Help me blackout my lights

[cj80cruiser]

Is there any way to black out my side markers, tail lights, turn signals, headlights without using window tint? Or atleast dull them some but not sacrifice alot of light output?

 

[trailmix]

ive seen alot of people use that nightshades paint, i think its vht who makes it. A friend of mine actually used automotive grade paint and clear to smoke his lights, using a 1:3 ratio or so of paint to clear and they look very professional and they are much shinier and reflective then the ones ive seen done with spray bombs.

 

[xskydivingdudex]

ok ya dude i would definitely say do not do the tint for sure bc it peels over time... TrailMix is right that the product most people use is VHT NiteShade. It is about $15.00 a bottle and should cover pretty much all the lights u've covered but i cant guarantee that bc it depends on how much of it u use on each light.

 

[trailmix]

you may be able to go to a bodyshop and have them mix up some paint and spray everything for you. Most shops will have leftover black and clear from projects so the paint should be pretty cheap, i would think you could have it all done for 100 bucks or less depending on how much you wanna do etc.

 

[GottaBeTRD]

check out laminX man thats what ive used, it's a procedure to apply it but to me it looks tons better than the spray. I don't know if its cause they spayed it on wrong or what but all of the spray that i have seen turns a flat black and it looks like crap to me. maybe im wrong?? here is a pic of my rig with lameneX

I should add light passes through great, it passed inspection and everything, and i have had it on there for almost 2 years now and it still looks good as new.

 

[99-4runner]

that lameneX looks great man. I used that nightshade stuff on my 2002 mustang gt and to be honest... I'd go with that lameneX stuff. hold on ill go grab some pics of my mustang

 

[trailmix]

that does look good! looks like its painted! what kind of procedure did it take to apply it?

 

[99-4runner]

YouTube - 2002 Zinc Yellow Mustang GT

 

[trailmix]

ya that nightshades has a satin finish to it, needs to have more clear mixed in to make it glossy or something

 

[xskydivingdudex]

well after u use niteshade most ppl tell u that if u want it to be shiny like it was facory u need to add 3-4 layers of clear coat and then use car wax to buff out the blemishes.

 

[99-4runner]

yea I was pretty dissapointed with it. If you look at that video link i posted at the bottom you can see some pictures of it with the lights on ect. the light passes thru really well and the headlights are basically blacked out completely

 

[GottaBeTRD]

Thanks guys! sorry i totally spelled it wrong but its lamin-X i guess that matters if your doing a search on google or something but anyway, its hard to remember exactly what i did but i ordered it in a roll and cut my own pieces out. It's like a super thick rubbery tint they have a bunch of different shades, red, yellow, blue, and some diferent balcks. I'm pretty sure i got the smoked color. there is a ton of examples with people doing the different colors. So yeah basicly you have to take the lights out, not hard to do at all, and clean them up, (i polished mine) the just cut a piece out bigger than the lights. Then you gotta spray the light down with a mist of water then start to apply the lamin-x you need to use a blow dryer while puttung it on whike you stretch it over the lights. during this you gotta use the squeegee to get all the bubble's out (kind of like a sticker) but yeah after that just cut the accsess off and your good! it's not that hard it's just time consuming to get it right. The nice thing is it's forgiving and if you do it wrong you just peel it off and apply again. the blinkers were very easy but when it starts to curve it kind of hard. but all in all it's worth it. They give you a cleaning solutition to keep it looking good an honestly i love it!
here is where i got it. EDIT: oh and sorry about hatin on the spray, that mustung still loooks pretty sick!
Lamin-x Protective Films - Protect with Style
here is a pic with some sun on it

 

[cj80cruiser]

Thanks guys! sorry i totally spelled it wrong but its lamin-X i guess that matters if your doing a search on google or something but anyway, its hard to remember exactly what i did but i ordered it in a roll and cut my own pieces out. It's like a super thick rubbery tint they have a bunch of different shades, red, yellow, blue, and some diferent balcks. I'm pretty sure i got the smoked color. there is a ton of examples with people doing the different colors. So yeah basicly you have to take the lights out, not hard to do at all, and clean them up, (i polished mine) the just cut a piece out bigger than the lights. Then you gotta spray the light down with a mist of water then start to apply the lamin-x you need to use a blow dryer while puttung it on whike you stretch it over the lights. during this you gotta use the squeegee to get all the bubble's out (kind of like a sticker) but yeah after that just cut the accsess off and your good! it's not that hard it's just time consuming to get it right. The nice thing is it's forgiving and if you do it wrong you just peel it off and apply again. the blinkers were very easy but when it starts to curve it kind of hard. but all in all it's worth it. They give you a cleaning solutition to keep it looking good an honestly i love it!
here is where i got it. EDIT: oh and sorry about hatin on the spray, that mustung still loooks pretty sick!
Lamin-x Protective Films - Protect with Style
here is a pic with some sun on it

So would you do your headlights with it?

And which one did you go with?
Tint (6%)
Gunsmoke (12%)
Smoked (17%)
Charcoal (30%)

 

[GottaBeTRD]

haha i've kicked that thought around a lot, i still have stock bulbs in there and honestly they suck, as far as showing light at night Plus im not 100 percent sure that it's legal to have it over your headlights like that. The site says you still get 90 something percent of light still so it may be fine as far as safety but it may give more reasons for a cop to pull you over, then he'll tell ya you have to take it all off, and i would be pissed! so yeah im kind of playing is safe for now.
Another obstacle are those little pointy things sticking out of the glass, im not sure how those will affect the laminx

i just found the reciept and i got the gun-smoke roll 24x24 it was plenty with some to spare for future projects. NOTE i only did the front corners and blinkers with only one mistake that i had to re-cut

 

[Bandit Runner]

Good thread! I've been wanting to do the same thing - darken my tails and corners. Still not sure what to do about the headlights though.

 

[Xideshow]

i been using VHT nightshade and you do need to use a clear coat. i like using the spray though. ive done alot of cars already with it. they tend to wear out a tiny bit after a while but i think if you wax it every time you wash the car it should be fine.

i do::

1. VHT night shade 2 light coats then 1 dark (usually got me the perfect shade of being dark enough yet having a good amount of light shine though.)

2.then with clear i do 2 light coats then 1 or 2 dark coats.

the next day after tinting.

but it did get a little lighter as i have noticed recently.

crappy quality picture but you can see it still shines through pretty good. the is300 has a darker shade then my 4runner does so its a little more faint.