Hey
Has any one ever Blacked out the grid style taillights? I was just looking and thinkin how nice it they wouldt be if i could black the semi clear reverse lights or the signals, or shall i get the other camaro lights that are easy to blackout?
I found this stuff at Auto Value its called Nite Shades, any one ever use it?

 

Sure.

It'll tint your lenses. Pre-clean them with a little diluted saopy water. Dry them thoroughly, and give them a light spray over. Let it dry (usually 15 minutes is good), and then repeat the spray over until the desired tint (or darkness) is achieved.

I wouldn't tint the reverse lights too dark (you'll need them to see when you're backing up in the dark).

Just be aware that the tint is not glossy, so they won't come out too shiny. I wouldn't advise using any sort of polish cuz that will defeat the whole purpose. And DON'T use any clear coat on top of them. The clear coat will dry, crack, and cloud over after a few years and make your lights look awefully old.

Tinting your lenses will look cool for a couple (few years). The only drawback is getting them back to their original look if you'll need to clean them.

 

yeah i guess, i think id rather do my parking lights ( i think there called that on the front bumper) because mine are dirty and dont go with my nice new clear fog lights, and clear OEM lights either.

 

Or you might just want to but the removable blackouts!

 

meh, i dont like how smooth they look i dont think they fit on most camaros, but some look really good

 

Example....

 

What are you exampleing? the really smooth thing or that it looks good? i think they look best on black cars....

 

Do not use soapy water. Use nothing but rubbing alcohol, or IPA

If you just spray them with the tint and slap them back in the car, yes, they will be dull. If you know what you are doing, they will look great.

Not true.

Once again, if you know what you are doing, no it wont.

Here is the process I've used on 3 different sets of lights, and each one has none of the side effects that you describe:

Scuff the lens up by wetsanding them with 1500-2000 grit wetsand paper. Clean thouroughly with iso propyl alcohol. After they have dried, start applying LIGHT coats in 5-7 minute intervals. Go too fast and the coat before will crack and you will have to sand it all off and start over. Like I said above, spray the lights just a little darker than you want them to end up. Once they have dried overnight, get some 2000-3000 grit wetsand paper and wetsand them again to remove orange peel. Using a buffer (or hand strength if you have the stamina), use some 3M fine-cut swirl mark remover on the lenses, followed by some 3M Imperial glaze over top of that. At this point, they should be pretty shiny. Not HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT shiny, but the difference between the body panels and taillamps shouldnt' be too noticable.

Not enough shine for you? Fine. Wetsand with the 3000 grit sandpaper again and clean with IPA, just like you did in the first part. Buy some GOOD rattlecan clearcoat and add 2-3 light coats. Key word is light. For some reason, clearcoat had more of a tendency to run on me. Once the clear has dried, follow the polishing steps I listed above.

 

Yeah, they do. But after a while they aren't worth it. They rattled like hell with my subwoofer in the trunk, they looked tacky when you hit the brakes and you could see the velcro strips holding them on, they were prone to theft, etc. . . .`

 

This is a subject I have much interest in.
There was a guy a couple years ago who took the plastic off and used the spray tint on the inside of the lenses. I like this approach because this way you could polish the plastic on the outside without affecting the darkness of the tint.

Mr. IROC-Z has the best example of tinted tails on his car. I believe he made his own tint spray with a lot of clear and a little black. Here is a pic from his site.

https://home.comcast.net/~ariesboy/I...pics/10281.JPG

 

YES thats exactly what i want...

 

That's hot.

 

i think i will try the red taillight mod and then black out the tails.dont you think that would look good on a red or white car?

 

 

Thats came out great! I've seen too many people ruin their tailights doing this. So for other people looking to black out their lights, I found the best way to do it. Because quite often, paint problems can occur. For starters, VHT Nightshades sucks! It can cause lifting, zebra striping, poor UV protection, easily scratched and as stated, cant be buffed. I go as far to shave off the raised letters with a razorblade. Then hit the old lettered area with 400 grit, then the whole thing with 600 and then 800. You can go to 1000 if u want, any finer grit, won't let the paint adhere very well. Usually 800-1000 are used on a blend panel in collision repair where only clearcoat is being applied. Now like on ANY raw plastic, like say a Hyundai or Toyota bumper cover, an adhesion promoter or raw plastic primer should be applied. Then I like to put on one good coat of mixed clearcoat to fill any scratches/imperfections not taken out by sanding. Then I take the rest of the mixed clear and add between 10:1-15:1 clearcoat to UNREDUCED Black basecoat. The ratio varies between how good the basecoat brand covers. Adding reducer will just make the paint lift and or crack the lenses. It's best to make a let down panel like in applying a 3 stage paint or candy apple to see how many coats of the black tinted clear you need. I like to hold the lens up to the shop light to see how transparent it is. Some people may prefer more or less transparency/darkness. Then finally apply one or two more wet coats of straight clearcoat, for protection from scratches and if you wanna cut and buff the lens after.
BTW - I was talking about real automotive hardened/catalized clearcoat and basecoat, using a spraygun. Rattlecan clearcoat is just laquer clear and it sucks as bad as nightshades. It will cause all kinds of problems with application and or longevity. If you do it the way I stated, u can go as heavy as u want without anything cracking, due to no solvents being used. Laquer clear WILL CRACK YOU LIGHTS. If u hafta use alcohol to clean the lights first, make sure u have a 2nd clean wipe-all to dry the light streak free.

 

sorry double post

 

Examples. I still have to black out the top bar across the hatch. But there they are.

 

id like to redo my z28 tail lights by converting the backup and turn signals red to match the brake lights.maybe somehow put the backup lights where the black part of the tail light is now.im not doing anything to make my brake lights harder to see.i don't want a suv to make my car a foot shorter.

 

6 to 8 Oz of clear two drops of PPG black mix well, make sure you wash the lights with prepsol or any other wax stripper, let dry. Hang the lights from wire and spray, if you use too much black you will just paint them black. I did this to the last three camaros I have owned, I think it loks great on a black car.

 

I did mine with niteshades a few years back,

 

Here is a thread that is from a while ago. searches work well....

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...il-lights.html

 

That looks very clean. What were your steps?

 

3 coats of nightshades, its a little on the dark side, id use 2 coats if i were to do it again, then 3 coats of clear, left the reverse lights white

 

How do you get the reverse light so clear and clean?

 

i polished them with aluminum polish (before the plastic polish was readily available) and tped them off before paint

 

Could you make a product list out of what to use? Like the night shade, the clear, and that aluminum polish

 

Hey a little of topic but what are the style/name of those rims? i love the look but cant look them up because i don't know the name.

 

Here's mine with the night shade stuff from a can. I'm going to clear over them still. also there's my plate number in case you wanted it

 

heres mine. wet sanded the lights with a scuff pad, hit em with a tach rag taped it off and sprayed em with the can of VHT. not to bad IMO

 

Look in my album at mine, you may like them