Hey, I designed a fiberglass piece to replace the center light piece on the rear end. Getting it patented now. How many people would be interested in a pre-sanded, primered fiberglass center piece to replace that ugly center taillight piece? Also, how much would you be willing to pay for it if it was sanded, and primed, and ready to paint whatever color you want? I'm hoping this would be something people would pay maybe $50.00 for and its ready to paint. No more trying to paint the plastic center piece, and no more trying to buy extra center taillight pieces for like $100.00. Let me know what yall think!

I'd give you $50 for one!!

its a damn good idea I think...

but how are you going to mass produce them with a mold of course. but are you in that line of work now anyway?

good idea though!!!

Oh, I just thought of something, would these have the keyhole for the trunk release or would that be shaved. I think it would be sweet to have a version with the trunk key hole shaved too.

my center piece rocks !! i have no need to change but the idea u have fill be perfect for those whos centers dont light up

I'd be in too. Since my car is currently in the body shop, I asked them yesterday about painting my center piece and they said that the paint wouldn't stick. So, yeah... $50 sounds good to me!

Man, thats a load of horseshit. Mine sticks great.

Id be down for 50 clams! throw some pics up...

Yeah man, post up some pics when you can.

Hey if a paint shop is telling you the paint won't stick to the center peice then you need to pull your car out of there right away. Cause those DUMB ASS'S don't know a damm thing about painting. and probable don't know whit about body work either. You can paint anything on the car. Even flexable things can be painted. there is an adative to the paint to let the paint flex a little bit. Bro you need to take your stuff to someone that know's what there doing cause if they can't paint the center than i wouldn't trust them to touch my car.................

Icedout said it right. Any good body shop can paint the center tailight piece. I've had two painted, and the first one lasted over a year and now lunar has it on his car since I got a paint job. It didn't scratch off or anything, and all you have to do is wet sand it with 400 grit and paint it. Came out perfect. But a fiberglass version with the keyhole shaved would be a good idea. I know ian shaved the keyhole using his stock plastic tailight piece, but you have to know how to do fiberglass work in order to do that yourself.

i like mine

Since my car is black, I just took my center piece off my altezza's which have a clear lens. I spray painted the inside of the lens with regular gloss black paint. Put about 3 coats on. let it dry and put it all back together.The black paint shows right through, and looks like I had it painted at a bodyshop. This way the paint never gets scratched and it never fades. I did this about 4 months ago and it still looks great.

Yep, since noone ever responded when I was selling the center section of my altezzas, that what I'm gonna do (paint the inside). Another bonus is you just paint and your done. NO clearcoat needed. :)

-Tony 98'GST



http://eclipzgst.dyndns.org
AIM: turboclipz or YNOT420247

Cool, well I'll have pics up ASAP. Shouldnt be long. I'll make sure to make a new post when I get a pic of em. Oh yah, and I can make both shaved and not shaved. Whichever you want.

(And manufacturing is not a problem, and yes, a mold)

lol. I was hella worried about the quality of this place when the chick on the phone told me she didn't think it could be done but she'd talk to the painters and call me. Well, she called me and it turns out that she didn't know what the hell she was talking about and they're going to do it when they do the rest of the paint. Thanks for the heads up, though!

get some pics up!

Yeah, you can paint the stock plastic ones. Mine has been painted for alomost 2 years. The first time Earl Schieb did it, so if they can make it stick, anyone can. The second time i filled the factory keyhole, primed it, wet sand w/ 600 and it will stick fine.

I wouldnt buy a shaved keyhole one because sometimes, my latch gets stuck, even when i pulled the release a few times. That would suck.

Anyway, if It had a cool mitsu logo that was embossed or something, I'd be in like Flinn.

if it still has the keyhole for the truck, then i'm in. I am having trouble with mine cause i can still see where the "ECLIPSE" used to be. If you had them painted to match the body color you could always charge more.

hey my paint is still sticking, nothing wrong with it, only seen two eclipses with the center painted, marcus' and a guy at work painted his ferrari yellow, looks tight as hell. doesn't stick, lol

Mine has been done for about a year with no problems at all and I had a SHITTY ass body shop do it.



current status unknown

http://hometown.aol.com/ohshootuhh/

Perf:
KYB AGX Struts
Neuspeed Sport Springs
5 Strut Bars (2 F/U, F/L, R/U, R/L)
Sprint Front Camber Kit
$15 Rear Camber Kit
Corbin's A/F Gauge
MSD DIS-2 Ignition System
Some Regrind Cams that need High Compression (which I don't have)
Ported Intake Manifold
Ported Throttle Body
Drop in K&N Filter and open airbox
Custom 2 1/2 inch exhaust with Dual DTM Muffler
Empty Catalytic Convertor
Energy Suspension Motor Mount inserts
Hurricane_GS Short Shifter
Symborsky Shift Kit
Clutchmasters Stage 3 Modular
225/50/16inch Wheels and Tires


Audio:
Alpine CD Head Unit
Alpine Flex4 25W X 4 for Fronts and Rears
Alpine V-12 450W X 1 for Subs
Infinity Reference Series 5 1/4 and 1 inch tweeter component systems for fronts and rears
Blaupunkt 3 way 6x9's in the rears
3 MTX 5000 10" 12 ohm subs running 4 ohms mono

Mine is still sticking, and I did it myself hehe. Just wet sanded 400, that's it. NO PRIMER, just painted right over it. The body shop painted it with PPG paint though. Maybe spray paint might fall off or something after a while, but not if you use auto paint.

no problem with paint sticking just problem with where the "ECLIPSE" was on the center piece. Also just wondering how to get it to have that shine to it like the rest of the car. i put like 6-7 coats of clear coat on it. Do I need to Wet sand it or what? That's the one thing i haven't been able to figure out.

Well if you painted it yourself, then it might be different. If you know how to wet sand and buff, you can try that very carefully though. I wouldn't if you used spray paint though.

Oh and you shouldn't be able to see where the eclipse letters were unless you didn't clean it off perfectly maybe? It should be perfectly smooth, and the letters were just glued on, so if you paint over a clean surface, it shouldn't show...

hmmm well that leaves me in a rut then, cause after i have primed it a few times, then sprayed it with auto paint, it shows the "ECLIPSE" in a very faint red. That really sucks. I am thinking of getting it done in Black to fit right over it. I do know how to wet sand but the buffing is going to take some major elbox grease. I do have some spray on polish. Will that work?

If the red is showing through the paint, most likely the paint is not sticking to where the eclipse letters were. That means most likely there was still some residue from the stickers when you painted it. Make sure you wet sand with soapy water to clean the sticker residue off real good. Try any type of polish, buffing that piece is hard, and I didn't buff mine because the rotary buffer is too hard to fit on that small angled piece.

i sanded the thing down for some time and i can still see the where it was. i cleaned it with rubbing alcohol and then with goo gone just to be safe