Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I'm toying with the idea of tinting my tail lights. I have the benz-ripoff LED tail lights which look greak, although they look a little big for the car. My goal is to "slim" them down vertically. I did a quick mock up of my ideas (well, mostly other people's ideas really). #3 looks particularly bad. I hope you get the idea.
#1 are the lights as they are now. #2 is my favorite so far. #3 seemed better in my head... #4 ...why cover up the lights? Not my favorite.
This will be my first time trying any vinyl/nightshades, so I'm going for simplicity so I have less chance to mess this up What are the pro's/con's for vinyl and nightshades?
While I agree with your thought of "why cover up the lights", options 2 and 3 look really weird to me. Even if you have perfect body color match paint, it would look so out of place.
I do like option 4. My stock tails were blacked out and I loved the look. Just a little too dark for the lights to be as effective as they should be.
I have the Technostalgia tails now, which look the same as what you have, and I think they look fine.
If you were to go with any of these options. I'd say 1 or 4 - but you don't need to go that dark - maybe 50% of what you have pictured just to take the harsh red down a notch, and tape off the clear so it's 100% clear otherwise the chrome bar above the license plate will look way out of place (trust me).
An idea of what option 4 will look like. These are my old tinted stock tails.
If you want to go option 4 I'd say 1 coat of VHT (or 2 very light coats to be sure of coverage and even-ness), and tape off the clear area on your current tails - that clear line accents the chrome bar and looks really nice.
An idea of what option 4 will look like. These are my old tinted stock tails.
If you want to go option 4 I'd say 1 coat of VHT (or 2 very light coats to be sure of coverage and even-ness), and tape off the clear area on your current tails - that clear line accents the chrome bar and looks really nice.
Thanks guys. The plan with #3 was to do a "border" around the light, similar to the refreshed chevy traverse tail lights. My grandfather has one so I've seen them often and the look grew on me. Too bad my mock up killed it #2 I like just because I makes a nice line across the car, getting rid of the droopy area. Too bad the angle of the light and the bumper don't line up flush, makes it look strange. #4 I like the look of, I would do it to my stock lights. Not these ones though.
My only gripe with the styling was the "soft" rear end look. Thought this since I first saw the car. Not putting the car down, everything else about it is fantastic! To me, these LED lights tidy up the back quite nicely I've had them for 3 years now though, getting the itch to do something to them!
The LEDs tails are nice. If you wanted to black them out you could, the LED light output would be much greater than bulbs in the stock tails like I had. Just leave the clear strip, lol.
Find a good vinyl shop in your area and get them smoked. This way you can pre-determine the darkness, and if you don't like it or get a ticket it peels right off no worries.
Also, you could always go this route, did it for a customer a couple weeks ago:
On a side note, a quick google search led me to this:
Find a good vinyl shop in your area and get them smoked. This way you can pre-determine the darkness, and if you don't like it or get a ticket it peels right off no worries.
Also, you could always go this route, did it for a customer a couple weeks ago:
On a side note, a quick google search led me to this