Long story short, I was driving earlier today and saw a random infinity g37 next to me at the stop light. When we pulled away he happened to be going just a bit faster and I saw his tail lights. They were all blacked out, except for the areas where lights actually show. In other words, he left the actual bulb areas alone, but covered the rest of the taillights with vinyl/plastidip/something else.

It actually looked pretty cool, and not over the top as most tail light black outs do.

I wanted to see what you guys think about this idea, and if it would be worth while doing?

I read around the forum to see if anyone has done it but couldn't pull anything up yet.

Thoughts?

EDIT: photo for reference http://images.thecarconnection.com/m...00280964_m.jpg

edited picture would look something like this, but maybe with the bottom reflector left open too for visibility: BTW, I suck in photoshop, lol

 

I like. If you figure out how it's done please share.

 

Disclaimer - I've only used PlastiDip on tools and such... but here goes:


Might be the right choice for this application since it's temporary, but you're going to have a really fun time (read not fun) masking that off, and I think that's going to be the only way to do it, as you won't be able to see where to score the dip if you spray the whole light.


If you can get the masking done well, after the dip dries (but before it cures) you're going to have to score all the way around the outside of the tape, and carefully peel it back. Provided that looks good, not sure if you do clear dip over the whole light to keep the edges from lifting, anyone have experience there? If it were me, and I really liked it once I dipped it... I'd have it done with tint, vinyl, or paint. Just my $0.02
NWRSkoZ.jpg

 

This got me thinking actually... What about some overlays on the tails... It'd look kind of like the old skylines?



ypAR92P.jpg

 

I would do it in paint, but I am partial

The dip would be hard, for exactly the reasons you are talking about. I have done a few cars and not that this would be impossible, but if you had access to a plotter you could cut them perfectly from vinyl then just wrap them, but it would still be hard to get to lay correctly IMHO.

 

That's why I'm thinking vinyl would be a better idea but I just don't know how to cut it in that pattern. I'd really like to give this a try with black vinyl. The car I saw had the lights fully black except for the bulb areas.

 

Just trace out the bulbs, then overlay the template onto a piece of vinyl. Cut out the shape and apply the vinyl on the taillight, then cut the excess.

In fact, I may give this a try.

 

By free hand? Sir, you overestimate my abilities to draw lol.

 

Most good vinyl shops can do exactly what you are talking about pretty easy and just use a plotter to cut it perfectly...

Hell, if you messaged an ebay vendor, he may make you a set as his 'template' so he can resell them to others...

 

So does anyone know a vinyl shop here in Chicago that does great work? Lol
Am I right in assuming though that this idea could look great on our cars? We do have unique taillights

 

I'm partial to this idea for two reasons: You might get a few others on board for a new customization option for us all. Also, if you're prototyping something, they're usually responsible for costs of screw-ups


The other place that can do crazy vinyl work is some print or sign shops, they use wide format inkjets that can do the cutting right on the printer... once you get the template made....

 

Hahah I don't really want to throw money at this in hopes they make a good template. I just contacted WrapForm here in Chicago to see what they quote for this. Waiting on a response.

 

I dipped my whole crossfire and my taillights are dipped as well. What we did was halfway through the dipping process (Coat 4) we used an Exacto blade and cut the dip where the taillights are. There is a shallow indent around where the lights are and we traced that to make sure we would get a good break in the dip so when we peeled off the section covering the lights it wouldn't rip the rest of the dip and we would have to start over. This worked perfectly and we continued painting like we normally would. With only 4 coats on the actual lights and 8 everywhere else. I haven't had any complaints. Even in the day time people can see my lights, the only person who said they had trouble seeing was one of my troops and he said he probably had difficulty seeing because he is color blind.

Hope this helps!

 

All we really need to do it either get someone here who is graphically inclined to make a cutout of the bulb areas, or have a shop make a template I guess.

 

I attached a template (edit: it's a zipped EPS let me know if you need another file type), best I can do at least. I don't have anything that will print large enough to test and there are two other problems:


Our taillights have a compound curve to them (they bend along two axis). I don't know how to accommodate for that exactly. Using vinyl you should be able to heat and stretch if necessary...


Parallax - since the lenses are beneath the surface of the taillight (where the overlay would be) they have a different apparent position depending on the angle from which you are viewing. not a huge effect, and I tried to account for it by sizing the cutouts a bit smaller than the lenses.


Also, I added around .25" around the outside to allow for cutting after placing on the vehicle.


So, anyone feeling brave?

 

Hahah you're the man! Now who is brave lol

 

*Not responsible for any failures.


**Will take credit for any successes.





By the way, I changed your design a bit, filled in the red areas around the individual lenses. Mostly because it was easier to see haha.


YGwvXGI.jpg

 

That looks fantastic! That's what I was trying to actually make it look like. I just suck hard in Photoshop

 

LOL! At one time I spent about 10 hours a day in Photoshop, taught a bit, and I have probably a decade invested learning it so don't feel bad. Now most of what I do is 'shop something onto a car, or trace a logo for someone. It's amazing what you forget, but it's a lot more fun this way

 

I know the feeling. I used AutoCAD everyday in construction years ago, couldn't trek you how to add a new line now if my life depended on it, lol.