Tail Light Clearing / Smoking?

[krazed]

I looked into some after market tail lights, and came up empty handed. I was told I can spray paint my tail lights with black paint, and it will givew the appearence of a smoked effect.

I was wondering If I could reverse that, by spraying a white paint onto my tail lights, or would it look runny, and ruin the casings?

If white isnt such a great idea, then I will try for the Black paint, smoked Idea.

[boost21]

dont paint...vht nightshades is a spray tint. my friend had the great idea of painting his headlights and tail lights on his civic and he drives with the brights on and has really poor light output. RockBlocker also makes a tint film to put over our tails if you dont want to use vht. as for white....donno how u would go by doing that

[Brandon]

if you do the paint thing, paint thinner will bring it off.... my experiments with my clearing the tails then trying to darken them some wasnt the greatest... and got me a ticket for my solution to getting red bulbs without using red bulbs....

doah!

[TA^Guy]

Don't grab a rattle can of paint and spray your lights.

First off it's ghetto. And I mean that because when your light are on you will be able to see the different spray strokes and the light output will be uneven.

Second your light output won't be that good.

Third if you want to tint them use VHT niteshades. Start with a even light tack coat with a 50/50 overlap on each pass. Allow it about 5 minutes to tack up and get sticky then apply another coat with 50/50 overlap. If you desire it darker you can alway add another coat after it's dry.

If you really want it tinted a color do it right. Rent, barrow or buy a detail spray gun, mix the color paint you want 50/50 with a camplatable clear coat. Clean the light, spray a light tack coat followed by a good coat and your done. If you want more color you can always spray another coat on. You can add a clear top coat to protect it and then wet sand it for a falwless apperance if you wish.
Originally posted by Brandon
if you do the paint thing, paint thinner will bring it off.... my experiments with my clearing the tails then trying to darken them some wasnt the greatest... and got me a ticket for my solution to getting red bulbs without using red bulbs....

doah!
Paint thinner may actually melt and/or cloud the plastic as well.

[DontPassTheFence]

Originally posted by TA^Guy


Third if you want to tint them use VHT niteshades. Start with a even light tack coat with a 50/50 overlap on each pass. Allow it about 5 minutes to tack up and get sticky then apply another coat with 50/50 overlap. If you desire it darker you can alway add another coat after it's dry.
-You can add a clear top coat to protect it and then wet sand it for a falwless apperance if you wish.


thats exactly what I did, and it came out perfect.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v676/DontPassTheFence/000_0027_small.jpg

[TA^Guy]

Just a tip, if you use VHT niteshades you will need to clear coat over them for a nice gloss finish, other wise it will be dull.