Has anybody had any success in tinting their taillights? I have no idea how I would even go about doing this, but I eventually want my 850 to be blacked out and I dont want bright red taillights ruining my dream!

Generally the easiest means of that is via tail light covers. Most are pretty unobtrusive and look/last longer than tinting will.

Hoever, keep inmind your local laws. Many states have laws against tinting, covering or in any way hindering any lights on a vehicle. I know here in Virginia they are very picky about this as I have gotten several tickets in the past for having tail light covers on my truck. And at least here, if you get pulled over for that you pretty much get profiled as the "unruly" type and they knit-pick everything from that point. Have gotten 8 tickets at once after being pulled over for those darn covers.

Possibly most state are not as picky as they are in VA, so that would be your own call. It's illegal for us to even put crystal clear covers over our license plates, and tininting can be almost a joke as it seems tintinh anything to the point where you can tell it has been tinted is illegal (although they let alot of that slide).

i thought is also saw another post about another member who painted theirs with tinting paint. i think it was also one shade darker than stock. i guess do a search and look at their taillights and see if that is how you would like them. then i would buy a set of crappy ones and paint them, that way if they look like crap, you are out only as much as you paid for the set, instead of ruining the ones that you have now. good luck and post some pics, would love to see how they came out. and as blackie posted, check your laws, the last thing you need is to be profiled as unruly.

I'm currently sharing shop space with a guy who does autobody, and he does a lot of tail light tinting. I have a set of new lights for my 855t that he'll be doing, and when he does I'll have some pics.

In the meantime, I can tell you that it is a special paint used for tinting as mentioned above. It has a lower percentage of solids in it than regular paint and can be applied to produce any amount of darkness you want. Personally I would stay away from covers. They're just too dark, and too obviously an add-on, which can get you in trouble, as was also mentioned above.

If you have them sprayed you can claim ignorance and say "Gee officer, must be some kind of rare factory option." After all, there are more than a few Mercedes running around with factory tint on their 'sport' package, so it's gotta be legal to an extent.

Wow, haven't had my coffee yet.....forgot what my point was, and that is:

Any decent body shop should be able to spray them for you, and you can get everything done instead of just the lights that somebody makes covers for. I'd try and find a smaller shop that does a lot of airbrushing. The big shops that are cranking out insurance work probably won't want to mess with something small like this.

thanks! yea post those pics when you get them...

oh any idea how much that would run for?

He generally charges $60 for a pair of tail lights. When I do mine it will be the rears, the front signals, and side markers. I forgot to ask him what he'd charge for that.

wow $60 is not bad at all, ill just find a place that does it and get my windows done at the same time.

thanks for the info!

hey, what about the reflectors that run on the trunk? how would you go about tinting those?

Same process I guess. You scuff the light so the "paint" sticks to it, then you spray it. I'll get more info and pics of the process when I get mine done. Should be within a week.

Hey, Rosso. Can get some pics of those?
Thanks.

He's doing them tonight. Hopefully I'll have pics of them on the car tomorrow. Basically he sprays it with a clear coat that is tinted with....well, a tint. What you're doing is replacing all the solids of a paint with a clear, then tinting it. Think of it like using food coloring in cake frosting or in a glass of water. The frosting is the paint (tinted, but high in solids), and the glass of water is the clear (tinted, but low in solids).

So you mix the tint in the clear, then spray that on in however many layers you want to get the amount of tint you want. The really cool part is that you can add candy, pearl, metal flake, or pretty much anything you want.

On mine, I taped off the reverse light. He'll spray a couple coats, then pull the tape off the reverse lights and spray a couple more coats. I did this because I'm going to have my windows tinted and didn't want my reverse lights as dark as the rest of the lense. I want to be able to see something when backing up at night. Should look nice. Too nice for my beater in its current condition.

found this write-up:

http://volvospeed.com/Mods/tinting_vht_niteshade_imron.html

im not much of a do-it-yourself guy, but this gives you a good idea how it can look

Hate to do this, but it's just a teaser for now. I'm on the road for work, but I stopped by the shop and grabbed the lights before I left. I just gotta find the time to put them on. Plus, my digital camera broke and I haven't replaced it yet. Using a cell phone camera doesn't really do these justice. BTW, don't buy Canon, but thats a different conversation for a different time and place. They just pissed me off though.

Anyway.....
I taped the backup light, sprayed the light with one coat of tinted clear, then pulled the tape off and resprayed it with another 2 coats. It was then sprayed with a coat of un-tinted clear to make it shine. Obviously my original lights are hazing pretty badly from sun damage, so it's not really a good comparison, but you get the idea.

(IMG:http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/3826/smokedhx1.th.jpg)

On the plus side, I also grabbed the wheels I've had laying around for about 8 months, and got my new baby on something with some style and some tread. Previously she was on original steel wheels, with 3 hubcaps missing, and 4 very close to bald tires. Better pics of the lights and the wheels coming soon.

(IMG:http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/1469/newwheelslg0.th.jpg)

wow, looks good. what is the level of tint in the clear, and what brand?

Work got in the way of fun. Such is life, eh? I'll ask my friend about his mixture. In the meantime, a pic of one on the car. They're on, but I still haven't replaced my broken camera and the cell phone thing just doesn't do it for me. Hopefully some time this week I can pick something up. Should look nice with the window tint.

(IMG:http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8530/tint1nk2.th.jpg)

wow its perfect!

Looks very nice. Good clean work too. Wish I could get away with that in Virginia :)

Yeah it is illegal in aus aswell im fairly sure... but sometimes you can get away with tail lights. ive seen a few commos pulled over with tinted Headlights, coppers didnt look impressed lol. Stuff we use is 'Night Shades' tint paint, comes in a pressure pack... i seen my mate do it on his VL then use an acryllic clear coat, looked real nice.

This is what they look like lit up. The cell phone I took the pic with doesn't really show it well, but the tint doesn't really block much at all when there is light behind them. Like I said above, it's like putting food coloring in water....changes the color, but you can still see through it. They're actually just as visible when lit up as the faded, sun damaged lights I pulled off, if not more so.

(IMG:http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1880/lightsbc0.th.jpg)