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Hey everyone...
Just recently I did a pretty cool touchup to my third brake light and it didnt cost me a penny, just about 3 hours of time. I put a stencil inside my third brake light and now everytime i brake people can see just how much i love my bird. Since I just recently joined this forum cause i started driving half a year ago and i just bought my first car which is a 2000 firebird. It may only be a V6 but hey, it gets me from point a to point b and i look good while i get there (not to mention that lil bit of horse i do have under the hood, from what ive noticed i am evenly matched to the old 5.0 firebirds, camaros and stangs).
Well heres a picture of what it looks like...
Here are the things you will need:
Microsoft Word & a Printer (What i used to make the stencil out of by printing out the one i liked the most, you may use your own hand drawn design if you wish.)
Razorblade
T10 Torque Screwdriver (to remove brake light from spoiler)
Permanent Marker or Black Spray Paint
Pencil
Thin piece of cardboard like as thin as the box cardboard you get when opening clothes on christmas.
And either a eletrical blade that is soft/slow enough to cut though plastic or a small/thin metal cutting blade. (cutting blade preferred what i used takes more time but safer and less chance of screwing up light)
Some strong glue (like gorilla glue or a small hot glue gun)
*NOTE* I only did this with the regular firebird V6 attached spoiler, i do not know if it will work with the camaro third brake light or the lifted firebird formula / transam spoiler! So if you wish to do it on these other cars do it at your own risk!
Once you have these things you do these steps:
1. Remove the brake light from the spoiler using the T10 Torque Screwdriver
2. Remove the light bulbs and their mounts from the brake light and head inside to finish up your work.
3. Now take some time to figure out what your going to make light up you dont have to FireBird or TransAm or Camaro, you can do as you please, but i dont recommend going over 8 letters and no spacing cause otherwise you wont be able to read the lettering to well.
4. The Letter Pattern should be no more than 1-1/4 inches tall, and no more than 6 inches long. (I choose the "Stop" font on Word)
5. Find the biggest sice you can go with your font until it wont go any bigger without having to drop down to another line.
6. Print out your design, and here begins the fun part.
7. Take the razor blade and cut out your stencil (make sure you put it ontop of something so you dont cut up the surface your working on)
8. Once you have the stencil cut out take it and place it on the cardboard.
9. But before you do that measure up the cardboard and make it 6 inches long and 1-5/8 inches tall. Pace the stencil evenly on the cardboard and trace out the stencil you just cut out of the comp paper over the pre-cut cardboard (make sure you have it cut out evenly for this is the piece of cardboard that will go inside the third brake light).
10. Take the razor and cut out the cardboard pattern.
11. Then with that cut cardboard patten take the side you will have facing out towards the outside that everyone will see inside the light (it will be the side you look at as if you were to read regularly), you will paint it black with spraypaint or a black permanent marker till it is as black as you can get it ( dont worry about the other side).
12. Now that your pattern is done the hard part is left, removing the bulb mount from the brake light. Either take the eletrical blade (make sure there is a thin blade on it) or either a small/thin hand blade and cut along the part where the black plastic touches the red plastic. (I cut the two easiest corners to reach, and slowly pryed both small sides and the "easy-to-reach" long side till i could fold it up a bit, i never touched the "hard-to-reach" long side)
13. Place the cardboard pattern inside the opening and shut everything up and now is where the glue comes in. Glue the whole area that you opened around the bulb mount plastic piece (this keeps moisture from seeping into the brake light and cause condensation which can ruin the whole project!)
14. Let the glue try and just like you removed the third brake light place it back in its holder and screw it back in like it was before... and your done!.
Now get someone to jump inside the car and push the brakes and check out your new brake light pattern that you didnt pay a cent for! :banana:
Just recently I did a pretty cool touchup to my third brake light and it didnt cost me a penny, just about 3 hours of time. I put a stencil inside my third brake light and now everytime i brake people can see just how much i love my bird. Since I just recently joined this forum cause i started driving half a year ago and i just bought my first car which is a 2000 firebird. It may only be a V6 but hey, it gets me from point a to point b and i look good while i get there (not to mention that lil bit of horse i do have under the hood, from what ive noticed i am evenly matched to the old 5.0 firebirds, camaros and stangs).
Well heres a picture of what it looks like...
Here are the things you will need:
Microsoft Word & a Printer (What i used to make the stencil out of by printing out the one i liked the most, you may use your own hand drawn design if you wish.)
Razorblade
T10 Torque Screwdriver (to remove brake light from spoiler)
Permanent Marker or Black Spray Paint
Pencil
Thin piece of cardboard like as thin as the box cardboard you get when opening clothes on christmas.
And either a eletrical blade that is soft/slow enough to cut though plastic or a small/thin metal cutting blade. (cutting blade preferred what i used takes more time but safer and less chance of screwing up light)
Some strong glue (like gorilla glue or a small hot glue gun)
*NOTE* I only did this with the regular firebird V6 attached spoiler, i do not know if it will work with the camaro third brake light or the lifted firebird formula / transam spoiler! So if you wish to do it on these other cars do it at your own risk!
Once you have these things you do these steps:
1. Remove the brake light from the spoiler using the T10 Torque Screwdriver
2. Remove the light bulbs and their mounts from the brake light and head inside to finish up your work.
3. Now take some time to figure out what your going to make light up you dont have to FireBird or TransAm or Camaro, you can do as you please, but i dont recommend going over 8 letters and no spacing cause otherwise you wont be able to read the lettering to well.
4. The Letter Pattern should be no more than 1-1/4 inches tall, and no more than 6 inches long. (I choose the "Stop" font on Word)
5. Find the biggest sice you can go with your font until it wont go any bigger without having to drop down to another line.
6. Print out your design, and here begins the fun part.
7. Take the razor blade and cut out your stencil (make sure you put it ontop of something so you dont cut up the surface your working on)
8. Once you have the stencil cut out take it and place it on the cardboard.
9. But before you do that measure up the cardboard and make it 6 inches long and 1-5/8 inches tall. Pace the stencil evenly on the cardboard and trace out the stencil you just cut out of the comp paper over the pre-cut cardboard (make sure you have it cut out evenly for this is the piece of cardboard that will go inside the third brake light).
10. Take the razor and cut out the cardboard pattern.
11. Then with that cut cardboard patten take the side you will have facing out towards the outside that everyone will see inside the light (it will be the side you look at as if you were to read regularly), you will paint it black with spraypaint or a black permanent marker till it is as black as you can get it ( dont worry about the other side).
12. Now that your pattern is done the hard part is left, removing the bulb mount from the brake light. Either take the eletrical blade (make sure there is a thin blade on it) or either a small/thin hand blade and cut along the part where the black plastic touches the red plastic. (I cut the two easiest corners to reach, and slowly pryed both small sides and the "easy-to-reach" long side till i could fold it up a bit, i never touched the "hard-to-reach" long side)
13. Place the cardboard pattern inside the opening and shut everything up and now is where the glue comes in. Glue the whole area that you opened around the bulb mount plastic piece (this keeps moisture from seeping into the brake light and cause condensation which can ruin the whole project!)
14. Let the glue try and just like you removed the third brake light place it back in its holder and screw it back in like it was before... and your done!.
Now get someone to jump inside the car and push the brakes and check out your new brake light pattern that you didnt pay a cent for! :banana:
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