Clear Tailights?

Does anyone know a sight where I can purchase clear lights for my X?


Also, Can anyone help me by telling me if there legal or illegal or any problems with law enforcement youv had (Preferably in/around Houston but I wanna hear stories from anywhere).


Also, do they still emit the red/amber color, or are they like the front lights? Someone told me the color functions like normal lights, and only the colors different, but someone else told me that all light that comes out of them is clear. Does anyone know?

 

[Black Magic]

Clears are long gone. You will have to buy a set from someone that already has a set.

 

[DroppedKamelion]

They stopped making them?

 

[Black Magic]

Yea, the clears are long gone. That is why Altizza's are everywhere.

 

[Howard]

I think this is what you may be thinking of click here ok.

 

[BonesDT]

whoa whoa whoa! hold up! the clear lenses are gone??? i have the full clear tail lenses from APC. but they stopped making them for good?

 

[Alec]

As far as legality goes, only get lenses that are DOT approved, if you don't you risk problems with police.

 

[james t]

Originally posted by BonesDT
whoa whoa whoa! hold up! the clear lenses are gone??? i have the full clear tail lenses from APC. but they stopped making them for good?

yes. you can still find clear tails listed on a few sites, but they wont be able to get them. no one makes them anymore.

 

[BonesDT]

damn that sucks.

but, yea, you will get tickets. i've gotten my share of $96 tickets, but i still think its worth it, i think they look great.

the issue is, you need to have a RED reflector. otherwise anything else can be clear as long as your tail lights glow red (and bright enough too), and either yellow or red turn signal bulbs.

it all depends on your cops. i havnt been pulled over for them in a long time.

 

[DroppedKamelion]

im going try 2 find some. nah i didnt mean the altezzas i ment totally klear.


Bones, if you have those colored bulbs, will they be visable in the clear (during the day)?

 

[BonesDT]

it depends.

i have regular yellow bulbs in my turn signals that you can get from any store, like the ones that are in your front turn signals. those shine bright and never fade.

the problem is with the brake lights. finding red bulbs that dont fade and turn a nasty orange-pink is hard to find. but even if you do find them (toucan industries makes some good non-fade bulbs) because of the dark color, they dont shine as bright.

i then replaced mine with LED bulbs. these shine a perfect color red that never fades, but they are very dull and barely seeable during the day. i've had some comments especially from cops how its very hard to see my brake lights.

im going to be working on a custom setup soon with them. im going to open the clear lense housing and line the brake light housing completely with LEDs, sort of like the cadillacs brake lights. giving it a very bright glow.

 

[BonesDT]

another option would to try to fab up a red plastic cup to cover a clear bulb, that would shine bright, but you would see the red through the lense.

 

[hydroxy]

the only thing required for them to be DOT legal is to have a red reflector and glow red?

 

[BonesDT]

i'm pretty sure. and your turn signals have to shine either yellow or red and your back-ups, clear. and i'm sure there is some level of brightness all the lights must be.

i can't think of anything else that you would need to make them DOT legal.

so as long as you have the right colored bulbs that shine bright enough, your lenses can be completely clear as long as you have a red reflector (of a certain size) on each side.


someone please correct me if i'm wrong.


p.s. Altezza's are legal, not necessarily because of their large red circular brake light, but because they incorporate the red reflector into that circular piece. this makes the reflector look much nicer than just a clear lense with a rectangular red reflector. find a site that shows pictures of the lenses. you will see pictures of "clear", "altezza", and "legal" lenses. the legal lenses are just the clears with a red rectangular reflector, it looks really bad.

 

[Black Magic]

I know several people here have used Testors Candy Transparent Model Paint to make Either the top, middle or bottom section red to keep the cops happy.

 

[jssong]

i believe it doesnt matter what they look like when the lights are off, but as long as you have the red with a certain brightness, you should be ok. the new lexus rx330, has clear taillights, but red leds for the brake light. i wish they made similar type lights for our x.

 

[X~FACTOR]

These days in NY, anything that is not factory equipment is being ticketed. They are looking for every little excuse to ticket you... gotta meet the quota for this year I guess...

 

[sonkakaro]

Well i may be buying a set of clears from this guy as long as the deal goes through. I'm in Ny(long island) and will let you know how the cops view this. I was just going to put in red bulbs for the brake lights so you could see them. Bones your saying that despite using red bulbs it still won't shine "bright/red" enough to please cops? What would be the best to use? I really don't want to get a ticket for them, otherwise i guess i would just put them on at certain times.

 

[BonesDT]

first of all, never ever use APC bulbs. the red ones will fade and look like a puke orange and blue ones fade to green. the trick is to find bulbs that are actual COLORED GLASS, not painted glass that melts and fades from the heat. Very few filament bulbs out there dont fade at least a year ago when i was looking for them. maybe some companies straightened out their act, but the diminishing popularity of true clear lenses, probably not.

the bulbs i used were Toucan Industries Eurolite. they were the only bulbs out of many that ive tried that never really fade. but i only tried blue, im sure red would be just as good. the only problem is i had to use size 1157 (twist in, canister like) bulbs because those were the only ones they made, so i had to solder them in. (the explorer's factory size is 3157, which are push-in, flat like bulbs.) I see that they now make the bulbs in 3157's. www.toucanindustries.com

as far as brightness is concerned, i dont know what to tell you because i still havnt found a proper solution yet. i have never tried the Eurolite bulbs in red for the brake lights. i would think this would be the easiest and best way. my blue ones seem pretty bright. the problem lies in the dark color of the bulbs, so you will never get a dark colored bulb to shine as bright as a clear bulb. try some different LED bulbs too.

basically, your just going to have to look around and buy a bunch of bulbs and see which ones you like. what ever you do, don't listen to anybody selling you the bulbs. car stores know jack **** about bulbs. i would buy the eurolites, which should be fine, but if your still not happy with the brightness or color, try to get different companies LED's.

 

[Black Magic]

LED's suck. They do not make the light reflect off the housing. They just make a bright dot that is hard to see. You have to get the LED's custom made for yor housing for them to look good.