used the 13$ VHT nite shades coating on my rear brake lights for my 87 formula 350. everyone knows they dont make smoked lenses for the firebirds so this is the only way. my car is dark black and i always hated the bright red lenses of the rear brake lights. so i figured id try this VHT paint. i wet sanded with 600 grit, preped for paint with rubbing alcohol. and painted 2 light coats, can says no more than 3 coats or the lights wont show through. let me tell u that 2 good coats will tint these things alot. well see when they light up. they look great so far and i'll just see how they hold up once installed. first 2 pics are of the stock lens after 600grit wet sanding. the third pic is the first light coat that stops half way up the lense. u can clearly see the tint that it makes even after one coat.

here are the finished pics.

first pic shows that with a light flash from my camera u can see how the light shows through.... this is after 2 coats and full 14hr cure time.

second pic... shows the completed tinting, full 2 coats with 24hr full cure time. also tinted center section of the firebird, looks like a ghost bird... i love it, can be seen tho clearly... just not as bright as before. there is no flash on the second pic so u can see what i see in regular light.

third pic shows a different angle of the lenses/center section. the VHT paint spread evenly and has a semi gloss kinda finish to it which is nice also. i think it turned out nicely for a 13$ can of tint. esp since there is no mod like this for our car.

i ran vht tinted tails for almost 3 years. no issues. they hold up pretty well with propper prep. i went n got the LED replacements so they would be brighter. made a night n day diff.

I did that to my black 97 Tahoe years ago...Got pulled over, since they didn't b reflect very well anymore.

My wife put GTA blackout covers on her 90 Camaro.....SAME cop pulled us both over, 2 days apart, but separately!

My Tahoe lenses were AT LEAST as dark as yours....Yes, I went DARK.

lol yea i got pulled over twice by the same cop at the bottom of my dead end street twice within 2 days bc i a burnt out driving beam on one of my hyper whites. he pulls me over and tell him my lights arent out. i click the highbeams on when he walks to the front of my car and then turn on my headlights. lol lights go up and both are lit hahahaha he walks back with a confused dumb look on his face.... ive done this to 3 town cops and 1 state trooper lol ahah i love it!

my car isnt exactly legal, tru duals with turndowns, no cats, no EGR, roll cage and drag seats with 5 point harnesses lol. they can write me a ticket for anything i usually just get pulled over bc my cars just crazy loud

shibbykins.... wat LED bulbs did u use? part numbers? i would love to get sum also for the front blinkers would be nice too.

i donno what they would be for 3rd gens i ran em on my old saturn.

I plan to do this with my car in the summer. Run a clear coat overtop, and give it a nice buff and polish, it should get rid of the reflection issue.

I'm not sure on the part numbers, but Autozone has a variety of these bulbs on the shelf. I have seen the LED ones for the tails, the third brake light, even the little 194 style bulbs come in LED. Have been considering a complete swap to LED bulbs for their faster reaction time and reduced power consumption, just haven't done it yet due to the immense cost. They sure are proud of them.


Max,

yea they way i would have tinted the lights before this VHT paint woulda been to go to a shop and have them mix clearcoat and a small amount of black paint and do a few coats to get the tint right. then i would have west sanded with 1500 grit. but this is alot cheaper/easier lol. i dnt care if they dont reflect just as long as the guy behind me can see the brake lights so he doesnt rearend me.

how much do the LED lights cost?? do u have part#'s and wat are the styles for the rear lights and front blinkers? those are the ones i want to change over to LED. i dont care about the side marker ones.

led replacements?? how did u make that work did u put led bulbs in it ?

they fit in the stock locations but are brighter and use alot less power. they are just $$ they plug in like stock, i just dont kno the styles of the bulbs to get the replacements

so i looked up the stock type part#s and cross referenced it with the LED bulbs. does anyone kno how much brighter the LED bulbs are compared to the stockers? they have 12, 19, 24, 30 LED bulbs on each one and they get bigger in DIA with the more LEDs added.... so wats the biggest our rear brake light housings can take as far as DIA. they also say that tall the LED lights are not as bright as stock incandescent bulbs except there 5watt LED bulb that is 30$ a pop.

also the rear brake bulbs, turn signals(front and rear) and parking lights are all the same 2057 silvania bulb. that would make like 10bulbs just for the rear and 2 for the front thats 12x30$ thats insane lol. the smaller 12-19-24-30 bulb LED bulbs are cheaper at like 5-9$ each, so my question is how much brighter is the 12-19-24-30 bulb LED bulbs compared to stock incandescent and is it even worth upgrading them?

go to ebay and type in the bulb number and some led replacements should pop up

Single filaments, like the Reverse Lights & Tail only lights are 1157s
Double filaments like the combo Tail/Brake lights are 2057s
Camaro rear corners are 192s

Not sure which others are 192s, but I believe those Formula tails have some 192s also.

