibility/brightness.

 

[AlpineKid74]

Huh, wha, TDLR, BAP? Zep is a cleaning supply company, are you cleaning the lights?
What exactly are you trying to do?
does this treatment increase visibility?
Strengthen the plastic?
Make it lighter?

I think what 'Defconxzero' is doing is getting rid of the chrome on the side of the light.
It would have been better if he had put a before picture before he started.

The one on the right is in plastic, and not the right size for comparison.
See how his is grayer, where the chrome was, compared to the new one on the right?
Maybe Defconxzero can find a tail light out of a junked Maverick and do a video of how he did this.

 

[SoonerBrink]

Looks awesome! Thanks for sharing. I will need to wait for someone to video their process, because I would mess it up without following a visual. So much better than the matte look that people have been getting when zep'ing the entire light.

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