I've been thinking of smoking out my tail light and the side markers. I have a black coupe so I think this will create a cleaner look. My xfire is a lease so i wanted to remove all the lights to be painted apply the 3m protective laminate then spray that. What is the opinion on the paint adhering to the 3m laminate and do you think in will look clean?

 

i would have to see the completed look. most spray lense tint runs or looks blotchy imo. but it would look best on a black car.

 

I used to see people smoke out taillights on Volkswagens but never on a Crossfire. Anyway I wanted to give you one recommendation.

I bought LED bulbs for my xfire and it gives it a much cleaner look when breaking or at night. The LEDs aren't as bright as regular bulbs which is cool because now each section of the tail light seems seperate. Regular bulbs are so bright the whole damn thing lights up when you brake or if you have the lights on at night. On mine its just the red 'brake' circle. At night from behind, all you see is the lit up red circle, it doesn't disperse throughout the light housing. . Even when not pressing on the brakes, the LED looks a lot cleaner and sportier. When I use turn signals, only the turn circle lights up bright yellow, again it doesn't reflect into the rest of the tail light like the stock bulbs seemed to do.

Anyway I wanted to recommend these if you want a cleaner look without taking apart your light housing and fooling around with messy sprays.. My xfire is black as well, and looks awesome at night. I have LEDs all around and HIDs up front. My girl keeps promising to take pictures with her digital camera but I'm still waiting.

Get the matrix style LED bulbs at autolumination.com. I tried a bunch and these are the best, because they project light in all directions.

 

Check your local hobby shop. If they have stuff for making stained glass you should be able to find something. There are spray tints and acids that will give you varying levels of the "smoked" look. Just check the label or ask someone who works there to make sure you can use it on lexan. Some you can some you can't.



You could also use a good metallic tint.



As far as paint and laminate. Not a good idea. As the laminate expands and contracts the paint will crack and chip off.



I doubt that they will notice that the tail lights are smoked when you turn it in.

 

The whole problem with smoking out tail lights is you gotta take out the whole assembly, and THEN, you need to take off the red lense cover, without breaking it. I think that would be the hardest part as they often aren't meant to be removed and then put back on. Chances are it will no longer be watertight after this. Then you would spray the smoke stuff on the inside of the lense, and then pop the red lense cover back on and reinstall. I'd like to see some pics after its all done, if anyone actually does this. Maybe it would look good with my LEDs.

 

after hearing every ones point of view I'm wondering if someone offers a tint that can just adheare to the lens. But it would have to withstand the heat from the lights.

 

You can probably get some clear, smoke colored vinyl to apply over the lense. If you did it right.. it might look nice.. or maybe it would look disgusting.. Haha.. I'd like to see pics.

 

I'll be stopping by the tint shop fri will post pics if it comes out as right.

 

visited tint shop on fir the tint looked great on the tail lights but could not contour and endded up wrinkling. I am going to look for some tinted clear vinyl as NJspeed69 sujested. I think it will have the look Im going for.Will keep you updated.

 

Definately keep us updated. I was looking at the new SL55 AMG and it has smoked taillights. They look pretty sick. This might be my next mod if we can find a way to make them look good, without using the spray. I'm surprised that tint could not contour well? Oh well, vinyl should work. If you have trouble putting on the vinyl, you can buy a spray that makes it less sticky for a little bit, so you can put it on easier, move it around if you have to, and get all the bubbles out. Then once it dries, it will stick like normal. Just a little easier than putting it on perfectly with 0 bubbles. Do a google search or something, I don't know where you can buy it.. my old performance shop used to use it all the time.

 

Any updates on this? I would like to smoke my front corners. I hate the yellow and am not impressed with the clear look. I was thinking maybe just a slight coat of tint and a few coats of clear, making it a dark amber. I've seen this done on a few hondas (yeah, I know, rice) and it actually looks decent. I might try an experiment later this week if I find the time...

 

I was at the 05' Chicago auto show and DUB had a black roadster with smoked out tail lights and it was just sick (in a good way) looks so nice on a black car, I want it for mine.



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I'd stay away from this as I don't think you'll like the finish when your done. I've seen people in the past on other rides actually have their car taken to a body shop where they add a little bit of black paint to mostly clearcoat to get this effect, so you might wanna try that if you must do this.

 

you can also try companies that do all over car graphics and have a sticker applied. I was going to do this but I got hit in the driver corner and have not fixed. So im not feeling really inspired.

 

Man that sux, I got hit in my SRT on the drivers side. I was depressed for months, I didn't even want to look at the car. You never really get over things like that...

 

On topic, I think I am going to spring for the clear corners. The more I look at them the more they are growing on me. I just hate all the clear tail lights on all the cars out here. Some of them look good but most are knock-off APC ones that don't even match the car. I really want to stay away from that look...

 

here is some tinted tail light info...

rear...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=38661


front...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=38661