I need 6 2057s LEDs bulbs after my STS conversion to do a LED swap, but I'm not willing to spend that much $....yet.

but are the 12-19-24-30LED lights even worth upgrading since from what i hear that the LED's arent as bright as the stock incandescent bulbs? i hear the 3w-5w LEDs are insane bright and brighter than stock bulbs but all u get is increased life/reaction time with the LEDs unless u get the 30$ super bright ones right? if thats the case i'll deal with the reg bulbs bc i have never taken out my bulbs in 3-4yrs and i just want bright but not willing to pay 30$ a pop for super bright LEDs

I've wondered about this...

I know that LED's put out a relatively narrow frequency range of light, do white LED "bulbs" work where you have red taillight lenses or do for best output do you have to get the LED colors matching the lens colors?

from what i kno the regular LED lights are not as bright as the stock incandesent and have a projected beam of light. therefore brighter straight on but not all 360degrees like an incandesent bulb would. i posted the 3 and 5w LED lights that are brighter and have the same 360degree lighting as the incandesent bulbs but at 30$ a pop ur talking mucho $$$


i read that the red LED lights dont do anything more than regualar white LEDs.... the red lense filters out the red light emited from the red LEDs.... they say to use regular white LEDS if u want the color to match the lense color. it was on sum LED light site

there are on a 4th gen, but here is how mine came out.

before.


getting rid of lettering.


sanded and non sanded.


painted.



[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/userchemical
/1995%20camaro/1216081328-00.jpg[/IMG]

there are on a 4th gen, but here is how mine came out.

before.


getting rid of lettering.




sanded and non sanded.

painted.





Finished.






that's just parking lights, no brakes lights, so you can see how much comes through still. Even tho they look pretty dark.

oh nice, turned out good. mine are about as dark as urs so i shouldnt have a prob then. did u use stock bulbs? how many coats u do?

userchemical, is that nightshades or something else?

LED's do tend to be very directional, they only give off light off the surface of the chip inside them. The light they give off tends to be in a fairly narrow frequency range also, and your response has it backwards: a red lens blocks light in frequencies that you're not seeing only allowing the colors that you see through. A red lens tends to let red light through and not others. If the lens doesn't allow a lot of the frequencies that the LED emits you'll have dim light output if any. The reason that I suspect that this might be a problem with white LED's is that normally white light is a broad spectrum, all the colors put together. If you've noticed, white LED's look bluish because LED's don't like putting out a broad spectrum, and they are just not putting out some of the frequencies that we're used to seeing from a white light bulb.

I just saw a set of blackout taillight covers for 3rd gen firebirds recently for sale in a classifieds section, can't remember what site. So they are, or at least were made.

Yes, they were made by GTS. I had a bid for some on Ebay a few days ago, but I wasn't going to spend more than 25 on them, and they went way beyond that, so I grabbed a can of VHT instead It came yesterday, so I'll soon be doing my own project.
I'm thinking of not tinting the reverse light though. Or taping over it, doing one coat on everything else, taking the tape off, and doing another full coat, so that the reverse light will be tinted but won't have as much on it. I think the black and white contrast on there might look good? Any opinions? Anyone done it?

dnt think u would like it. the white box would look out of place... not to mention when it was taped off u would have a lip of where u stopped painting. which u would be able to feel and see this "lipped box" in light reflection. it would also give the paint a spot to start peeling/chipping from, more of a chance bc it will be exposed from the elemments.

look at userchemicals pics.... the lights show through fine... i dont think u would lose/gain much from leaving it unpainted. but if u did and didnt like it. u would have to resand the paint completely and start over... or the lip would stay.

try it if u really want it but i say just go for it. i do have to say that the tint has a lil redish/marroon tint to it. almost like a purple

think I am going to do mine this weekend...I did the fronts already

Mine are done
I didn't leave the white completely undone.. I did tape them off, do two coats, and then untape them and do two more coats. I just really didn't want to lose the white color, and I think they came out really good. You can't really tell at all that I did them differently... So I'm happy.

post sum pics!

I'm deff Going to be doing this to my bird soon.I'd Like to get LED conversion as well, but I'm getting mixed reports about whether it's worth it or not... Has anyone reached a diffinitive Answer? Is it worth it, or No? I like it because LED's don't fade, Are low Power, Quicker reaction, and Typically, Brighter, but some say that is not the case... Advice?

here is how mine turned out

yea dont do it lol. its pretty expensive. and if your going to get the LEDs and u want them to be brighter than stock incandesent bulbs.... go with the 3w or 5w LEDs. they are about 25-30$ each. they are super bright and have a 260degree of light vs the directional of the LEDs.

ssean92... tuned out good. how many coats u do? i also have the SLP rims that u have too bad they arent 9-11" sizes

customblackbird where do you find the LED's you speak of???

