93 Cobra Tail Lights

buy the standard 83-86 lights and add the pinstripes yourself
That's what I did...

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You masked them off and painted the stripes as well? What type of paint did you use?

I painted the center bar. The stripes are 1/4" or 1/8" pinstripe that I applied and then cleared over. I took that pic somewhat recently, and did this in the very early 2000's.


You can kinda see one paint run in the center bar. Guess my standards weren't what they are today.
 
I painted the center bar. The stripes are 1/4" or 1/8" pinstripe that I applied and then cleared over. I took that pic somewhat recently, and did this in the very early 2000's.


You can kinda see one paint run in the center bar. Guess my standards weren't what they are today.
Looks good on yours and @KRUISR . My first ‘86, I had the middle bar painted black to match the car...... but I think I may like the stripes. It’s a “down the road” project anyway! Time to think about it.
 
That's what I did...

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I scuffed the lenses with 400 or 600 grit, placed tape where I wanted the stripes with 1/8" tape. Then taped both sides of where the tape lines were, then pulled up the 6 tape lines. I masked off everything else not to be painted and sprayed gloss black. Could have painted with semi-gloss, flat or even the grey colour some have.

After paint cured for prescribed time, pulled all the tape and sprayed clear over entire lens.
 
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I did the same as these guys for my 93 LX>Cobra Conversion. Just to be clear - as KRUISR mentioned above, the actual color is Gray, so if you want it to be perfectly matched you will need to paint them or find a pinstripe that would match (unlikely?) I was also under the impression that the LMR gray wasn't quite right, at least on the first batch. Not sure if it was ever corrected.

ALSO: Don't forget that the one center line on the bottom of the lense doesn't wrap all the way around!
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That is correct. the OEM 93 cobra taillight is actually an 85-86 SVO which were charcoal grey in color. the 1984 SVO taillight was black. I did see a side-by-side of both and it's a noticable difference.

Given most of us here don't actually have 93 cobras, not critical to be authentic IMHO. For instance, i knew the cobra lights had one bar stop short due to the reflector on the side and not wanting to block it. I thought this looked a little silly so I installed my pinstripe to continue all the way around. i also painted mine black. Not authentic, but not what i was going after here.


Also, the repop taillights being sold today are the 83-86 taillights with vinyl pinstripes applied. the OEM's were painted. DCR has the original tooling, so the lens itself is made to Ford specs, but from what i remember, the paint striper broke and Ford never repaired it. So the stripes are 1/8" vinyl that are applied an in additional process.
 
@Mustang5L5 - I agree with you on the look. If I had an original '93 Cobra I would have gone with the correct version, but since I don't I went with black because I liked it better.

I did notch out the stripe, though. Just personal preference when you are doing your own thing :)