Shading the lights

[Swordsmith]

I shaded the tail light assembly last night. I wanted the red to stay red but everthing else black, and I wanted to retain the stock slightly sparkly black of the taillight assembly while blacking the chrome. That meant a LOT of time with the roll of tape and an Xacto knife. I think it came out pretty nice looking though. Pics:

 

[Swordsmith]

Front end done this afternoon. I'm not sure I like it as much as I do the tails. The tails turned the white parts black and left the red, and blacked the chrome. The front I went everything black, but that meant there was no contrast to really make it look black, it looks (as it really is) just smoked. The amber pops because I masked it, but I don't really want any amber on my car as such, I just think it's probably wrong to turn the amber into black or worse, red. Still, I like it overall, just not quite as much as the tails.

 

[ThatTmoGuy]

Looking good!

 

[Sailurman]

Meh......

 

[SonicBoy24]

So now when you back up at night you have no reverse lights to see where you're going, you're genius!!!

 

[Eric Smit]

those lights are bright enough to see? hahaha. tint sucks.

 

[Beastlick]

I really like the shaded look compared to completely blacked out.

 

[doreo]

i may be mistaken but i think you can easily remove the rings. 2 screws from what my memory says. but i can be mistaken like i said i took them off and blacked em a long time ago.

 

[Preloader]

After all that trouble, I would have blacked out the red side reflector. In fact, that's the only thing I'd consider blacking out.

 

[SonicBoy24]

I really like the shaded look compared to completely blacked out.

those lights are bright enough to see? hahaha. tint sucks.

Who's pics are your thoughts directed at?

 

[Eric Smit]

Who's pics are your thoughts directed at?

just in general. I have tint measured at 3% and I never even notice the reverse lights. are they really bright enough to notice?

 

[SonicBoy24]

just in general. I have tint measured at 3% and I never even notice the reverse lights. are they really bright enough to notice?

idk where you live, but i live out in the sticks, with no street lights and just stars, and they are quite bright and handy backing into a dark garage at night or in the early morning hours.

 

[Swordsmith]

It's a light shade, the backup lights and turn lights work great thru them. I didn't black the reflective parts because A) they are red and I'm going for a red and black look, and B) they are reflective and so will work even if my lights are off, making a parked or electric-dead car still visible from other car's headlights. and C) I saw someone with totally blacked tails while driving down to TX and they looked pretty "arrest me" blacked. I figure with the red sections showing that cops will be more likely to give them a miss.

The front doesn't have any red on it, but does have the two amber reflective areas, I haven't really decided exactly what I want to do there. I'm heartened by how blacked out the white looks with the lights off and how bright they are lights on, in the back, so I might get pretty dramatic.

 

[Preloader]

Worth mentioning..... When you open the hatch there are two bolts on each tail light that you can easily access. Then the entire assembly pops out. Once out, there are like 8 Philips head screws that hold the tail light surrounds to the the assembly. Then the chrome rings have two screws holding them to the surrounds. The whole thing can be separated in pieces in approx. 10 minutes.

 

[Beastlick]

Who's pics are your thoughts directed at?

I like both of your tinted tails. I plan on doing a very light 1-2 coat VHT on mine once its stops raining and gets out of the 30's

As for your comment about the reverse light, not everyone lives in the sticks and with how light his coats are, it should still shine through without a problem.

 

[Swordsmith]

If I had wanted to paint over the already black portions that would have been a much easier way to go than masking. And I'm thinking of doing exactly that with the front lights, masking just the amber reflector areas and doing the whole rest of the thing in a thin shade of black. Does that come out as easily?

 

[Preloader]

Nope. You'd have to remove the bumper to get the front lights out.

I'd do the opposite. I'd black out the amber reflector, but that's just me.

 

[Swordsmith]

Would be easy to do that, just not.the look I'm after. really the whole operation is simple the time consuming part was doing the small fiddly masking bits. If I were doing the taillights again I`d just mask off or remove the whole thing and paint it all.

 

[Swordsmith]

Headlights done now, I'm not satisfied with how they came out. I'll probably go in and put another coat or two on the turn signal portion, I want the signal to still be highly visible but I'd like them to look black when off, like the tails do. Remasking should be much simpler since I'll just be doing the single clear unit, won't have to work around nearly as much hardware.

 

[RoXXXanne13]

I really been wanting to smoke my headlights, how do u like it? can u still see> im gonna get diffrerent bulbs too I don't think I like the spray look tho I like the vinyl smoke, and that is reversible, this paint, is forever