Yeah, That could get pretty pricey, but, It might be worth it... 'Specially if I'mma hit up the VHT stuffidz. Thanks CustomBlakbird

sry its actually 220degrees but thats still really good. and it also states that the 5w LED bulbs part number 1156-RLX5 also known as BA15 are the only ones brighter than stock incandescent bulbs and are 29.95$ each. dual pattern

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...gi?product=CAR

scroll down and look for 1156-RLX5.... those are the 5w. right above them the 1156-RLX3 are the 3w ones. the 5w LEDs is the 15th bulb down

Thanks again BlakBird! I may do this... the Lights you sen references for are just the large bulbs right? The little ones we use the 194's for, right? Or do I have it backwards? It should be less than $300 to do the complete swap for me, I'd venture to guess...

yea those are just the brake lights. not the smaller or even the reverse lights. those are single pattern aka single filament. they have them in LEDs as well but i dont think they have the 194s in LED. just the reverse light and brake lights. i dont even see the reverse lights in the LED conversion chart.

No they have 194's, unless I'm mistaken... go to that page you posted, and go way down...Find the one that's called WLED-xLX 1Watt LED Wedge Base bulb Everything under that says it's 194 type... Haha, Neat font....All....Boldy.

im not sure about that. this is the conversion chart for regualar bulbs on the right and LED part number on the left. there is not 194 bulb on the conversion. they have the 193 but not the 194. if u were to get one i would get the smaller ones if u were putting them in the blinkers since there is less room but in the rear lights id stick the brighter ones.

u could get one and see if it fits. but as i said the 194 is not on the converson chart.

converson chart
http://superbrightleds.com/bulb_cross.htm

actually now that i read it it says the 194/168 is replaced by any 3 digit part #.

and the 2057 bulb is replaced by a 1157 not the 1156

so the real part number is actually 1157-RLX5 not the 1156-RLX5. sry bout that.

i would think the 168 bulb would fit but the smaller ones for the dash/marker lights. and the brighter/longer one for the brake lights

Alright. So, When I go to order the 1157's I'll order 1 168, and one 194, see which does better, and inform you all. It will prolly be some time in late March though...

i think they are the same. there is too diff styles of the 168/194. one is alil smaller than the other. the first one BOLD LETTERS SAYS OUR BRIGHTEST 1W LED etc seems to be more powerful than the one right below it. but the one below it is much smaller and prob will fit in smaller areas like side marker lights/dash etc.

also the front blinker lights are the same as the rear brake bulbs. u should get 2 more for the front as well.

Awesome. Thanks a ton for the Help BlakBird! You've saved me from wastin more money then I already am. haha.

Are those bulbs direct plug ins? Or require the resistor?

Or do ALL LEDs bulbs used on a flasher, require a resistor?

All the bulbs I'm looking at replacing right now, work on the flasher.

Nope, They are all direct plug ins... and if you use them in the dash, they even work with the dimmer.

OK, thanks.....

Now I just gotta price 10 1157 bulbs & 2 194 bulbs.....

they should work, if they dont bc the draw soo much less power they will need a special resistor/relay. they sell both. if u dnt u might get that LED liights flash wayyy to fast compared to others and ur indicator light might come on saying ur rear lights dont come on bc they draw soo little current. i would get the relay instead of getting the individual resistors for each bulb. they have many different styles so im not sure what one fits our cars.

there is a kit/resistor/relay its 13$ and it controls all the flashing of the bulbs/LED lights so u can mix and match i believe. bold letters LED BULB FLASHER UNIT
part # FL2-RED

http://www.superbrightleds.com/flashers.htm

specs, not sure what the stocker relay is

http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs...n_flashers.htm

Grrrrrrrr.....

I don't wanna order 14 bulbs & have it not work right.....
Hafta undo it.....
Then order a flasher resistor, then REDO everything....

im sure it wouldnt be a problem. they are 5W LEDs lol idk what the stock wattage is of the bulbs.but id think u be ok. if not u get a 13$ relay and plug it in.

the only thing i see as a positive side of the LED swap is that you wont have to change them out as much. but then again my xmass LED lights burnt out after about a week lol. the increased reaction time were talking about a few hundredths of a second. if someone doesnt see your stock brakes in time im sure ur still gona get rearended

What draw does the stock flasher need to see, to maintain its correct flash rate & not double flash, to indicate a dead bulb?

have no idea. dnt even kno where it is lol.

I'm kinda weary about doing this extensive swap now that we're talkin about resistors and extra flashers and such... I failed Electrical in Auto tech miserably...I'm going to remain confident that it'll just be a pop in and go ordeal, but.... really don't want to risk it... Stephen, if you do this swap before me, please let me know how it goes. And I'll do the same.