Red Tails

As I mentioned before, I really don't like the factory chrome tail lamps. I thought I'd cover them in red vinyl, but the contour is a little difficult -- thin vinyl tends to wrinkle if you try to curve it too much. There is thicker stuff, like "Rockblocker," but that can't wrap around the edges, so the clear will show through. That leaves painting. We took the lamps to our favorite body shop, and now they're nice and red. The car really looks different from the back.

For those of you who want to remove your tail lamps for whatever reason, here are some pointers on getting the center lamps (on the hatch) off the car:

1. First, remove the interior hatch trim. Start at the top, by the hinges. Pop the four pieces loose. The bottom piece is pretty tight, but it will pop free.
2. Remove the 8mm long nuts from the sides. Note that these have little teflon washers that are easy to lose.
3. There's one last 8mm nut inside the hatch. Use a socket extension or 8mm nut driver to get to it.
4. Once all the nuts are free, the lamp will still be tightly attached to the car. It's got a pop fastener that holds it in. We just pushed on that last stud (where the nut was) with the socket wrench, and the lamp popped loose.

While we were in there with the hatch trim apart, we swapped out the backup bulbs with LED replacements.