Tinted tails
Well, having a stock truck didn't last long! lol! After looking at those tail lights, I decided to get rid of the Pink tinge they have, and tint them! My other option would have been to try and find some new style L.E.D'S, or some aftermarket blacked out lenses, but I wanted to try the least expensive route 1st!
Here's a pic the stock lens on the truck:
Here's a pic of the stock lens on it's own:
The first thing I did was sand down the lens, to promote a good adhesion surface for the VHT, and ensure the lens was smooth. I wet sanded the lenses, using 800 grit, then 1000, and finally 2000 grit sandpaper.
Next thing I did was spray the lenses with the VHT Night Shades. The trick here, is to keep your can approx. 7" from your project, to minimize spotting. I waited 30 minutes between coats.
Here's a pic with 3 coats of VHT on:
Then I applied 7 coats of Krylon Clear Coat paint for added durability and to aid in the next, very extensive part of the project.
These look pretty good, however, not having a paint booth, I managed to get some little fuzzies here and there embedded into the paint.
After the Clear coat had been given plenty of time to dry (approx. 2 hours), it was time to wet sand again. This step was painfully long, but enabled me to get rid of all the surface imperfections, caused by the lint hairs and such. Again, I used 800, 1000, and finally 2000 grit paper
Here's a pic of the lenses wet sanded:
The next thing I did was use Turtle Wax Polishing Compound. This was used to get some of the haze created by the wet sanding out.
After using the compound, the lenses was noticeably clearer looking, but still had some find scratches. I then used some Meguiar's ScratchX to polish out the remainder of the the scratches, and used a sponge to apply the product, and then the dry side of the sponge to polish it out.
Here's a comparison of one lense only wet sanded, the other rubbed out with the compound and then polished with the ScratchX"
Ready for installation:
And a couple of shots with them installed:
I'm not sure if you noticed, but I also tinted the 3rd brake light as well.
Overall, a long and exhausting project! lol! I started on it in the morning around 10am, and finished around 12:30am! (took a 2 hour break to watch "Safe" with Jason Statham... lol). I'm pretty happy with the results, and for approx. $30.00 invested... the pink lenses are gone... and the truck looks alot better!
