My 80 Z Clone Pro Touring in progress

[J. Chris Davis]

Got the lenses blended in with the red tint when I got home from work tonight. I see a couple of dust specs that I'll have to wet sand out before I tint coat them.

[Zspoiler]

I found out by painting the insides Chrome silver on my 1979 Z-28 RS Belinetta tail lights that they are brighter than stock. You can never get them bright enough for those fools on the road,But it helps,

[J. Chris Davis]

A while back when I put LED lights in I repainted the silver. I also ordered some brighter LEDs for the tail lights.

[J. Chris Davis]

Changing it up a little bit with the tail lights. I like how dark the red turned out and don't think I will be smoke tinting the tail lights like I did with the front side markers. Rather I'm keeping it this dark red and going to color the clear lenses the same. Ordering 4 tail light sockets with 3 wires 2 terminals and a couple more 1157 red LEDs . Going to wire these so all the lights will be on with the tail lights and the inside 2 lights on each side will both function as turn signals. The outer lights will still be brake lights. I will add reverse lights in the future once I decide what I want to do there and where I want them. I'll have more pictures once I get the clear lens colored and attached to the rest of the tail light lenses.

[manicmechanic]

What did you use for the red tint? Don't forget to put the black stripe through the middle of the lenses, specific to the Z/28.

[J. Chris Davis]

VHT Nite-Shade red. I won't be putting the black stripe in the middle. Never liked that on the Z's. That's why I never corrected it on mine.

[Zspoiler]

I used Berlinetta tail lights on mine 1979 Z-28 RS ,

[J. Chris Davis]

The Berlinetta's I believe have a chrome trim around the black center trim.

[J. Chris Davis]

Got all three lenses back together and tinted red. Just need to clear coat them next. I should have the new tail light sockets Monday so I can get that rewired next week.

[J. Chris Davis]

Here's an original diagram and then the one I changed as to how I'm wiring my tail lights. I have the sockets, but still waiting for the correct LED bulbs to get here since they sent me the wrong ones. I need to do some color sanding and polishing to the tail light lenses now that the clear coat is on. I should be getting back to this by Saturday. I also noticed the back up sockets are a hair different as to how they will snap into the housing, but should be easily remedied.

[J. Chris Davis]

Nice article that Tommy Parry with Hotrodhotline.com online magazine did of my Camaro that I was honored to be apart of.




https://www.hotrodhotline.com/chris-...e#.WsgfTujwbrc

[USAZR1]

My older brother is building a Black 80 Z/28 at his shop, in NE OK. It's a very solid car, no t-tops, and is coming along nicely. I'm sending him a link to this thread, to give him a little extra inspiration.
Very nice work, Chris!

[J. Chris Davis]

Thank you! I hope he finds something useful on here. Got a couple pics of his build progress?

[J. Chris Davis]

Small update. Got the lenses clear coated and they just didn't look that great so I've sanded them all back down and going to redo that. I had to order a couple of load resisters because I was getting some power feeding the other tail lights when the turn signals were on lighting them up slightly. I'll put one on each side of the turn signal leads and that should fix that problem.

[J. Chris Davis]

Finally got the lenses cleaned up retinted red and clear coated. Once they dry I can assemble the tail lights. Here are some pictures of the lenses and then how I wired the tail lights. The two inside tail lights also function as the turn signals. I am mounting some bright white LEDs under the rear impact bar for the back up lights. I see Postimage has my pictures screwed up and not showing on here in my previous posts for some reason.










Fixed all of the URLs for my pictures that Postimage had messed up.

[J. Chris Davis]

Got the tail lights assembled this morning. I'm pretty pleased with how they finally turned out. Going to get the back up lights wired in with the programming switch tomorrow and then I should be able to reinstall the tail lights.

[J. Chris Davis]

Had to make a couple of spacers for the inside sockets, but they are finally on the car and done. I'll have to get some night pictures soon. Next is to get it a bath.

[J. Chris Davis]

Not the greatest pictures, but here are some darker pictures from this morning of the tail lights.

[TheJDMan]

Nice work!

[J. Chris Davis]

Thank you! I think they look better than the factory style.