Tried out the BTLM black taillight mod

I was bored an annoyed this weekend that the wacky weather up here in the northeast delayed my lift parts delivery. They were supposed to be going in this weekend… so instead I decided to have a go at the BTLM. Here’s the link I followed for the info http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/51435-black-taillight-mod-btlm.html . I was definitely a little weary of hacking into these taillights but I didn’t like the idea of coating such a nice light in nightshades. In case someone has never seen this I’ll give a quick report.

I have the LED tails which have the clear lenses so I didn’t have to worry about trying to tint out the pink hue on the non LED tails. I love the result. Matches great with the rest of the truck. The only regret I have is that I feel like I used too thick of a cutting wheel to open the lights up (used an air tool with a ~ 3” cutoff wheel). I was able to cut them cleanly but I feel that I opened a larger than necessary gap around the light, which made epoxying them back together not 100% perfect. Best tool would be a corded dremel (I hate the battery operated ones) with a handful of the super thin cutting wheels. Oh well, live and learn..
Taping everything off is kinda a beeyatch, as theres a lot of nooks and crannys. One nice thing is that the LED portion, its outer chrome ring, and the side reflector come off as one piece with the removal of 3 screws on the back of the taillight.
One other thing I did was I painted a ~1/4”-1/2” thick black border around the outer edge of the lens to cover up the little scuffs and blemishes from the cutting wheel. Kinda adds to the look as well.

Anyways here’s some pics, Im sure some people will love this mod and some people will thing im a total moron for doing this. Oh well, im happy

Stock LED taillight (different taco same light..)



Lens removed




The removed lens



Finished product (needs a little windex)

 

Pics aren't working. I'd like to see how this turned out.

 

Sorry I fixed it, crazy technology

 

Looks good..........

 

Is there a reason why you didn't paint the big "chrome" ring in the center?

 

Just asking, cause that's the one piece back there that I actually want to black out.

 

Looks good OP

 

Thanks. I liked the chrome ring since my trucks silver. No reason that u can't paint it

 

Awesome!

 

Good to know. Nicely done!

 

I've thought about this... maybe when its out of warranty

 

Those are the best looking tails I've seen.

 

Very nice!

 

Looks good!

 

I wonder how it would look if someone painted the chrome pieces a light gold/champagne color to give it an "iron man" scheme? Particularly for color like pyrite or desert sand.

 

Maybe it's because I wear glasses or I'm old or both, but I can't tell what you did

 

Thanks for the positive feedback! And to answer your question Gnome, I got inside the lense of the taillight, and painted everything that wasn't a portion of a light or reflector, black. If you look at the before pics you can see where these areas between the individual lights and reflectors were red.

The most important thing is a clean cut and a really good reseal