Smoked Tail Light Tint

I decided to make my own smoked tail light tint. It is static-cling window film in 20% limo black from Wal-Mart, or i have seen it other places also. Then cut to fit. The tint is a thin static cling vinyl unlike real tint, so you can use and reuse them as many times as you want. The tint comes in a roll. It cost me $10.19, and hour of my time.

I made the templates by cutting a hole in a sheet of paper, taping it to the light and tracing the shape to the paper. Then I cut the shape and transferred it to the tinting.

This is a pic of the cut outs and the stock tail light. Make sure it is clean..

The tint is the vinyl, static type, but you still apply it like the regular window tint. You can use baby shampoo and bottled water to help you apply it. This is with the first one on the top..

This is it all done !

After several high pressure car washes, and high speed driving, mine is still sticking. Once the moisture is gone, they are not coming off until YOU take it off.

 

[sebringR/T]

They actually look a whole lot better on the truck. I polished them out with Plastx. I'm waiting to get the truck outside to take pictures of them on.

 

[ddarko]

Tamiya Smoke Paint

I've been meaning to smoke my tails for a while now but it's ridiculously hard to find VHT Nightshades around here. So I went to a local hobby shop and went through their RC paint rack but they didn't have that Tint colour. The dude working there handed me a can of Tamiya Color in a colour called 'Smoke'. He claimed it was better than RC and that he uses it on tail lights too.
So all excited now, I drove home and got to work. I ran through the entire can in several layers and all it did was turn the tail lights a slightly darker shade of red! What a piece of crap!

I used a pretty generic indoor/outdoor clear coat made by Krylon to finish it off. Guess I'm gonna have to keep hunting for the RC 294 or Nightshades... will probably wait til spring though. Couple pics below...

As you can see, the tail lights still look way too bright:

And here's a pic of the $10 I threw away today:

 

[sebringR/T]

Thats a bunch of crap. I mean you can tell they are tinted a little bit, but near enough. They sell the VHT on eBay too, but its ridiculously expensive on there.

 

[sebringR/T]

Here are a few final pictures. Kind of wish they were a touch bit darker, but they still look good. I will get some night shots one of these days.

Running Lights On

 

[shagr15]

so when I go home for Thanksgiving I am planning on getting my old stock tails and tinting them. I want them to be really black like some of you guys have done. I don't want to really tape off the reverse light so does the reverse light show up enough through a lot of the tint spray? From what it looks like I'm thinking 5-7 coats of tint.... anyone have problems with the reverse lights with the tint being that dark?

 

[sebringR/T]

so when I go home for Thanksgiving I am planning on getting my old stock tails and tinting them. I want them to be really black like some of you guys have done. I don't want to really tape off the reverse light so does the reverse light show up enough through a lot of the tint spray? From what it looks like I'm thinking 5-7 coats of tint.... anyone have problems with the reverse lights with the tint being that dark?

I'd be careful putting that many coats on. Rule of thumb is 1st coat is 50% color visibility, 2nd coat is 35% color visibility, and 3rd is 15% color visibility. On my first set I did I didn't tape off the reverse and only did 2 coats and the reverse showed through, but it had a purple hue because of the spray.

 

[shagr15]

Ok, i just didn't know because so many other guys said they used 6 or 7 coats and I liked that look.

 

[xdviper]

I did about 6-8 coats but then again I kept the spray far away from the lights to have to spread evenly. You need to see how tinted they are, try doing the tails in daylight and evaluate how much more coats you need from there on and then when you're satisfied then go ahead and apply the clear coat.

Another thing, the reverse lights do a leave a little green/purple hue to them when painted, so I'd just avoid it, but try it, if it turns out to be bad, you can always use paint thinner to take it off.

 

[shagr15]

so I went to Hobby Lobby today and apparently at the one by me they don't carry RC 249 so I just bought another kind. After the first coat it looks pretty nice... right now it's drying, in a little while I'm going to add another coat and see how it looks... I'm not sure how to put pics on here, I have them on my computer so if anyone can tell me how to put those on here I'll give the update of how they look. I'll keep everyone updated on how they turn out.

 

[sebringR/T]

so I went to Hobby Lobby today and apparently at the one by me they don't carry RC 249 so I just bought another kind. After the first coat it looks pretty nice... right now it's drying, in a little while I'm going to add another coat and see how it looks... I'm not sure how to put pics on here, I have them on my computer so if anyone can tell me how to put those on here I'll give the update of how they look. I'll keep everyone updated on how they turn out.

Just get an account over at Photobucket or ImageShack and post the links would be the easiest way.

 

[shagr15]

http://s755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/hmk1115/?action=view&current=photo2.jpg

http://s755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/hmk1115/?action=view&current=photo.jpg

Well I believe this will work... this was in the beginning, they are a little darker now and I am putting them on in a little while and will get more updated pictures then.

 

[xdviper]

Whoa, the first one looks darker than the 2nd one. you should even them out, even though they look really nice glossy and all. another thing, try experimenting with the reverse lights, they look really nice without having the tints on the reverse, it's your call.

 

[shagr15]

yeah, that was just at the beginning... they are even now but... i just put them on and low and behold... the light doesn't shine through! I posted more pictures and I love how they look on the truck but I might have to buy different paint because they didn't have the RC tint paint at the hobby lobby by me.

http://s755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/hmk1115/

Check it out... I put pictures of the paint I used... I think maybe it's not showing through because it's not tint paint, but it looks like I'll be taking it off and trying again.

 

[shagr15]

By the way.. the paint I used... if you can't read it, is Model Master Custom Spray Enamel FS 17038 Gloss Black and on the sticker on the top it has 1947 Gloss Black

 

[RobClay]

New pics of mine.

 

[ddarko]

New pics of mine.

Very nice! That's the shade I was going for with mine but unfortunately that Tamiya smoke paint I used sucked ass.

 

[shagr15]

well here are the lights with the tint paint on them... haven't clear coated them yet but did a test to make sure that light shows through and it does! It was way more work to get the paint off than I thought it would be. I ended up using Goo Gone because the paint thinner I had at home wasn't working all that well.

http://s755.photobucket.com/albums/xx194/hmk1115/?action=view&current=photo6.jpg

 

[xdviper]

Shagr15, show us some pictures with the lights on, but other than that, they look really nice, matches the rims and the tints...are they stock tints? cause they look much darker.

ddarko, they look stunning. They always looked good/better on the 01 and up sport bodies.

 

[BrianDye]

RobClay, those are crazy, the look almost flatblack on the previous post you had with pics, I cant believe that much light shines through with 7 coats, I do 3 heavy coats on all of mine and they look so much darker when lit up

 

[RobClay]

Very nice! That's the shade I was going for with mine but unfortunately that Tamiya smoke paint I used sucked ass.

RobClay, those are crazy, the look almost flatblack on the previous post you had with pics, I cant believe that much light shines through with 7 coats, I do 3 heavy coats on all of mine and they look so much darker when lit up

Thanks guys! an BrianDye, they are like you said flat black. No red shows through except for when i press on the brakes. Im very happy with how they turned out.
VHT nightshades ftw!