Just wanted to share a simple mod I did last weekend. My third brake light was looking tired. If you look closely you can see that from the factory there are raised lettering, part numbers, and various markings on it. I decided to sand them away and then polish the plastic. It only took me about 20min and I am pretty happy with the result. Below are pictures of the before and after. Sorry for the poor cell phone quality.

Here is what I did:
-Taped off the area around the light
-Sanded off letters with 220 grit
-Wet sand with 800 grit
-Used off the shelf 3 step plastic polishing kit to finish it off

Note that I take no responsibility if you try this and are unhappy with the result. It is possible that you could crack or damage your 3rd brake light, so be careful.

 

nice work

a smoked or clear light looks really good with a black car imo

 

why didn't you just remove the light and perform said polishing?

 

MINE LOOKS DIFFERENT. MAYBE I BUFFED TO MUCH...

 

you still have the raised numbering and markings though :P

I thought about taking it off to do it, but I believe the tape was easier and I didn't have to worry about it moving around while sanding.

 

If I can remember, someone in this board had mentioned how hard it was to reseat the gasket back in after removing the third brake light.