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

[Defconxzero]

For anyone wondering, you can do the third brake like in this same fashion and keep the reflectors chrome. It is a bit trickier and you must dilute the zep even more, about 2:1 mixture, 2 parts water 1 part zep, as this chrome is a bit more sensitive for some reason. Still wet in the pics, I’ll add another pic once I reinstall it on the truck. It looks much better than those that have zepped the whole thing black

Sponsored

 

[Defconxzero]

Ok I guess it depends on lighting conditions because once it’s on the truck, this mod is barely noticeable from eye level, only mostly from above. I don’t think I would reccomended it, just doesn’t really seem worth the work to me… but you do what you want.

 

[AlpineKid74]

Black Appearance Package (BAP) style tail lights

 

[willdubbz]

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.

Would also second a video tutorial before attempting this. Is there any difference in the process for the Lariat headlights?

 

[Longhorn]

**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!

just did this method on my XLT fx4 mav and it looks so so much better, did a comparison with the lights kept my halogen bulbs still looks just as bright as if i never did it at all

 

[Longhorn]

looks great!

 

[Cancunbadlands]

W

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

Went out of business

Sponsored