TW, thoughts on this ...

Hey Fam,

So I recently was in the market for new after market taillights. MESO stage 1 wasn’t on the market, so I went with @CaliRaisedLed. Now, I placed my order on the 12/2/2019...
I will admit, I could be better with my patience and that I was in the wrong for emailing them more... than I probably should of. So that’s my fault, and I apologize. Holidays can be busy, and I get that.

I received my package right before Christmas. Woo, exciting ! I appreciate the work that @CaliRaisedLed did to meet shipping quotas.
however...
My right taillight came looking like the inner piece had been ripped off. My left taillight also looked like it had been ripped off of some type of molding. But I didn’t not notice that until the following day.
SO, I thought .. hey that’s weird. Emailed CaliRaised... to be told that all lights come like that. And that’s part of the molding they’re taken from. Which I can get .. for the left light. As far as the right light goes ... I’m still pretty blown away that, this is what they stand by. I was pretty heated and probably did not handle the emails the correct way. And for that I apologize.

I’ve gone ahead and attached a few photos of other lights, and how they came. I can’t be the only one who thinks .. the right taillight should be replaced ?

Since it’s the “holidays”. There’s not been much contact. Which can be frustrating, but it’s the name of the game.

Just a fair warning to anyone looking for experiences with @CaliRaisedLed.

My left taillight:

My right taillight:

Other users taillights:


Response:

 

Your “other users” pics don’t show the same area for any kind of comparison.

 

Do you know how injection molding works?

 

They just resell Chinese lighting for 3x the cost. What else do you expect?

 

How much quality were you really expecting for $180

 

There are ways of making those spots blend in but if you are unskilled working on soft plastic you can easily make it look worse.

 

Here we go

 

I completely get the molding part. Hence my left taillight. I clearly can see where the molding goes.

Just a little .. confused on the right taillight.

here’s a photo of @CaliRaisedLed ‘s truck


There’s a clear difference between the molding on their light ( top photo) and my “molding” on my right taillight. ( bottom photo )

 

They probably made the mold as one piece and not two separate lights and then cut/broke the mold when it was complete. This is a cheaper way of providing you a product for something around the price range you purchased it for. Creating two separate molds would no doubt make that cost increase substantially. Honestly, you got what you paid for and should expect no less. And if you have any kind of craftsmanship skill, you can warm and polish those cut off points. Also, you will never notice them regardless since your tailgate covers them. I help run the injection molder machines at my company occasionally and have seen the cost for custom molds.

 

Those pictures of other people's trucks aren't even showing the same thing. So glad "you went public" with this.

 

Put some duct tape on it and it and everything will be ok.

 

Heck, I just polished some blemish plastic on my mirror markers with the dremel I got from TWSS this year. Just sand it down, warm it up and give it a good polish. Will fix about 90% of it.

 

Too much work. Duct tape is the key here.

 

Mods. Feel free to shut this thread down.

Lol.

things I’ve learned.

-You get what you pay for
-I’m a little bitch
-I can’t upload correct photos

 

I expect no less through you avatar. Sir, @SweetT , you have the floor.

 

No sarcasm, you will hear this alot here. Buy once cry once. Meso's lights are super expensive because of the craftsmanship involved in providing perfection. You pay 1/4 of that and the result is this. It's not a big deal. Just put in some elbow grease or just let it go and move on. No one really cares but you anyway.

 

There are a few vendors selling garbage headlights and taillights so I’m not surprised...but it looks like you installed them on your truck which means you accepted them with all their cosmetic defects as they are no longer new they are now used tail lights that’s the mistake. Caulk it up as a loss and throw them in the bin where they belong.

 

Other than the molding blemish . . .

Are you happy with the performance of the lights?

The reason I ask is that I saw a short YouTube video of what looked like those lights, and they looked pretty cool.

Did you have a problem with hyper-flash?

 

Clearly not. Looks like typical molding flash and where they sloppily cut the gates off. The pics kinda suck so it’s hard to tell. Not a defect, Just cheap (almost certainly Chinese) injection molded parts.

As others have mentioned you got what to paid for. There are mold tweaks that can be done to reduce that flash and additional post processing (sanding) that can be done to smooth the gates but that all adds labor and cost.

You’d be amazed how much small changes to injection molding tools cost. At work I just redesigned a tool to move the edge of a very small 0.5x1.5” part out 0.010” right before the holidays. It was a $10k bill to modify the existing tool and that was a very cheap/simple rework.

Most tools are easily into the 6 figure range so we’ll do whatever we can to make a tool work “good enough” rather than scrap it and start over if possible.

I work for an aerospace company that molds pretty much all the plastic parts you see sitting inside an airliner cabin so I’ve been around a few tools and injection molding machines.


Edit: OP you could sand and polish the blemishes smooth pretty easily if you’re otherwise pleased and not trying to return the lights.