HOW TO: Tinting tail lights, The right way (PICS)

Gasoline will make it much much easier. Or paint thinner.

 

Oh sure...give me the tip after I do all the work.

I still need to do the rubbing compound and polishing, but it already looks a ton better than last time.

 

it was mentioned somewhere in the thread lol

Did you hold the can closer?

 

Subd

 

^x2

 

Nice write up! I need to do this

 

if you sand the light wont it scrach it ? i did it without sanding it but it did not come out that dark

 

That's the point. You sand the light to scuff it up and prep it. Use VHT, then your favorite clear coat, lightly sand again, then I just did rubbing compound (by hand) and wax. Dont be afraid to do multiple layers of the compound.mine looks flawless

 

i wanna do this but im scared i might screw it up lol. nice job btw.

 

Subscribed. Going to do this soon

 

The beauty is that if you screw up just wipe everything off with gas and start over.

 

it really just comes off with gas? I have a set of 05 tail lights that are already tinted but I was going to sand it off and re tint them to get an idea of how well the product works before I do it on my 2010 tails

 

Ok, finished this mod over the weekend. Only real mistake I made was using Rustoleum's clear coat for plastic lenses. Didn't work well with the lens tint, had to immediately strip it all off and start over. Use the Krylon clear coat, not the fusion, just the original stuff (thanks bus driver for the quick pm response info).

Autozone didn't have the VHT Nite-shades, so I figured I'd try the Rustoleum Lens Tint. It worked well and is very translucent, but it goes on much darker than the VHT. So, if you're just wanting a light tint, DON'T get the rustoleum. I only did 2 coats and it cured MUCH darker than I wanted, but I'm warming up to it. I can always start over if I feel like it.

I let the lens tint dry overnight the 2nd time around just to be safe, put 12 coats of clear coat on the next day, then let it dry for 3 hours before sanding again. I skipped the 800 grit on the clear coat because I didn't want to accidentally sand through the clear, and starting with the 1000 grit worked fine. **Be careful on the outside edges of the light, it will go through the clear coat FAST with little to no pressure on the sand paper**

Here's the (DARK) result:

This lens tint is still very translucent - when applying the brakes at night, you can't tell a difference in brightness between my tail lights and my 3rd brake light, which is untinted. I didn't want the lenses this dark because I was afraid of light output restrictions and therefore hassle from police, but now I'm not worried about it.

 

Heads up for anyone. Autozone doesn't sell VHT but if you go to O'Reilley's they have it

 

This is 1 coat of VHT, I think it is definitely dark enough for my 3rd brake light.
The only issue is I also had a bit of wrinkling, there was wind when I applied the first and only coat. I may take it down and sand it clear again and do one more try. I used krylon clear gloss, works great.
FTR, I bought VHT on ebay for 15 bucks, arrived in 2 days.

 

Vht is also sold at pep.boys

 

That is variable, I recommend calling them first. From my experience although there are numerous businesses that are authorized to sell it, most don't have it in stock for some reason.

 

Looks great. I did mine previously to looking at this forum and just applied nightshade with no clear coat. I actually want to redo mine completely what do you recommend on removing the nightshade paint from the tail light?

 

Try a rag with some gasoline, it should get it off.

 

^ I did the gas thing to some headlights and it cracked them. Do you think that would happen to the tails?