Anderson Composites Carbon Fiber Taillight Panel Molding Mustang 15-23

Bill: Today in our studio we have Alex and his deep impact 2015 Mustang GT. Alex is pretty popular on Instagram, so a lot of you may have seen this car already. He's looking for a way to add a nice custom touch to the back end. Today we're going to install an Anderson Composite Carbon and Fiber Taillight Panel. Before we get started though, a lot of people are going to ask about the taillights. Alex, tell us about the taillights on this car.

Alex: Well Bill, I have a friend who has a connection overseas and was able to hook me up with a set of European Spec Taillights. My buddy Chris and I we modified the European taillights to make them legal here in the states.

Bill: People are asking, this isn't a plug and play?

Alex: Not a plug and play.

Bill: This was something you were able to get your hands, did a custom installation and then put them on the car.

Alex: That's correct.

Bill: Let's get started with the taillight panel. This is the Anderson Composite Carbon and Fiber Trunk Panel. As you can see this is a smooth panel for a much cleaner look on the back of the car. It is made of true carbon fiber. It will be a direct replacement for the factory panel. It will require some hardware for it to be transferred over.

For this installation you need a 1/4" ratchet, 5.5 mm socket, 7 mm socket, 8 mm socket, a short extension, plastic pry bar and a panel removal tool. Beginning with the insulation in the trunk by removing these two panels, one located on each side, then the two screws located underneath them. If you have trouble you can use a small pry bar or flat head screwdriver, but usually you can get your finger in there pretty easily. Let's pull them right off. The next part is not 100% necessary, but I like to put some tape along the painted edge right here, just to protect it when we pull off the panel.

Now this part you'll want a small plastic pry bar, something that's not going to scratch the material. The six clips we have to remove is, there's one here, here, two in the middle and two on the other side. Once you pop those clips out, you sort of lift the panel up to remove it. You want to get it loose before you pull too hard. You have to unplug the backup camera, and remove it from the car. With the factory trunk panel off, next I'm going to do is remove this cover from the inside of the trunk, so we can access the bottom to get the nuts in for the new hardware. What we're going to do here is twist these off. Then remove all these plastic clips.

Usually you just get a good grip on these and twist them off, use a small screwdriver or whatever and pop this plastic cover off, and remove all the push pins. With the stock panel off, now we can remove the camera. It's just two small little 5-1/2 mm screws. We're just going to transfer the camera itself over to the new trunk lid which includes its own mounting hardware, and put the trunk lid aside. Install the factory backup camera with the bracket. Get everything lined up and install the hardware provided by Anderson. Once we're done with that we're going to remove all the nuts and washers from the studs, we're ready to install on the car.

The last thing we're going to do to the trunk is this middle screw right here on this factory bracket, we're going to remove that. Then I don't want to forget, you've got a plug in the backup camera and align all the studs. You may have to just move it around a little bit. That is a tight fit to get everything lined up. Now we can install the mounting hardware. It's easiest to start on the ends and the studs are in the carbon fiber, so you want to get these tight and you don't really want to crank on them too much. Okay, you've got the two outside there. The next four are going to be hard to see with the camera in the inside.

There's one kind of in this area and one way, way back here. Use a small wrench to get them in here and just again get them snug. You don't want to crank on them too much, because they're just studs sticking out. Basically hand tighten maybe a 1/4 to a 1/2 turn past that is going to be tight enough. I'm going to reinstall the trunk liner. Reinstall the latch cover and lastly install the factory cover over these bolts, and your installation is finished. The Anderson Taillight Panel fits well and in my opinion gives a nice custom touch to the back of the car. Actually it looks really good with the clear taillights, but really ties the end in nicely.

It gives it a nice clean look. Alex, what do you think of the finished product?

Alex: I love the way it looks. The carbon fiber looks great and the way it flows with the car is just awesome. It's a perfect product.

Bill: The overall installation isn't bad. It is kind of hard to get to some of the nuts, it's a little bit tedious, but overall I'd say probably an hour to an hour and a half. You'll be back on the road in no time.